MELBOURNE: Hedley Thomas, the journalist who wrote a series of stories about the Australian government’s handling of Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef’s arrest on suspected terror charge, has won the country’s most coveted journalism award. Thomas, who is associated with The Australian newspaper, won the “Gold Walkley” award for covering and highlighting the mistakes made by the [...]

The major broadcast networks have made big strides in the portrayal of Latinos in primetime, but still lag behind when it comes to images of Asian Americans and American Indians. That’s the latest findings from the Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition, which released its seventh annual diversity report card Tuesday. The alliance – made up of the National Latino [...]

It was billed as a bitter falling out of comrades on the left, a vicious civil war between two leaders of totemic papers of the liberal intelligentsia. But when the dust settled and the blood was mopped up, the casualty count stood at two – Roger Alton, the maverick, award-winning editor of The Observer, and his [...]

A look at Israeli television channels and one can have a fair idea how far Israel lags behind in representing minorities. A regular TV viewer in Israel may never come across an Arab doctor advising on a flu virus, or an Arab lawyer giving tips on labour laws. Thanks to the almost no Arab presence [...]

Investigating journalism in United States is expected get a much-needed boost with a new venture steered by former Wall Street Journal Chief Editor Paul Steiger. The veteran editor will launch non-profit media organisation ProPublica in January 2008 which would be dedicated to investigative reporting. Paul Steiger (far left) gave up the top editor post at the [...]

The Internet has not yet become an effective tool for human rights in the Arab world, says a recent study by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo). The 215-page study, ‘Electronic Media and Human Rights’, is the first in Arabic to discuss human rights in the discourse of electronic Arabic media outlets. It [...]

It’s just the kind of thing you don’t want at an event dedicated to improving communication between scientists and the rest of the world – a row about the way a particular piece of science is reported. But that’s what the British Association for the Advancement of Science has had to contend with on the opening [...]

Though the role of anti-tobacco advertising in reducing youth smoking has been fairly well established in recent years, a new study indicates that newspaper editorial coverage also may have a significant indirect impact. The study evaluates the relationship between newspaper coverage of the Florida Tobacco Control Program’s (FTCP) health promotion campaign with declines in youth smoking [...]

Activists are urging Home Depot, which recently unveiled an environmentally conscious marketing program, to withdraw advertising from Fox News, whose hosts and commentators dismiss global warming as liberal hysteria. But Home Depot is unswayed, and the environmentalists appear to be doing something they generally discourage: wasting energy. A short video by Robert Greenwald, “Fox Attacks: The [...]

With their grit and drive, they could be making headlines. But this group of women from Uttar Pradesh write them instead in their fortnightly newspaper Khabar Lahariya that goes to 200 villages and represents the best in journalistic courage and ethics. Meera, Shanti, Kavita, Mithilesh… from the Chitrakoot and Banda districts in the heart of [...]

(July 13, 2007) Meeting at an Internews Europe workshop for editors last month, over 40 media leaders from across Vietnam agreed to work together to reduce stigma and discrimination in HIV reporting. They also agreed to promote more frequent and responsible coverage of HIV/AIDS by their journalists. “Media play a pivotal role in HIV/AIDS prevention in [...]

A revolution of sorts is under way in Latin America with Uruguay holding the torchlight for the concept of democratic, community media. A draft community media law that says television and radio frequencies in Uruguay should be equitably distributed has already won overwhelming support in the House of Representatives. On June 5, 2007, the Uruguayan Congress [...]

Fifteen European journalists, who are in the country on a weeklong familiarisation tour, are expected to help Zimbabwe tap into the lucrative European markets. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority’s marketing and communications director, Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, said recently the hosting of the journalists from one of Zimbabwe’s leading tourist markets was part of the authority’s perception management [...]

Despite experts and health organizations refuting the theory of a connection between vaccines and autism, recent events have brought the debate front and center in the news once again. But are the media actually doing a disservice to the public by continuing to bring up vaccines when discussing autism? “Do I think they’ve done a disservice? [...]

Not Iraq, where, according to a new report from the Arab Archives Institute, 52 Arab journalists have lost their lives since 2001; not Palestine, where journalists are caught between Israel and the Palestinians and between Fatah and Hamas; nor Lebanon, where reporters have been in the cross-hairs of rival factions and governments. Darfur is a hot-button [...]