100 Journalists aressted in Pakistan

Journalists arrested in Pakistan

A journalist recovers after the confrontation with police

More than 100 journalists protesting against media restrictions and emergency rule have been arrested in Pakistan, eyewitnesses say.

Most were held in Karachi and several detained in Hyderabad.

Police baton-charged the Karachi journalists after they tried to stage a protest march. Some of them were hurt.

When President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on 3 November, radio and TV news was banned, as was criticism of the government.

Country-wide

Heavy contingents of police were deployed on roads to the Karachi Press Club to stop the rally there.

Police stopped the marchers going to a TV station

It was part of a country-wide protest organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) against the media curbs.

The journalists were planning to hold a demonstration outside the Karachi offices of the ARY TV channel, one of half a dozen news channels that cable operators stopped airing after the emergency was imposed.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says police beat up a number of journalists in front of the press club entrance.

The arrests came shortly after the government said it released some 3,400 people jailed under emergency rule.

The release of political opponents has been a key demand of opposition parties who are threatening to boycott parliamentary elections in January.

A number of leading political figures are still being held.

US Plans Case Against AP Photographer

The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal
case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press
photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations
would be presented.

The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months and there have been many calls and petitions on Lightstalkers for his release and calls for his freedom have been backed by groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists.

An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a "sham of due process."

The military has not yet defined the
specific charges against Hussein. Previously, the military has pointed
to a range of suspicions that attempt to link him to insurgent
activity.

The AP rejects all the allegations and contends it
has been blocked by the military from mounting a wide-ranging defense
for Hussein and claims that Hussein was interrogated at Camp Cropper this year without legal counsel.

Hussein was part of the AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team
in 2005

More information on AP Website

Powered by ScribeFire.

Yahoo settles its China lawsuit

Source ::BBC

Yahoo senior officers were criticised in a congressional hearing

Yahoo has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it on behalf of several Chinese dissidents, according to papers filed in a California court.

No details have been given of the settlement but Yahoo will be covering legal costs.

The case alleged that Yahoo had provided information to the Chinese government that had then been used to prosecute the dissidents.

Yahoo said it had to comply with Chinese laws to operate in the country.

A statement released by the World Organization for Human Rights USA, which brought the case, said Yahoo had decided to settle the case following criticism at a US Congressional hearing on 6 November.

'Inexcusably negligent'

A Congressional panel criticised Yahoo for not giving full details to its probe into the jailing of a reporter by Chinese authorities.

Yahoo had been "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive" in evidence given to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, the panel said.

One journalist cited in the case, Shi Tao, was tracked down and jailed for 10 years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his e-mail and IP address to officials.

He was convicted in 2004 of divulging state secrets after posting online a Chinese government order forbidding media organisations from marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Yahoo's original response to the lawsuit acknowledged releasing information to the Chinese government.

But it argued that there was little connection between the information the firm gave and the ensuing arrests and imprisonment of its users.

Michael Callahan, Yahoo's executive vice-president and general counsel, then told a congressional panel in February 2006 that he did not know why the Chinese authorities wanted to trace Shi Tao.

Last week, Mr Callahan wrote to the committee admitting that other Yahoo employees had a document saying it was to do with the "suspected illegal provision of state secrets".

Mr Callahan said the information only came to his attention months after he testified.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Dutch government admits spying on journalists

5 November 2007

By PA Mediapoint

The Dutch government today admitted officials hacked into a media agency's
computers to find out what stories were being written about them.

The GPD news agency only discovered what was going on when one ministry press
officer rang up to complain about a story that had not even been published.

Marcel van Lingen, editor-in-chief of the agency which serves more than a
dozen newspapers in the Netherlands and Belgium, accused the government of
"spying."

The Social Affairs Ministry "used stolen information to influence (our)
reporting," he said.

The ministry confirmed in a statement some of its employees had accessed
GPD's internal site and apologised.

"It is not our policy and we reject it. The department will investigate the
matter and take steps to prevent it happening again in the future," said a
spokesman.

It invited public prosecutors to investigate whether any criminal acts were
committed. Other news outlets criticised the ministry's action, and The
Netherlands' Union of Journalists' chief Thomas Bruning called it a "kick in the
shins for the independent role that journalism plays."
source :: Press Gazette

Powered by ScribeFire.

Plodshop Creative Suit 3

First strike software have just launched the latest version of Plodshop Creative suite CS3

Developed
by Warren Terror Software Plodshop is intended as an image verification
and anti manipulation software for digital images and is to address
major security issues in the industry standard Adobe Photoshop, Picnik,
Tesco Photo ReStyle and Piccasa2

You can see the full product review by EPUK (who are press and editorial Photographers discussion group) here:

http://www.epuk.org/Blogs/739/new-epuk-software-release

Well

at least they see it for what it is

Powered by ScribeFire.

Richard Branson

_GMA1095, originally uploaded by Radical_Images.

Richard Branson was in Derby, UK today to open the new Arts, Design and Technology building, built at a cost of £21 million pounds by the University of Derby for its new education centre