· July, 2008

Stories about Media & Journalism from July, 2008

Barbados: Setting Standards

As the government is granted a US$5 million International Development Bank loan to upgrade the national standards system, Barbados Free Press continues its call for standards to be adopted with...

31 July 2008

Guyana: Death Announcement Ban?

Living Guyana reports that the President plans to ban the broadcast of death announcements because they “are too negative and make people unhappy”, yet MediaCritic notes: “There is still no...

31 July 2008

East Timor: Media for peace

The head of media agencies in Timor-Leste participated in a joint press conference to raise awareness for the 100 Day Peace Campaign celebrated around the world. The specific theme in...

31 July 2008

Palestine: Anger at Young Boy's Needless Death

Israeli troops shot and killed 12-year-old Ahmed Ussam Yousef Mousa during a peaceful protest against the barrier being erected in Nilin. Up to 18 others were injured by rubber bullets during the protest. Ahmed was the only person hit by a live bullet. Jillian York sums up blog reactions in this post.

31 July 2008

Serbia: More on Belgrade Rally

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia writes about yesterday's pro-Karadzic rally in Belgrade: “Meanwhile the only element of the meeting that made news was the violent confrontation between skinheads and police,...

30 July 2008

No to Kuwait's New Internet Law

Kuwaiti bloggers are angry at a proposed new Internet Law, which they claim would make their days as free bloggers numbered, after Attorney General Hamad Al Othman announced that a new law dealing with Internet crimes will be issued soon. Abdullatif Al Omar takes a closer look at the Kuwaiti blogosphere and their reactions to the impending law.

30 July 2008

Africa: Mobile reporting

White African discussing mobile reporting in Africa, “Netherland’s based AfricaNews has been a pioneer in this space, starting last year with their “Voices of Africa” section of their site. I’ve...

30 July 2008

Bermuda: Party Over People?

A Bermudian government senator declares his unequivocal support for the party's leader, causing Politics.bm to exclaim: “I could never say that my loyalty to any organisation, whether political or not,...

30 July 2008

Guyana: Blogger covers journalist ban

On 12 July, news broke in Guyana that a senior journalist had been banned from entering the office of the country's president, allegedly in response to a critical news report. As media representatives and others denounced the move as an instance of press censorship, the Living Guyana blog continued its trend of media rights scrutiny with hard-hitting online coverage of the story.

30 July 2008

Ukraine: Flooding

Ukrainiana reviews media reports on the flooding in Western Ukraine, which has killed at least 22 people, including six children.

29 July 2008

Arabeyes: Head Over Heels for Muhannad

A strange phenomenon has gripped the Arab world and Arabs seem to agree on something. It is an infatuation with a Turkish soap opera, dubbed in Arabic, and its stunning star Muhanned (played by Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ), whose romantic trysts are beamed on television screens across the region. The obsession of some people with the soap has also prompted the Grand Mufti of the Islamic world, Shaikh Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh, from Saudi Arabia, to issue a fatwa (religious edict) banning the drama, saying watching it is Haram (a sin).

29 July 2008

Egypt Silences the Voice of Iran

Egyptian authorities shut down the Cairo office of an Iranian TV network over a film that justifies the killing of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants. Marwa Rakha sums up the opinions of Egyptian blogger Dina Ayoub about the incident in this post.

29 July 2008

Azerbaijan: Media Course

Thoughts On The Road, the blog of an American journalist living and working in Azerbaijan, reports on a recent media course he gave in Sheki.

29 July 2008