Category Archives: Newspapers

‘Stop patronising me and give me an interview’: the female journalists speaking up for India’s poor

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India’s only all-women news organisation is the subject of an award-winning documentary. The film-makers explain their inspiring courage and energy

A woman explains how a group of four men repeatedly broke into her house and raped her; six times so far. Did she go to the police? Yes, but officers refused to investigate. Instead, they threatened her and her husband. “These men can do anything. They can even kill us,” the victim says to the reporter, Meera, who is filming on her smartphone. As Meera leaves, the woman’s husband tells her that she is their only hope. “We don’t trust anyone except Khabar Lahariya.”

Khabar Lahariya is India’s only all-female news organisation. Based in Uttar Pradesh, its journalists passionately believe in reporting rural issues through a feminist lens.

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Edward Mortimer obituary

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Speechwriter for Kofi Annan at the United Nations who drew on his experience as a commentator for British newspapers

In 1998 Edward Mortimer, who has died aged 77, joined the staff of the UN secretary general Kofi Annan as chief speechwriter and later director of communications. Since the UN’s foundation at the end of the second world war, its leadership had often lacked breadth and depth of vision, with the exception of the eight years under the Swede Dag Hammarskjöld until his death in a plane crash in Africa in 1961.

Like him, Annan, who was from Ghana, believed that the UN represented more than the sum of its member states, and could act as a prime mover in undertaking initiatives. Now, once more, the words of the secretary general mattered, moved, provoked and were remembered, and Mortimer had a key role in making that happen.

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‘The history boys’: joy unconfined as papers celebrate England’s semi-final win

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Footballers now have to match the ‘immortals of 1966’ after reaching their first final for 55 years

The joy of England’s footballers reaching a major final for the first time in 55 years is given due justice on the front pages of the papers – along with a sense of relief that the team finally managed to do the job.

The Mirror’s headline is simply “Finally” noting that Harry Kane’s winning goal means that “after 55 years of hurt Harry and his heroes beat the Danes … now to match the heroes of 1966”.

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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‘The pressure is unbearable’: final days of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily

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Newspaper’s closure shows how pro-democracy movement and press freedom are being crushed

On Wednesday morning, the Apple Daily reporter Angel Kwan was at a government press conference for the Hong Kong census when her phone started buzzing with notifications. Six days earlier, hundreds of police had raided her workplace, arrested her bosses and seized dozens of computers. On Monday, the company board had said it would have to shut the paper unless authorities unfroze its finances.

As she stood holding her microphone towards the government official, Kwan did not dare look at her phone and the news it heralded: Apple Daily was shutting down. Today.

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The Guardian view on Hong Kong’s Apple Daily: gone but not forgotten | Editorial

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The outspoken tabloid’s closure is a chilling moment. But as Beijing silences dissent, the spirit of resistance endures

Apple Daily is dead. At midnight on Wednesday, Hong Kong’s biggest pro-democracy news outlet closed, forced out of business after authorities froze the assets of the 26-year-old tabloid and arrested executives and journalists. Through its outspoken support for protests, it had come to stand for resistance itself: for the freedom to know what is happening, to challenge authorities, and to imagine and demand another Hong Kong.

Beijing is determined to crush that resistance. Each day it turns the screws further. Many have fallen silent already, but Apple Daily was defiant. Its owner, Jimmy Lai, already jailed over a protest, could face life in prison due to further charges under the draconian national security law. The editor-in-chief and chief executive of its parent company have been charged with conspiracy to collude with “external elements” after 500 officers raided its headquarters last week. Authorities say that the case relates to articles calling for sanctions on the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, some published before the imposition of the security law, which is not supposed to be retroactive. This vindictive action marks the criminalisation of journalism. On Wednesday, the company announced it was closing overnight, citing employee safety and staffing levels after officers arrested its lead opinion writer.

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‘The blackest day’: Apple Daily’s demise comes as no surprise

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Analysis: a palpable chill has run through the Hong Kong media, amid warnings about ‘fake news’

The fate of Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong’s bestselling tabloids, should not come as a surprise. On the day Jimmy Lai, its founder, was sentenced to 14 months in prison in April, a commentary in the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao called for a ban on Apple Daily in order to “close national security loopholes”.

The 72-year-old media tycoon and his 26-year-old newspaper have been among the most high-profile critics of Beijing and the controversial national security law (NSL), which they deem “draconian”, but which the authorities say is “necessary”. The law bars secession, subversion and foreign collusion.

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Hong Kong leader refuses to say how media can avoid arrest in wake of Apple Daily raids

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Carrie Lam denies arrest of senior editorial figures at pro-democracy paper and seizure of its assets was an attack on press freedom

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has refused to clarify how journalists can avoid breaking the vaguely defined national security law following the raid and prosecution of journalists at a pro-democracy newspaper.

At a regular press conference on Tuesday the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, defended the arrest of senior Apple Daily executives under the national security law (NSL) – two of whom have been charged with conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country – as well as the raid of its newsroom and freezing of assets.

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Hungary’s LGBT protests and Juneteenth Day: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms from China to Colombia

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Ask Philippa: meet the Observer’s brilliant new agony aunt

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As psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry becomes our new agony aunt, she reveals why helping you with your worries will help us all. Plus, a special welcome from Jay Rayner

John Dunton founded the Athenian Mercury in the 1690s. A paper that consisted of readers’ questions and the answers. His idea was that readers could send in dilemmas to be answered by a panel of experts, the Athenian Society. But his great innovation was that they could do so anonymously and this has remained a feature of problem pages ever since. Poor old Dunton could have done with some advice himself, because he ended his days in poverty as he was a better innovator than he was a business person. He blamed his woes on other people rather than taking responsibility for his own failings. I think an agony aunt today might have spotted that for him and possibly saved him from destitution.

His panel of experts, depicted as 12 learned men with him in the centre in an engraving at the top of the pages, were largely fictitious. It was just Dunton and a couple of mates who went through all the letters in a coffee shop.

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Hongkongers queue to buy Apple Daily copies after editor-in-chief arrested

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Public outpouring of support for tabloid after raid on offices by national security police

Hongkongers queued at city news stands before dawn on Friday to buy the latest edition of the Apple Daily newspaper, a day after national security police arrested its editor-in-chief and four other directors.

On Thursday morning hundreds of officers from the Hong Kong police national security department raided the homes of the employees, including editor-in-chef Ryan Law, and the Apple Daily newsroom for the second time in less than a year. It froze millions of dollars in company assets.

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‘Worst of times’: Hong Kong media defiant amid police crackdown

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Apple Daily hits back after executives arrested in second raid on pro-democracy paper’s newsroom

Apple Daily’s journalism has ruffled feathers since its establishment in 1995. A populist Hong Kong tabloid owned by Jimmy Lai, a pro-Trump media mogul and now jailed activist, the paper is fond of sensational crime stories, celebrity gossip, and investigations into government scandals and corruption. It’s a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement, a thorn in the side of police, and has become a symbol of resistance against Hong Kong’s crackdown.

Hong Kong’s police commissioner has accused it of creating hatred. Pro-Beijing media have called for it to be shut down. Lai has said the paper is on the right side of history.

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Hong Kong Apple Daily raid targeted ‘conspiracy’, claims security chief – video

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Hong Kong's security chief, John Lee, accused the five Apple Daily directors arrested on Thursday of using 'journalistic work as a tool to endanger national security'. 

Lee said the five were arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign countries or external elements to invite sanctions or other hostile activities. In a significant escalation in the government’s moves to rein in the Hong Kong press, Apple Daily's newsroom and offices were searched and HK$18m (US $2.3m) in assets frozen

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Hong Kong police arrest editor-in-chief of Apple Daily newspaper in morning raids

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Ryan Law among five directors detained under national security legislation imposed by Beijing

Hong Kong national security police have arrested the editor-in-chief and four other directors of the Apple Daily newspaper in early morning raids involving more than 100 officers, in the latest crackdown on the media.

The police force’s national security department said the five directors had been arrested on suspicion of collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security. All were arrested at their homes, at around 7am.

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Rupert Murdoch writes down value of Sun newspapers to zero

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Move follows £200m loss caused by Covid-19 pandemic and one-off charges related to phone hacking

Rupert Murdoch has written down the value of the Sun newspapers to zero as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic helped to fuel a £200m loss at his flagship tabloid titles.

Advertising and sales revenues at the Sun and the Sun on Sunday plummeted, with turnover falling by 23% from £419.9m to £324m in the year to the end of June 2020.

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Ruben Sergeyev, longtime Guardian fixer in Moscow, dies at 65

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Former colleagues remember ‘intelligent, playful, constantly curious’ news assistant and friend

Ruben Sergeyev, a longtime consultant and friend to Guardian correspondents in Moscow from the Gorbachev era through to the Putin years, has died of Covid-19 at the age of 65.

He died on Wednesday after being admitted to hospital in Moscow. Sergeyev worked from 1988 until 2014 as a news assistant, fixer, and all-round explainer of Russia during a time of rapid change. He helped a succession of bureau chiefs including Jonathan Steele, David Hearst, James Meek and Miriam Elder.

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Sinéad O’Connor retracts retirement announcement

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The Irish musician said her statement, made on 5 June, was a ‘kneejerk reaction’ against the UK and Irish media’s ‘constant abuse and invalidation’ of her mental health

Sinéad O’Connor has retracted her announcement, made over the weekend, that she would retire from music and live performance.

In a new statement posted to Twitter, the Irish musician explained to fans that she had felt “badly triggered” by a series of interviews regarding her new memoir, Rememberings, in which she writes of surviving physical and psychological abuse.

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Massive internet outage hits websites including Amazon, gov.uk and Guardian

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Technical problem traced to network run by Fastly brings some sites down entirely

A massive internet outage has affected websites including the Guardian, the UK government’s website gov.uk, Amazon and Reddit. The issue made the sites inaccessible to many users for more than an hour on Tuesday morning.

The outage was traced to a failure in a content delivery network (CDN) run by Fastly. It began at about 11am UK time, with visitors to a huge number of sites receiving error messages including, “Error 503 service unavailable” and a terse “connection failure”.

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‘Zero’: how the UK papers covered a day without a single reported Covid death

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All eyes now turn to whether this makes an easing of England’s Covid measures on 21 June more likely

Good news is broadcast across Wednesday’s front pages, as editors seize a rare opportunity to report on hope in the battle against the coronavirus.

Many papers suggest that the first day without a single Covid death for 10 months means the complete easing of lockdown restrictions will go ahead in England as planned on 21 June.

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‘I’m still alive’: Gomorrah author hails court victory over mafia threats

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Roberto Saviano says that a court has shown that the crime clans – whose threats forced him to live with a bodyguard – are not invincible

The internationally renowned anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano has declared that “journalism has been vindicated; words are vindicated – and so am I”, after a landmark judgment in Rome over threats to his life.

Judges ruled on Monday that a courtroom manoeuvre 13 years ago by a Camorra mafia boss and his lawyer constituted a threat to Saviano’s life, and that of a colleague – Rosaria Capacchione, then of the Naples daily Il Mattino – condemning the journalists to live ever since in the shadows, under bodyguard.

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