MEDIA-INDIA: Foreign Investment to Help Small Newspapers

A just-announced government decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in India's print media may help smaller newspapers, which have been groaning to get a toe-hold in an industry monopolised for half-a-century by a handful of big newspapers.

MEDIA-MIDDLE EAST: Campaign to Defend Arab Image

Arab information ministers meeting in Cairo outlined plans last week for a 22.5 million dollar media campaign to defend the Arab image against defamation.

VENEZUELA: Press and Gov’t Free to Criticise, Says Rights Group

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) added its voice to the tense political debate in Venezuela Friday, noting that freedom of expression permits the press to play an opposition role and also allows the government to criticise the media.

MEDIA-SERBIA: Women Magazines Flourish in Serbia

Only 18,9 percent of people in Serbia are reported to purchase a daily newspaper.

MEDIA-ZIMBABWE: Attempts to Limit Foreign News Organisations

The government of Zimbabwe has announced punitive registration fees under new media laws that seek to limit the operation of foreign media.

PAKISTAN: Media Fume Over Proposed Defamation Law

Pakistan's military government has yet to put the finishing touches on a new defamation law, but media owners and journalists are already calling the proposed legislation as just another shackle for the country's already chained press.

MEDIA-U.S.: Public Interest in World News Unchanged by Sep 11

Widespread predictions that the U.S. public would become more engaged in international affairs after last September's terrorist attacks appear to have been wrong.

MEDIA-TRINIDAD: Court Rules Against ‘Gag’ Order on Press

In 1996, editor Ken Ali spent five days in prison and reporter Sharmain Baboolal was fined after a High Court judge ruled that their newspaper said too much about the ongoing murder trial of a reputed drug trafficker.

SPORTS-LATAM: World Cup Has Two Types of TV Audiences

The football World Cup, under way in South Korea and Japan, is being followed in Latin America by two types of television audiences, differentiated by social and economic factors.

MEDIA-AUSTRALIA: Internet Publishing Hits Free Speech Roadblock

Major international media companies urged the High Court of Australia on Tuesday to overturn a lower court decision which they argue will dramatically limit freedom of speech on the Internet as a result of a defamation action between an Australian businessman and the U.S.-based Dow Jones media company.

MEDIA-CARIBBEAN: The Clash of Sex, Drugs, Videotape and Press Freedom

Draping his 6' 4" height and 260 pounds awkwardly around the tiny podium precariously perched on the back of a small truck, Antiguan Prime Minister Lester Bird sticks to his prepared script.

POLITICS-CARIBBEAN: Antigua PM Files Suit Over Sex-Drug Scandal

With his government already under pressure over allegations of corruption, Prime Minister Lester Bird is now fighting off a sex and drug scandal allegedly involving himself and a 14-year-old Guyanese national.

MEDIA-VENEZUELA: In Search of Balanced Coverage

The objectivity of the media in Venezuela has been seriously questioned in the wake of last month's brief overthrow of President Hugo Chávez.

TECHNOLOGY: India’s Digital Divide is an Ever-Widening Chasm

India's digital divide is an ever-widening chasm that separates a narrow upper crust of band-width hungry urbanites from the vast majority of their malnourished, illiterate countrymen, who may have to walk days just to get to the nearest working telephone.

MEDIA-KENYA: Resistance against Press Clampdown

Rights groups in Kenya are refusing to comply with the recently passed Media Bill, widely regarded as a clampdown on the press and freedom of expression.

MEDIA-CARIBBEAN: States Ponder News Agency, Technological Revival

Caribbean information ministers have ended a three-day meeting here underscoring their desire for a resumption in operations of the region's indigenous news media.

MEDIA-KENYA: Stakeholders React with Outrage to New Bill

Media houses, lawyers and rights groups have reacted with outrage to a new media bill, which they fear could silence the press in Kenya.

MEDIA-TOGO: Clampdown on Private Newspapers

Private newspapers in Togo have witnessed an upsurge in the clampdown on their publications by the police.

MEDIA: Caribbean Ponders Mixed Record on World Press Freedom Day

Caribbean countries observed World Press Freedom Day without much fanfare on Friday, choosing to reflect on their mixed record of achievement in pursuit of the ideal of a free press.

MEDIA: West Bank is World’s Deadliest Beat – Report

The Israeli-occupied West Bank is the world's most deadly beat for a working journalist, a leading annual review of media working conditions concluded Friday.

BRAZIL: Popular Soap Opera Provides Lessons on Drug Abuse

A popular Brazilian soap opera, "The Clone", is reaching virtually the entire population of South America's giant with strong, graphic messages against drug abuse.