RIGHTS: Indymedia Seizure Signals Clampdown on Dissent

Free speech advocates say the six-day shutdown of nearly two-dozen websites belonging to Indymedia is a severe blow to democratic principles and, perhaps, an ominous sign of things to come.

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM: Fighting ‘Cyberlords’

An information rights activist has warned against the growing power of the "landlords" of cyberspace.

POLITICS: Global Agreements Threaten Media, Privacy

The growing use of international treaties to bypass the will of national parliaments, by bodies waging the so-called "war on terrorism," increasingly threatens civil liberties and freedom of the media, warn privacy advocates.

POLITICS: Bush-boosting Network Pushes Anti-Kerry Doc

Watchdog groups have found a new poster child for the evils of media deregulation with the news that a powerful broadcasting conglomerate will show a documentary excoriating Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry just days before the presidential vote.

MEDIA: Is Al-Jazeera the New Symbol of Arab Nationalism?

When the League of Arab States was created in 1945, it was perceived as the ultimate symbol of Arab nationalism in a politically and militarily de-moralised Middle East.

SOUTH AMERICA: Indymedia Seizure Hits Two Nations

Freedom of expression worldwide has been under threat since agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last week seized two Internet servers hosting websites of the Independent Media Centres. In Latin America, Indymedia Brazil and Uruguay are directly affected.

ARGENTINA: Non-Profits Fight Monopoly, Demand Broadcasting Licences

Civil society organisations in Argentina have joined together to draft a proposal aimed at replacing the country's broadcasting legislation, which dates back to the 1976-1983 military dictatorship and basically serves to maintain the sector as a business for a small few as opposed to a service for the public good.

MEDIA: Alternative Network’s Internet Servers Confiscated

Agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday seized two Internet servers in Britain that host the web sites of the global news network Indymedia. Two days later there was still no clarification of why the computers were confiscated or who is holding them.

MEDIA: Detention Provokes a Freedom Struggle

The Yemeni government which has condemned the abduction of journalists and aid workers in Iraq, itself stands accused now of 'abducting' journalists and trying to silence them.

ARGENTINA: Official Advertising Used to Squeeze Local Media

Official advertising is used in Argentina as a weapon that is capable of determining the survival or death of local media outlets in the provinces, say activists and academics.

MEDIA-AUSTRALIA: Health News Stories Come Under Scrutiny

In what might appear to be a David-versus-Goliath struggle, two small Australian groups have sparked interest in the Asia-Pacific region with websites aimed at countering the public relations and advertising hype of the drug and medical services industries.

TRADE-LATAM: Technology Provides a Boost for Small Businesses

The Costa Rican web portal Lacarretica.com was recently presented to Venezuelan exporters as an example of the way that new information and communications technology (ICT) can help to expand the range of goods offered for export by the countries of the region.

IRAQ: Unfettered Media Denies Being Biased

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorial regime last year, one of the clearest signs that a new Iraq has emerged is the flourishing media business.

HEALTH-CAMBODIA: Telemedicine Brings Care to Indigenous Peoples

Living in isolated, idyllic villages in the lush, forested highlands that distinguish Ratanakiri from much of the Cambodian topography, the proud indigenous peoples of this north-eastern province have for years fallen prey to health problems bred by their natural, albeit harsh, environment.

TECHNOLOGY-CAMBODIA: Ingenious Efforts Widen Road to Information

Situated on Cambodia's border with Laos and Vietnam in the north-east, Ratanakiri province is a largely unspoiled Eden of densely forest-covered hills and mountains, pristine rivers, streams, thousand-year old crater lakes and waterfalls.

MEDIA-MALAYSIA: Newspapers Caught in Dilemma Over Anwar Coverage

The Malaysian media seems to be caught in a dilemma when it comes to giving coverage to just-released former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

MEDIA-IRAQ: Not an Easy Place to Cover

How does a journalist report from a country like Iraq where the dynamics of the situation and the danger level change so rapidly?

MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: Bodies of Slain Journalists Keep Piling Up

Testing the limits of press freedom is a perilous venture in the Philippines. Good journalists in the country run the risk of either being maimed for life or killed for reporting without fear or favour.

TECHNOLOGY-KENYA: Giving Civil Society a Voice in ICT Policy

Representatives of civil society in Kenya have called for its inclusion in the redrafting of a policy on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the East African country.

IRAQ: Insurgency Gets Some Editorial Support

The latest round of fighting in Iraq is the first real test for the country's new government after it took over from the U.S. and British-led occupation authority in the last days of June. The initial relative calm that greeted the handover has been slowly disintegrating across the country. The opposition against the new authorities has been powerful from the start.

BRAZIL: Community Radio Muzzled

Brazilian police have shut down Radio Restinga, a community station broadcasting from a low-income neighbourhood of Porto Alegre, birthplace of the global summit of alternative social and economic ideas, the World Social Forum.