Category Archives: Newspapers & magazines

Antony Blinken urges Russia to release US journalist in call with Sergei Lavrov

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Russian foreign minister rejects request and says US must not ‘make a fuss’ over arrest of Evan Gershkovich

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, called for Russia to free the detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich in a rare phone call with his Moscow counterpart since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The American’s plea was rejected by Sergei Lavrov, who responded by saying that US officials and media outlets must “not make a fuss” or try to politicise the plight of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter.

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Burkina Faso expels reporters from two French newspapers

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Le Monde and Libération correspondents sent home in junta’s latest move against media from former colonial power

Burkina Faso has expelled correspondents from Le Monde and Libération, the newspapers said on Sunday, the latest move the junta running the west African country has taken against French media.

Burkina Faso, where two coups took place last year, is battling a jihadist insurgency that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

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UK to abolish law requiring press to pay legal costs when sued

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Government to roll back section 40 legislation, recommended by Leveson, as part of media bill

Ministers will push ahead with plans to abolish a key piece of press regulation law, unpicking one of the main recommendations of the Leveson inquiry into the culture of the British newspaper industry.

The government said they would roll back a rule that could require news outlets to pay the costs of the people who sue them unless the news outlet is signed up to a state-backed press regulator. Labour indicated that opposition MPs will not object to the plan, meaning it is likely to sail through the House of Commons.

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Elon Musk memo suggests Twitter worth less than half of what he paid for it

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Calculation based on leaked offer to staff that implies firm valued at $20bn compared with $44bn he bought it for

Twitter is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it six months ago having lost more than $20bn (£16.4bn) in value, according to calculations based on a leaked memo from the billionaire.

Musk suggested in memo to the social media company’s staff that it is now valued at less than $20bn. This compares with the $44bn he paid for it in October 2022.

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Anger grows over Afghan journalists still stranded by Home Office inaction

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Press members living under the Taliban, and living uncertain lives in Pakistan, must be given clarity say campaign groups

Hundreds of Afghan journalists remain stranded in increasingly “dire” circumstances as frustration mounts over the UK government’s refusal to share the latest entry criteria for its flagship resettlement programme.

This weekend, a coalition of press freedom and free expression organisations, including Index on Censorship, the National Union of Journalists, PEN International and English PEN, have written to home secretary Suella Braverman asking why details of the next phase of the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS) have yet to be revealed.

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Bernard Ingham, press secretary to Margaret Thatcher, dies aged 90

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Family pay tribute to man they described as ‘a journalist to his bones’

Margaret Thatcher’s former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham has died at the age of 90 after a short illness, his family has said.

Ingham was a journalist with the Guardian in the 1970s before going into communications for the government. He served as press secretary for Thatcher for almost her entire time as prime minister.

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New York Times reporters criticise union for backing trans coverage protest

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High-profile reporters say in letter ‘We are journalists, not activists’ after contributors protest coverage of trans issues

A dispute at the New York Times over its coverage of transgender issues deepened with news of a letter signed by high-profile reporters, criticising the Times’ union president for her own letter on the issue, in which she said staff who protested the paper’s trans coverage were concerned about “a hostile working environment”.

“Factual, accurate journalism that is written, edited and published in accordance with Times standards does not create a hostile workplace,” read the new letter, signed by the chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, political correspondent Lisa Lerer and other senior figures and reported by Vanity Fair.

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US local news outlets need tax breaks to help save democracy, says advocate

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Steven Waldman says a new initiative, Rebuild Local News, wants to revitalize hundreds of outlets decimated by the industry

Local news organizations across the United States need to be given serious government financial help, especially in the form of tax breaks, in order to stave off a crisis in the media sector and help save US democracy, a leading advocate for non-profit journalism has said.

Steven Waldman, co-founder of Report for America, said a new initiative, called Rebuild Local News, wanted to revitalize hundreds of local news outlets across America decimated by changes in the industry, shifts in the sector’s advertising revenue structure and more recently, the pandemic.

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India accuses BBC of tax evasion amid Modi documentary row

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Country’s finance ministry claims broadcaster has not fully declared its income and profits

India’s finance ministry has accused the BBC of tax evasion, saying that it had not fully declared its income and profits from its operations in the country.

Indian tax authorities ended three days of searches of the British broadcaster’s Delhi and Mumbai offices on Thursday night. Opposition political parties and other media organisations have criticised the searches as an attempt to intimidate the media.

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‘Suspicious death’ of Rwandan journalist prompts calls for investigation

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Two weeks on from the death of government critic John Williams Ntwali, police have failed to answer questions over the alleged road accident in which they say he was killed

Calls are growing for an investigation into the apparent accidental death two weeks ago of a prominent Rwandan journalist and government critic.

John Williams Ntwali, a regular critic of the authorities, was found dead on 18 January. According to reported police accounts, he was killed when a speeding vehicle rammed a motorcycle on which he was riding pillion in the capital, Kigali. A US senate committee said he had been “silenced”. Human rights organisations have joined other activists in raising doubts about the cause of the death of the 44 year-old editor of The Chronicles newspaper.

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Russia outlaws Meduza in attempt to stamp out independent news

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Outlet declared ‘undesirable’, with journalists, sources and donors facing threat of prosecution

Russia has declared the news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation”, in effect outlawing one of the country’s best-known sources of independent reporting on the Kremlin and war in Ukraine.

Meduza, founded by Russian journalists in Riga, Latvia, in 2014, was declared an undesirable organisation by the general prosecutor’s office on Thursday for “posing a threat to the foundations of the Russian Federation’s constitutional order and national security”.

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Labour asks why Treasury unit let sanctioned oligarch bring UK libel case

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Key Putin ally, who founded Wagner mercenaries, attempted to ‘subvert sanctions and silence journalist’

The Treasury must explain how the Russian founder of a mercenary army was given permission to circumvent sanctions, to attempt to silence a British journalist, Labour has said.

In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, seen by the Guardian, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, said that No 11 had to say why it had granted the permission and whether similar allowances had been made for other sanctioned oligarchs to use libel lawsuits.

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Hopes rise for press freedom in Tanzania as number of censured journalists falls

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Media council reports progress under progressive stance of President Suluhu following years of repression by former regime

The number of journalists being censured for their work in Tanzania has fallen slightly, raising hopes that press freedom is improving in the country.

Last year, 17 “press violations”, which include threats, arrests, denial of access to information and equipment seizures, were reported in the east African nation, the Media Council of Tanzania told the Guardian. This compares with 25 in 2021 and 41 in 2020.

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Sussexes dismiss Sun apology for Clarkson column as ‘PR stunt’

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Paper’s apology followed piece in which columnist said he ‘hated’ Meghan

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has said an apology by the Sun over a column in which Jeremy Clarkson said he “hated” Meghan is “nothing more than a PR stunt”.

The column has become the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s (Ipso) most complained about article, with more than 20,000 people contacting it over the piece, according to Ipso.

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The Sun apologises for Jeremy Clarkson’s column on Meghan

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Paper says that ‘as a publisher, we realise that with free expression comes responsibility’

The Sun has apologised for Jeremy Clarkson’s column, in which he said he “hated” the Duchess of Sussex, but has not stated whether any action has been taken against him.

Last week’s column has become the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s most complained about article, with more than 17,500 people contacting it over the piece as of Tuesday morning.

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Jeremy Clarkson condemned over Meghan column in the Sun

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Outcry after presenter writes he is ‘dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets’

A Jeremy Clarkson column in the Sun about the Duchess of Sussex has provoked outcry online, with social media users labelling it “vile”, “horrific” and “abusive”.

In an article for the paper published on Friday, Clarkson wrote that he loathed Meghan “on a cellular level”. He said he was “dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.

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Twitter’s suspension of journalists sets ‘dangerous precedent’, UN warns

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Pressure grows on Elon Musk as EU says social media platform could face sanctions over suspensions

The United Nations is “very disturbed” by Twitter’s abrupt suspension of a group of US journalists, a spokesperson has said, warning that the move sets a “dangerous precedent” – as the EU said the social media platform could fall foul of forthcoming digital regulations.

Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday the UN was “very disturbed” by the barring of prominent tech reporters at news organisations including CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times who have written about Musk and the tech company he owns.

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Washington Post chief announces job cuts – and refuses to answer questions

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Publisher Fred Ryan described as ‘embarrassing’ after walking out of meeting following revelation that up to 250 jobs could be lost

Turmoil at the Washington Post has intensified after a contentious town hall meeting on Wednesday in which the newspaper’s publisher, Fred Ryan, astounded staffers by announcing substantial job cuts to come, then quit the meeting, refusing to answer questions.

“This is embarrassing, this is embarrassing,” one staffer was heard saying as Ryan made his hasty exit, according to video footage posted on social media.

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Emma Tucker to become first female editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal

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British editor of the UK Sunday Times, which is also owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, will take the position in early 2023

Emma Tucker, the British editor of the UK Sunday Times, was named on Monday as the new editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, and will become the first woman to lead the 133-year-old business title.

The move, announced by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, will happen in February next year when Tucker, who will also run Dow Jones Newswires, will succeed Matt Murray, who will depart after a four year tenure.

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New York Times poised for first mass staff walkout in 40 years

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Daylong action comes as union and management clash over wages and remote work

The New York Times is bracing for a 24-hour walkout on Thursday by hundreds of journalists and other employees, in what would be the first strike of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years.

Newsroom employees and other members of the NewsGuild of New York say they are fed up with bargaining that has dragged on since their last contract expired in March 2021. The union announced last week that more than 1,100 employees would stage a 24-hour work stoppage starting at 12.01am on Thursday unless the two sides reached a contract deal.

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