SPJ’s International Journalism Committee released the following statement on Wednesday, 4/20/11:

“The International Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists mourns the loss on Wednesday of two great photojournalists. Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, both of New York, were accustomed to putting their lives on the line to help the world see the true, bloody realities of war. Yet their untimely deaths remind us of the real cost of violent conflict. We urge international authorities to pursue the truth behind this criminal attack and take steps to protect other journalists who are now risking their lives to spotlight a conflict that must not go unreported.  We send our deepest condolences to the Hetherington and Hondros families.”

Read Wednesday’s Associated Press report from Misrata, Libya.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.

Many thanks to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing for pointing out this great CNN story about ”newspaper landlords” who rent the want-ads by the minute.

Is this the wave of the future of newspaper readers?

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.

The article below was posted on boosharticles.com today. Too bad there is no such country as the Dominican Republic of Congo

Ordinarily such a glaring error by the writer would be caught by the editor. But I am willing to bet all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket that there was no editor.

If there was an editor, then the writer and editor both deserve to be fired.

Just to be clear: There is a Democratic Republic of Congo and the Dominican Republic. Two different countries in two widely different parts of the world.

United Nations Plane Crashes in Dominican Republic of Congo

Posted by Josh on April 5, 2011 · Leave a Comment

A United Nations has plane has crashed in the Dominican Republic of Congo killing all of the 33 people on board aside from just one person. It is said that the accident occurred as the plane was coming in to land in the main airport of the country that is located in the capital city of Kinshasa.

It has now been confirmed that out of the 33 people on board the plane, there was only one survivor. Condolences have been offered to the families of those killed in the crash by the Security Council. It is thought that the plane missed the runway as it was coming in to land although the exact reasons for this happening are not yet confirmed. It is thought however that the wind conditions could have played a big part in the crash.

It is said that of the 33 passengers, four of them were the crew and the other 29 were UN personnel. It is said that the crew of the plane was Georgian. The plane in question was a Bombardier CRJ-200 jet which was part of Airzana Georgian Airways.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.

Talk about copyright protection gone crazy.

Boing Boing reports that Zimbabwe justice minister is steering a bill through Parliament that seeks to amend the copyright laws by giving copyright protection to legislation, notices and other material in the Government Gazette, court judgments and certain public registers.

Yep, that means the government wants to copyright in all these documents. The law will give the government all the rights and powers of a copyright holder.

And that power means the law and the doings of government will be copyrighted and not freely distributable to the governed.

It should come as no surprise. Zimbabwe is ranked #123 of 178 in the world on press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Let’s not forget that Oregon tried this a while back: Oregon: our laws are copyrighted and you can’t publish them

Egypt will be holding parliamentary elections later this month, and the BBC reports that freedom of the press in the country is being restricted as election day approaches.

According to the report, Egypt’s government has “closed a number of television channels, tightened regulations on the sending of news by text message, and forced operators of satellite dishes to reapply for their licences.”

The media director of the ruling National Democratic Party says that these events have been “taken totally out of context.”

But Nader Gohar, whose satellite dish operation — Cairo News Company — must reapply for a new license, says that many media operators in the country feel like they are working under threat of being shut down.

Agence France-Presse reports today that Egyptian journalist Hamdi Qandeel has been charged with “insulting and libelling [sic] a public servant or citizen performing their work.”

Quandeel compared statements made by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit to a leaky trash bag.

There are two versions of the report — here and here. The second one removes the “rubbish bag” reference.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.

Many thanks to Freedom House for raising this alarm.

New Press Legislation in South Africa Raises Alarm about Media Freedom

“This law, if passed, is certain to have a chilling effect on press freedom as well as violating the right of its citizens to access information,” said Paula Schriefer, director of advocacy at Freedom House. “It is concerning when a democratic government moves for less transparency, not more, and it would be regrettable if the South African parliament allows this to happen.”

The legislation, according to Freedom House is a revised version of a proposed law submitted two years ago. At that time it was rejected because of concerns it could lead to excessive official secrecy.

The new legislation continues to have an “overly broad definition of ‘national interest’” according to FH.

Freedom House downgraded South Africa from Free to Partly Free in its 2010 Freedom of the Press report. The move came largely because of increased rhetoric against the media from government officials and new laws that limited the independence of broadcasters.

First published at Journalists, Journalism and the World.

Adam Powell raises an interesting point here: U.S. gov’t, foundation subsidies of news media attract criticism in Africa

And this is the big issue for American journalists and journalism.

At what point is “support” turned into editorial direction?

The suggestion that news organizations turn themselves into non-profits (this time by design) to gain the tax benefits and the growing dependency on NGOs for larger stories raise some serious questions about the future of American journalism.

I still remember the basic line, however, it is not the platform that makes good journalism, it is the work behind the story. If the honesty of the work is questioned or up for debate, then journalism is in trouble.

But I think some of the critics of NGO support for journalism products miss an important point: In too many African nations the government is not only paying bills but is dictating the content. There are damn few democracies in that continent. And free journalism needs democracy just as much as democracy needs free journalism.

The Taipei Times earlier this month published a profile of what appears to be one of the most dangerous jobs in Somalia — being a reporter with Radio Mogadishu.

The article describes it as “the one and only relatively free radio station in south central Somalia where journalists can broadcast what they like — without worrying about being beheaded.”

That’s because the journalists who work there are under constant guard and rarely, if ever, venture away from the radio station.

Reporter Musa Osman “drew his finger across his throat and laughed a sharp, bitter laugh when asked what would happen if he went home.”

According to the report, Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous countries in which to be a journalist, “with more than 20 journalists assassinated in the past four years.”

The Beeb has a great program — Over to You — that is about the state of media around the world.

This weekend they had a story about the changes in Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe there is only state-run broadcasting. This year the government created the Zimbabwe Media Commission with the declared intention to promote and protect the media.

The guest this week was Gerry Jackson, a Zimbabwe exile who runs a radio station aimed at Zimbabwe from England, says the only difference between the policies of the Mugabe government before and after the unity government came to power and the new media commission is that the overt violence against free media has subsided.

Private news outlets are still banned. It is still against the law to call the 86-year-old Mugabe “an old man.”

Other discussions included the use of labels such as “left wing” and “right wing” to groups.

This is a good radio program that is available live and on podcasts from the BBC web site.