Journalism

Defend the Afghan Press

"Hailed as a major success of five years of democracy-building, media freedom in Afghanistan is under increasing pressures," writes Alisa Tang. A spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said, "We've moved from an open media environment to a state-controlled media environment." A proposed law would increase government power over media outlets and make reporting "humiliating and offensive" news a criminal offense.

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News Media Aiming Low, Warns Report

"We sense the news business entering a new phase heading into 2007 -- a phase of more limited ambition," the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) writes in the overview to its "State of the News Media 2007" report. News organizations are "starting to redefine their appeal and their purpose based on diminished capacity.

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One News Source Rejects Unnamed Sources

One radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico has had enough. "It is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story about Iran, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia or any other foreign power that quotes an 'unnamed' U.S. official," news director Bill Dupuy told his staff. "We should not dutifully parrot whatever comes out of Washington, on the wire or by whatever means, no matter how intriguing and urgent it sounds, when the source is unnamed.

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Scooter's Trial Shines Harsh Light on DC Press Corps

Nick Madigan of the Baltimore Sun reports, "The trial of I. Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, and recent disclosures ... are shining a harsh light on the sometimes overly symbiotic relationships between reporters and their sources. ...

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