Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood’s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation…
Dark days ahead for journalism and justice?
Clara Molden/PA
Police “hacking” of journalists’ phone records to identify their sources is a scandal and human rights issue that dwarfs the tabloid phone-hacking affair that led to the Leveson Inquiry. The UK’s trade…
The Australian government, by supporting a motion passed by the Senate, expressed concern over restrictions to press freedom in West Papua.
AAP Image/Sue Wellwood
The Australian Senate passed a motion last week, with explicit support from the Foreign Minister’s office, expressing concern over the imprisonment of two French journalists for reporting in Indonesia’s…
Freedom of speech on trial: the Al Jazeera Three.
EPA/Khaled Elfiqi
Three Al Jazeera English journalists have been convicted in the Cairo Criminal Court of spreading false news, threatening national security and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood – previously Egypt’s first…
Journalism is not a crime: the Al Jazeera three.
EPA/Khaled Elfiqi
The guilty verdict for three Al Jazeera journalists, who have been handed sentences of between seven and ten years for “aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news” has been widely condemned…
Open justice sometimes best served by secrecy.
Clare Molden/PA
Tim Crook and I agree that, ideally, for justice to be done, it must be seen to be done. We also agree that the media should be free to publish within the law and that we are all better off without Levesonian…
Not all Thais have reacted with anger and dismay to the military takeover of their country. In fact, for those on the anti-government side, these are welcome developments. But that is no reason not to…
There is a raw interaction of politics, media and the people in Pacific nations such as Vanuatu, scene of this public rally.
David Robie
Today, while the world marks Press Freedom Day, draconian cyber defamation laws, journalist killings and legal gags are growing threats to the media across the Asia-Pacific. Media intersects with the raw…
…except in an increasing number of places.
EPA/Dan Kurokawa
The outrage is palpable across the centuries. In the first issue of his provocative newspaper The North Briton, John Wilkes championed the “liberty of the press”. It was “the terror of all bad ministers…
One people, one voice: Putin takes to the airwaves.
EPA/Yuri Kochetkov
Even as speculation continues about whether Russia’s recent foreign policy behaviour will result in a return to conflict in Europe, a war of words is already ongoing in Russia itself and it is one that…
Silencing dissent: al-Jazeera journalists in a court cage during their trial.
Al-Masry al-Ayoum/EPA
As I write this, 20 journalists – including several al-Jazeera reporters – are on trial in Cairo on charges of spreading disinformation and abetting terrorists. Their alleged crime includes operating without…
If this can be a winter wonderland, freedom of speech can exist in Russia.
Ganoshenko Roman
Yes, there they were: palm trees in the place where a country known for its cruelly cold winters was planning to hold the Winter Olympics. What a treat it was to feel the mild air of the Black Sea coast…
You may not like them, but UK press keeps the bastards honest.
Rui Vieira/PA Wire
Charlie Beckett, London School of Economics and Political Science
One fact that can unite all sides in the post-Leveson press regulation debate is that the world now thinks British journalists are less free – and less likely to be free in the future. This perception…
Read between the lines, and you’re reading the truth.
Sean Dempsey/PA
This week, the World Association of Newspapers begins investigating the condition of press freedom in Britain, while national newspapers report that a chief constable wants Channel 4 to hand over material…
Good circulation: newspapers are in better health than expected.
Rui Vieira/PA
At first glance, the British news industry looks to be in trouble. With editors in the dock, a fraught new system of regulation, and declining newspaper circulation, it’s easy to panic about the trajectory…
Silvio Berlusconi’s grip on power in Italy - albeit a hold that is slipping - has relied heavily on using his own media empire to exploit the political system.
EPA/Angela Carconi
While Australians face the possibility of the first-ever Senate by-election, as well as stormy sittings of a new parliament wrangling over the pro and cons of scrapping a carbon tax, 16,000 kilometres…
Is this the moment of truth for the British press?
Rui Vieira/PA Wire
On Monday evening, the BBC’s Newsnight programme revealed that a sub-committee of the privy council had rejected the Royal Charter on press self-regulation put forward by the Press Standards Board of Finance…
Ordeal: David Miranda, left, and his partner, Guardian investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald.
AAP
The ordeal of David Miranda at Heathrow Airport on Sunday is a critical moment in the conflict between press freedom and national security. Miranda, the partner of The Guardian’s investigative reporter…