Towards the end of last year, Rupert Murdoch, head of News International, spoke out against news aggregators. In an interview with Sky News Australia, he condemned the likes of Google as nothing more than "thieves", intent on stealing content from his newspaper's websites for their own benefit. The media mogul has long wielded threats of removing all News International articles from search indexes and implementing stringent paywalls around all his websites by the end of 2010.

It's only January, but Murdoch has already set about putting his plans into action: On Friday, the Guardian reported that News International is to prevent the aggregator NewsNow.co.uk from linking to content found on the Times Online website, by changing its search engine settings via the robots.txt protocol.

Amidst all the threats to press freedom, here's some good news: the Breaking Borders Award, jointly organized by Google and international citizen journalism website Global Voices and supported by Thomson Reuters. The award is presented to outstanding online projects that show courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the internet to promote freedom of expression and stand up to those who censor information.

Three categories of the prize are awarded: tools that promote freedom of expression, outstanding work on policy, and activism or journalism that contributed an important voice or argument. The winner of each category receives $10,000.

On Tuesday social networking site Facebook announced that it is to monitor all content regarding Silvio Berlusconi posted to its site, in light of the attack on the Italian Prime Minister earlier this week, the New York Times reported. 20 percent of the population in Italy have Facebook accounts. 

An inquiry into the local newspaper industry and local journalism in Scotland has been established by the Scottish Parliament, with a call for evidence launched last week.

The inquiry will examine the challenges that the local and weekly newspaper industry faces. It will consider the impact of various causes of a decline in the industry, including the recession, the internet, free council newspapers, and the UK competition rules.

It will also examine the Digital Britain report by the UK government, and its proposals for an independently funded news consortia.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch is optimistic about the future of journalism in this age of newspaper cutbacks and the overwhelming concerns with bottom-line budgets rather than quality journalism. 

With pressure mounting against Google from newspapers angered by the way it helps readers bypass their paywalls; the search engine giant has agreed to aid publishers by putting a cap on subscription websites.

The cap will limit free access to five articles per day, after which readers will be redirected to a registration page or payment screen. Previously, users have been able to continually view subscription articles for free by entering news websites via Google.

The new trend of newspapers using new media technologies kicked off the opening ceremony today. 

While speaking at the Free Press Roundtable at the WAN-IFRA 2009 World Newspaper Congress - World Editors Forum in Hyderabad, India, Joze Ruben Zamora, publisher of El Periodico, Guatemala, detailed his battle against the oppression of free speech in his country. 

Guatemala has a long history of violence, including the Cold War in Central America.  The war caused the deaths of 220 000 people, between 1965 and 1985.  According to Zamora, 150 of the deceased were journalists.

Amidst rumours of discussions between News Corp and Microsoft about a possible deal for publishers to have their articles listed exclusively on Bing, Microsoft's revamped search engine, executives at MediaNews and A.H. Belo have revealed that they too might pull their content from Google.

Whilst News Corp chief, Rupert Murdoch, seems to be gaining supporters in his battle against the search giant, whom he has accused of "stealing stories", A.H. Belo and MediaNews have released more cautious statements on the issue and have not ruled Google out altogether. Instead, MediaNews CEO, Dean Singleton, says his chain will only block the search engine from crawling content that it charges for online and will probably continue to allow it to link to free content on the company's newspaper sites.

More debate has taken place over whether News Corp might be looking to make a deal with Microsoft to use its Bing search engine, if the company goes ahead with its promise to remove its content from Google in the next few months.  The Financial Times reported that the two companies have been in discussions, with the impetus for the talks coming from News Corp, and that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google's search engine.

Bing is currently providing little competition to Google in terms of market share and having exclusive news content could help it make progress. Therefore, it has been suggested that Microsoft is prepared to pay publishers to use their content, which could be big news for newspapers: the FT spoke with an unnamed website publisher who had been approached by Microsoft, who said that the plan "puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index them." 

BNO News, which achieved fame for the use of citizen journalists to report breaking news via its @BreakingNews Twitter service in 2007, has announced it will launch a paid-subscription wire service early next year.

In January this year, it was reported that the 20 year old Dutch founder, Michael van Poppel, was attempting to move away from the Twitter feed, which now has more than 1.4 million followers, in order to try to monetize the content.

After much speculation in the past few days about exactly how many staff were being laid off, the Associated Press has announced that a total of 90 employees worldwide have been let go this week, and that the company has thus reached its goal of cutting annual payroll costs by 10 percent.

A press release specified that this target had been set in October 2008 and that most of the reductions had been achieved through a continuing hiring freeze and attrition, and buyouts. The total number of layoffs this year has not been confirmed, and the AP said that the figure did not necessarily equate to 10 percent of staff, because of differences in wages.

New Jersey paper the Star-Ledger, published its first redesigned print edition today, with a front-page editor's note reading: "it is done with one goal in mind: making it easier for you to read."

"Yes, we've made the type bigger," Kevin Whitmer writes, and "in addition to the larger body copy, we have reformatted every piece of typography in the paper."

In an interview with David Baird, a professor at Anderson University, Rob Durst, a Boston-based business and technology consultant spoke of the ways in which he believes newspapers can remain viable in the digital age.

"Magazines and newspapers should stop treating their publications as fixed products and start thinking about them as valuable, branded interfaces to online content and services," Durst told Baird, continuing on to say that publishers generally need to move faster and keep abreast of technological developments.

With all the recent hype surrounding Google's aggregation of news websites, one blogger has carried out a simple observation task with some interesting results. Kevin Sablan, writing for his blog Almighty Link, decided to find out just how much Google relies on news organizations for content.

A few days ago in an interview with Sky News Australia, Rupert Murdoch declared he would remove his newspapers from Google results, accusing the search engine of "stealing stories."

Online traffic analyst, Hitwise, has posted an article revealing that the media mogul's threats could have a disasterous impact on the exposure of the newspapers' sites to potential readers.

A new federal law shielding journalists from subpoenas and imprisonment regarding confidential sources has met with difficulties under the definition of a 'journalist' in the Senate and the Obama administration's opposition to shielding in 'matters of national security.'

The Free Flow of Information Act (H.R.985) is a bi-partisan bill aimed at protecting journalists from being imprisoned or fined when they refuse to reveal their confidential sources. In official legalese, the headline of the Act is "to maintain the free flow of information to the public by providing conditions for the federally compelled disclosure of information by certain persons connected with the news media."

Basically it prevents federal courts (many U.S. states already have such shield laws in place) from forcing journalists to reveal sources or information without the judge carefully 'balancing' the necessity of the evidence withheld. Although the bill has passed the House of Representatives it currently faces two problems: definitional issues in the Senate and opposition from the White House.

Again, the official text; "Conditions for Compelled Disclosure- In any matter arising under Federal law, a Federal entity may not compel a covered person to provide testimony or produce any document related to information obtained or created by such covered person as part of engaging in journalism, unless a court determines by a preponderance of the evidence, after providing notice and an opportunity to be heard to such covered person..." a list of exceptional circumstances follow that would merit 'compelled disclosure,' including terrorist threats and that the prosecution has exhausted all other means of gaining evidence.

Italian newspaper La Repubblica has been sued by the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, for asking questions about his conduct which, the premier's lawyers claim, implicitly defame Berlusconi. The left-leaning daily started its campaign for answers to ten questions from the prime minister in May, when discrepancies started to emerge over his account of his relations with the now well-known 18 year-old Noemi Letizia, and the questions have evolved as rumours of scandals surrounding Berlusconi have developed.

La Repubblica editor Ezio Mauro declared in an editorial that "This is the first time that, in the memory of a free country, a politician takes a lawsuit because of questions that were asked of him." The paper is promoting a petition to protest the lawsuit, which it believes "can only be interpreted as an attempt to silence the free press." It has been signed by the FT's Lionel Barber, the Guardian's Alan Rusbridger, the Sunday Times' John Witherow and the Independent's Roger Alton, as well as Liberation's Laurent Joffrin, Javier Moreno at El Pais and Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Hans Werner Kilz. It has been reported, however, that no Italian editor is on the list.

In advance of his appearance at the WEF conference The 2015 Newsroom in Prague next week where he will be giving the keynote speech, Mauro gave the Editors Weblog an insight into his thoughts on the situation.

Editors Weblog: Berlusconi's well-known dominance of the broadcast sector of the media could undoubtedly be seen as a threat to press freedom. But until recent events, have newspapers managed to stay relatively free of his influence?

Ezio Mauro: The real anomaly is the control of the entire television universe, which is completely in the hands of the leader of a party and of the government, who controls three channels by ownership, and three by his political position. This allows for a continual adaption of the editorial landscape - eliminating inconvenient topics, or rendering them incomprehensible. For newspapers it is different, though the influence of the power of the government on the economic and financial establishment (which owns the newspapers) is very still strong. Whoever criticises the government is by definition isolated. Television channels do not launch investigations or questions. In this context, it is difficult for a type of true public opinion to form and grow that is both informed and aware.

EW: Do you think that there are more fundamental press freedom problems than Berlusconi himself in Italy?

EM: I am not talking about press freedom. I am talking about the right of citizens to know and understand, therefore to be informed: and of the duty of newspapers to inform. It is regarding this right and this duty that there are problems today.

EW: To a foreigner, Italian newspapers appear more ostensibly partisan than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Do you think that is true, and if so do you think this could be one of the reasons they become vulnerable to political attack?

EM: Was the Washington Post partisan during the Watergate investigation? I believe that the lies and contradictions of those in power open a space that journalism must fill. My objectives are not political, but journalistic, even if we are a newspaper with a clear centre-left leaning. As there is now also a right-wing press, the pluralism of newspapers is wide. Then there are dailies and weeklies that by ownership are part of the Berlusconi world, that is, a system that puts together government, party, agenda and media. Again, something that is unheard of elsewhere in the Western world.

EW: With regards to the Feltri/Fini case: do you think the stance that Il Giornale is taking with regards to house speaker Fini's actions is appropriate for a newspaper?

EM: It is a case of character assassination, as everybody has said... This attack is a punishment and a warning, making us understand the risks we should not take. Journalism, as is evident, is nothing to do with it.

EW: Is there a fear that a type of self-censorship amongst journalists could arise as a result of the threat of prosecution?

The threat of multi-million euro lawsuits brought by the richest, most powerful man in the country certainly is a form of intimidation. But attention: much more intimidating is blackmail and threats of the political-journalistic 'kombinat' using 'dossiers', invented on anonymous pieces of paper (the Boffo case) maybe even the use of secret service bombs. A frightened power wants to spread the fear, and for this he uses his newspapers. But a question arises: can you govern a democracy in the heart of Europe in 2009 by substituting policy with 'dossiers', authoritativeness with intimidation, leadership with threats and blackmail?

EW: As well as the petition on your paper's website, what action does La Repubblica intend to take in the coming weeks to raise awareness of the situation?

EM: We will inform. Report the news. Ask questions. What journalists in 'normal' countries do.

EW: Have you come across or do you expect expressions of solidarity from other Italian or European newspapers?

EM: I have read expressions of solidarity and awareness of the Italian case on the part of editors of European newspapers, all the most important, even if I have not spoken with any of them (except the editors of El Pais and Liberation during a forum in Lyon last week). Nothing else.

EW: How has the conflict with the prime minister affected La Repubblica's readership?

EM: The number of readers has grown considerably in the last three or four months. Emails and letters have also been flooding in.

EW: Assuming that there is a press freedom problem in Italy, what steps do you think must be taken to resolve it?

EM: It is necessary to resolve the conflict of interest of the head of state, to free the television system from the influence of all parties, and to ask the government to respond to public opinion. He might be able to get away with not replying to a single newspaper, but to the problems that he raises, and to the questions, he must answer.

EW: Your paper is being sued by the prime minister. Do you think he will be successful?

EM: No, I don't believe so.  

Thirty-five top universities in the US have announced that they will feed their own accounts of their scientific discoveries to Internet news sites, prompted by concerns that scientific and medical journalism are suffering considerably due to news outlets' economic problems, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The founding universities are Duke, Stanford and the University of Rochester.

Their new website, Futurity, showcases content, inviting visitors to "discover the future" via "news from leading research universities." The site boasts four different sections: Earth & Environment, Health & Medicine, Science & Design and Society & Culture. Content from the various universities is submitted to Futurity's editor at Rochester.