It's time we added the first 21st Century amendment to the Constitution -- an amendment that parallels the First Amendment but explicitly prohibits the government from ever shutting down the internet. Freedom of the internet in today's world is just as important as freedom of the press, religion or speech, as evidenced by the recent internet-driven series of revolutions that have challenged one dictator after another.
Italy's main antitrust regulator officially wrote the presidents of the Italian parliament Wednesday to express his "concern" over a new law that could soon allow for increased cross-ownership of media platforms. Many in Italy say the law will make it easier for big media companies like Mediaset -- which already controls three of seven national networks as well as a leading film production and distribution company and a mid-size newspaper -- to acquire control of a large publisher.
For the past 18 years, the news media have used the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to obtain government records. I could cite hundreds of examples of such documents forming the basis for news stories in the public interest. But if a new proposal is enacted in Victoria, it could spell the end of such stories, as B.C. media FOI applicants face their greatest challenge ever: instant (and scoop-busting) transparency.
Afghanistan's small band of independent-minded media outlets is a little smaller with the demise of Kabul Weekly, a lively newspaper that claims it has been put out of business after daring to criticise Hamid Karzai. On Wednesday staff met with their editor, Mohammad Faheem Dashty, for the final time after producing the last edition of a newspaper that has been a regular sight on the streets of the capital since 2002.
A judge in Chicago denied a request by the trustee of Chicago-based Tribune Co.'s employee stock ownership plan to cap damages for its liability in the demise of the plan. Greatbanc Trust Co. asked the court to limit its damages to $15 million after Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer of U.S. District Court ruled last year that the trustee violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act when it let the ESOP buy $250 million in shares as part of Tribune's 2007 leveraged buyout.
Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska —
March 3, 2011— New York Times
Walking around Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, it’s hard to grasp that problems are roiling the newspaper business. Newsstands are filled with publications in Russian. Some of them are monthlies, others weeklies -- and now there's a daily, the Reporter, which started publishing Monday to fill the gap left by the demise in 2009 of Novoye Russkoye Slovo, which closed just shy of its 100th birthday.
It was an uplifting day yesterday for Canadian newspaper companies. Postmedia Network Inc., Canada's largest publisher of paid English-language daily newspapers, saw agency Standard & Poor's raise its debt rating and the publisher of the country's largest daily, the Toronto Star, reported a better-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter led by a rise in advertising spending.
