IRAQ: Outrage Spreads over New Images

New footage of British soldiers beating up young Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison has spread outrage across Iraq.

MEDIA-RELIGION: Britain Looks Away From the Cartoons

As violence over the Mohammed cartoons continues at scattered locations around the world, Britain has looked away from them in the interest of good race relations.

INDONESIA: Holy Ire at Cartoons Shifts to Soft Porn

As the controversy over newspaper caricatures of Prophet Mohammad simmers, religious orthodoxy in this country has a new issue to get hot and bothered about - a local edition of 'Playboy' magazine set to be launched in March.

MEDIA-WOMEN: Half the Population, A Fifth of the News

More and more women are now reporting the news, but still only about a fifth of the subjects are women, a new survey shows.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: “Subtle” Means of Censorship

Discriminatory use of government advertising, phone calls by public officials to exert pressure on journalists, editors and media owners, delays in passing a "sunshine law" on public access to information, and refusal by government officials to give interviews or press conferences.

POLITICS: U.S. Risks Reporter’s Life to Strike Tough Pose

The George W. Bush administration went well beyond refusing to negotiate with terrorists in its handling of the threat by freelance journalist Jill Carroll's abductors to kill her if all female detainees were not released from U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.

MEDIA-EAST TIMOR: ‘Criminalise Defamation and See Democracy Die’

Jose Ximenes, news editor of the popular 'Timor Post' daily, shook his head in disgust. ''East Timor's independence and peace were achieved at great cost. We cannot remain silent while some of our leaders endanger our press freedom and undermine our hard-won democratic accomplishments,'' he told IPS emphatically.

ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Cell Phone Tower Endangers Park

Greenpeace-Chile has denounced the Entel PCS telecommunications company project to build a 36-metre cellular telephone antenna in Torres del Paine National Park.

INDONESIA: ‘Media Curbs Signal Return to Suharto Era’

Civil society activists are warning that a series of amendments effected on the country's broadcasting laws, this week, are a step backward into Suharto-era media censorship.

POLITICS-U.S.: In Public’s Eyes, Iran Biggest Foreign Menace

The escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear programme appears to have persuaded the U.S. public that Tehran now poses a greater threat to the United States than any other country, or even al Qaeda, according to recent surveys.

MEDIA-RELIGION: European Journalists Begin to Condemn Cartoons

A growing number of European journalists and political caricaturists are condemning the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that have deepened the schism between Europe and the Muslim world.

MEXICO: Reporters Targeted by Drug-Related Violence

The most dangerous place in Latin America to work as a journalist is northern Mexico, along the U.S. border, where drug traffickers threaten, kidnap and even murder reporters with impunity, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

CHINA: ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ Lost in Political Din

When the state-run newspaper 'Beijing Times' bemoaned the cancelled release of Hollywood blockbuster 'Memoirs of a Geisha' this month, it was a rare romantic take on a film that has stirred more political sentiment here than any propaganda-infused production from China's state-run film studios.

ARGENTINA: World’s First Homeless TV Talk Show Host

A plaza in a residential neighbourhood of the Argentine capital has become "Stellita's Living Room" for the first TV programme in the world hosted by a homeless person.

ASIA: New Media Arms Both Journalists and Activists

Jo Dongwon, who belongs to a South Korean activist group that broadcasts its own reports about trade meetings or Asian summits, is not trying to compete with international networks like the Cable News Network (CNN) in terms of reach, flash and cash.

MEDIA: Al-Jazeera Succeeding Under Pressure

Its foreign bureaus were bombed by U.S. warplanes, it is banned from reporting from four Middle East countries - and Al-Jazeera is only growing in popularity.

POLITICS: Is UN Reform a Platform for Media Profiling?

The 132-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing nations, has lambasted the U.N. Secretariat for holding press briefings on sensitive management issues, and selectively leaking information on allegations of fraud and corruption in the world body.

HEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: Many Languages, One Message

Travel the length of Mozambique, and chances are that you'll hear a host of different languages being spoken: the official language of Portuguese, Shangana, Elomwe and Cisena to name just a few.

IRAQ: From Those Who Swear by Freedom

Journalists covering Iraq have run into some sort of balance of troubles.

POLITICS: US Tries to Pressure Iran with Attack Stories

Recent reports in the Turkish and German press of the U.S. asking the Turkish government to support a possible attack on Iran and alerting allied countries of preparations for such an attack appear to be part of a strategy to pressure the Iranian regime rather than the result of a new policy to strike Iran.

MEDIA: By the Women, On the Women

A new survey report next month will show some of what is already known, that there is a disproportionately high profile of males both by way of the subject of news, and by way of newsroom staff. But this time action will follow the survey.