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Archive for the ‘Media and Journalism’ Category

Christian blogger detained in Egyptian prison

April 27th, 2009 | Comments Off

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) today condemned the continued detention of Christian blogger Hani Nazeer, who was arrested by State Security last October.  His arrest was prompted by complaints from Muslims over material posted at his blog. ANHRI also alleges that the arrest “occurred with the collaboration of the Church in [his [...]

The Cult of Obama

April 1st, 2009 | 2 Comments

More journalists and Hollywood stars burble on about Obama. Obama “walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere,” George Clooney gushed to Charlie Rose. “I’ll collect paper cups off the ground to make [Obama’s] pathway clear,” Halle Berry recently told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I’ll do whatever he says.” (Does Michelle [...]

China tries to censor satire of government

March 25th, 2009 | 1 Comment

Internet users in the Far East are making fun of a Chinese government campaign against online pornography and other allegedly subversive material, and China has responded by trying to stamp out the satire. Chinese netizens are reacting angrily to reported attempts by government censors to stamp out a humorous form of protest against a recent [...]

Record number of honour killings in Turkey

March 23rd, 2009 | 1 Comment

This coming Friday, 27 March, British television series Unreported World will present a report about honour crime in Turkey. Unreported World travels to Turkey to investigate honour killings, which have now reached record levels, with more than 200 girls and women killed in the past year alone. And in a chilling new development, the programme [...]

Tonight on CBC Newsworld: “Forced To Marry”

March 23rd, 2009 | 1 Comment

“Forced To Marry” will be shown this evening on CBC Newsworld’s The Passionate Eye at 10 pm ET/PT.  (11 pm Atlantic Time.) Presenter Saira Khan journeys to Pakistan and reports the stories of two British women of Pakistani descent who were coerced into marrying men they hardly knew. Entrepreneur and TV presenter Saira Khan travels [...]

Maldives censors Christians and dissidents

March 18th, 2009 | Comments Off

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs in the Maldives has been busy blocking access to dissident, Christian, and other unIslamic websites.  Ironically, this occurs only one week after President Mohamed Nasheed announced his intention to make the Maldives a safe haven for oppressed journalists from other countries. The list of websites banned by Anni’s [Nasheed’s] government [...]

Australian firm threatened for link to forbidden website

March 17th, 2009 | 4 Comments

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) threatened to fine a company up to $11,000 per day over a link to an anti-abortion site on ACMA’s list of verboten websites. Nowhere does the lengthy news story in The Australian address the issue of why an anti-abortion site is on the “top-secret list of banned internet [...]

Azerbaijani journalist in interrogation ordeal

March 16th, 2009 | 1 Comment

Idrak Abbasov, the Azeri journalist who broke the story of Azerbaijan’s deliberate destruction of a medieval Armenian cemetery, has been subjected to an intense interrogation by state security agents. He was restrained and blindfolded before being aggressively questioned for hours, after which he had to be treated in hospital. He has been ejected from Nakhichevan, [...]

Kazakh PM starts blog, censors comments

February 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov last month launched his personal blog and ordered his ministers to do likewise. However, the PM seems to have some issues with a common blog feature— comments. Since the launch, his blog has received thousands of comments, many of them critical of the government. So far so good. But [...]

Journalist murdered in Swat Valley, Pakistan

February 18th, 2009 | 1 Comment

Pakistani reporter Musa Khan Khel has been shot dead in Swat Valley only two days after the government acceded to Taliban demands to enforce Sharia law in the area. He was abducted by unknown assailants while covering a “peace” rally by Taliban supporters. Reporters Without Borders has received information that his body was beheaded. Reporters [...]

Manitoba chiefs claim CBC promotes racism

February 12th, 2009 | Comments Off

Manitoba chiefs want the provincial government to scrutinise the CBC because allegedly racist comments have been posted at CBC News online. Media organizations are creating a forum for online racism by allowing readers and bloggers to comment on stories on news websites, Manitoba First Nations leaders said Wednesday. So, allowing readers and bloggers to comment [...]

MMR doctor doctored his data

February 8th, 2009 | 3 Comments

Dr Andrew Wakefield sparked a major international scare with his 1998 article purporting to find a link between autism and the triple vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). An in-depth investigation by The Sunday Times of London has discovered that his results were based on falsified data. The research was published in February 1998 [...]

“Is the Quran always applicable?”

February 6th, 2009 | 2 Comments

TelQuel, a Moroccan French-language weekly newsmagazine, has announced that its next issue, with a cover date of 6 February, will address a potentially volatile question: “The Quran: Is it really applicable ‘in all times and in all places’?”  The cover article will specifically address such hot button topics as polygamy and jihad. The article is [...]

Feminists put words in my mouth

February 1st, 2009 | 4 Comments

A week ago, I posted an item about a long-running child custody battle that ended up in an Ontario court.  Ten years after the parents split, Justice Faye McWatt ordered their three daughters taken from the mother and given into the sole custody of the father because of the mother’s relentless campaign to alienate them [...]

Detroit Muslims want Botros banned

January 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment

A Detroit-area radio station is broadcasting messages by Father Zakariah Botros, and local Muslims claim he has “repeatedly defamed” Muhammed. So, do the protestors want to broadcast rebuttals of Fr Botros’s statements? Do they want to organise a public debate with the elderly Coptic priest? No, they just want to shut him up. Muslims and [...]