Seen in the Washington Post: "Saddam Hussein's information minister, Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf is now a broadcast correspondent in Abu Dhabi. Often referred to in the Western press as "Baghdad Bob," he was interviewed when the U.S. military took control if Iraq but was not held. "He wasn't wanted for anything. Unfortunately, being a bad spokesman is not a crime," a U.S. official said."

Source: Washington Post

Well done by BBC news and today by the Sunday Times (UK): "In his first interview since his release, Mordechai Vanunu, the former technician jailed for 18 years for leaking Israel's nuclear secrets has said he was trying to prevent a nuclear holocaust. "I felt it was not about betraying; it was about reporting. It was about saving Israel from a new holocaust." In the interview for the BBC's This World programme, Mr Vanunu said he had no regrets over his actions. "I have no regrets despite the fact I have paid a heavy punishment, a large price," he said. Mr Vanunu, 50, who is widely regarded as a traitor in Israel, spent nearly 18 years in prison for revealing details of Israel's clandestine nuclear arms programme. Under the terms of his release, Mr Vanunu is forbidden from leaving Israel, meeting foreigners and revealing secrets about the Dimona nuclear plant.

The interview was conducted by Israeli journalist and anti-nuclear activist Yael Lotan. She said an Israeli TV crew and Vanunu's brother were present during the two-hour interview at St. George, an Anglican church in Jerusalem. Vanunu converted to Christianity in the 1980s, and has been staying at the church since his release.

Lotan said a transcript of the interview is to be published in the Sunday Times (UK).

"The new editor of USA Today has been named as Kenneth A. Paulson, the executive director of the First Amendment Center and a former top editor at the Gannett Company chain, writes Jacques Steinberg at The New York Times. This comes as a surprise as Kenneth A. Paulson was not one of the four candidates to be shortlisted. After the Kelley scandal, the new USAT editor said he wanted to attack "virus of fear."

According to the article in The New York Times "Mr. Paulson is a former executive editor at Florida Today as well as at Gannett's chain of newspapers in Westchester County, N.Y. From 1986 to 1988, he was special assistant and chief of staff to Allen H. Neuharth, the founder of USA Today and, at that time, the chairman of Gannett. Mr. Paulson assisted the start-up of USA Today in 1982 while being on loan from another Gannett paper, the Courier-News of Bridgewater, N.J. He is also a senior vice president of the Freedom Forum, a nonprofit foundation led initially by Mr. Neuharth and known for its museum of journalism, the Newseum. For the last seven years, he has also worked for the First Amendment Center, a nonprofit foundation financed by the Freedom Forum." USA Today has also appointed John Hillkirk, managing editor of its Money section, to the position of executive editor. The newspaper has also made additional editorial appointments. Source: The New York Times

If you are interested in gaining more knowledge of the state of the press in Hungary, soon to join the EU, this really is an excellent article by the BBC. It provides a short synopsis on the country's most popular newspapers and the current state of the industry. The BBC site also features similar information for the Czech Republic and Poland, two other countries that will join the EU on Saturday. Although Romania is not one of the ten countries set to join the EU, there is an in-depth article on the state of the nation's press, which features on the Reporters Without Borders website.

Source: BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation, the world's biggest public broadcaster, has for the first time chosen an Arab to head its Arabic news service, the 42-year-old appointee, Hosam Sokkari said. After graduating from Cairo university with a degree in pharmacy, Sokkari decided on a career in journalism, working first as a cartoonist in Egypt, Germany and Finland. He began working for the BBC in 1994 as a presenter and producer in the Arabic division before moving for a few months to the Dubai-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera in 1996. Three years after returning to the corporation, Sokkari was chosen to run the BBC's Arabic internet operation becoming an award-winning editor of BBCArabic.com.

Source: AFP

"The right to get it wrong only makes sense, though, if reporters who muff stories acknowledge the errors and their publications recall the pieces" said Jack Shafer, Slate magazine in a story called "The Right To Be Wrong... And the elephant in the New York Times newsroom." It's one of these numerous articles written after the Blair and Kelley scandals. For instance, Jack Shafer asked: "if The New York Times was willing to admit repeated mistakes in its coverage of the Wen Ho Lee case, then why have they remained silent on Judith Miller's many mistakes in reporting on Iraq?

Source: Slate

The New York-based Freedom House watchdog group has accussed press freedom around the world of deteriorating for a second year running in 2003. The organization's report is based on print, broadcast, and Internet freedom around the world and assigns each country to one of three categories: Free, Partly Free, or Not Free. Ten countries, which include, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Moldova, Morocco, and the Philippines -- declined in their category. "Fewer and fewer people throughout the world have uncensored and unfettered access to information about their own countries," Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said in a statement. Its a good idea to have a look at the Freedom House website, which offers in-depth results for the countries which have changed in their category and charts on the global trends that have occurred.

Source: Freedom House press release and Freedom House website

The New Zealand Herald writes "two Japanese held hostage in Iraq earlier this month criticised domestic media on Tuesday for echoing a government stance that blamed the captives and their families for putting Japan's military mission in Iraq at risk." Nobutaka Watanabe, a former member of Japan's military is quoted as saying "there is a tendency in Japan's media and all of Japanese society to go along with the government."

According to the article party politicians and officials had insisted the hostages take "personal responsibility" for their acts. "Weekly magazines and some mainstream media also leapt into the debate, with one tabloid even suggesting the first three hostages had staged their kidnapping -- seen in a video aired on nationwide television -- to force Koizumi to recall the troops" writes the article. Also take a look at this article by Keiko Mori, published in the Japan Media Review, which focuses on the subject in more depth and highlights how media law professor Takaaki Hattori has accused the government of making a "forceful request for self-censorship when it comes to news in Iraq." Source: The New Zealand Herald, Reuters and Japan Media Review

Its interesting to read in this article by Syed Zarir Hussain at OneWorld South Asia, who writes that the newspaper industry in India's north-eastern state of Manipur is 'booming.' According to the article new journals and dailies are "regularly hitting the stands, even though journalism is a high-risk profession here." The state is seeing particularly strong growth in English and other dailies, which are published in several local dialects.

"In the last year alone, at least two new dailies hit the stands, taking the total number of newspapers published from Manipur to about 30." It also seems that the quality of newspapers and their stories are improving, according to the article a local journalist is quoted as saying "now there are very few instances of a story being blown out of proportion or distorted, and a great sense of professionalism has crept into the state's newspaper industry." It seems that both Egypt and India's north eastern state of Manipur are witnessing significant growth within their newspaper industries. Source: OneWorld South Asia

The CPU (Commonwealth Press Union) is to hold its next Biennial Conference and Senior Editors' Forum in February 2005. The forum will run from the 20th of February to the 22nd of February, with the conference running from the 23rd of February to the 25th of February. According to the CPU website the forum "offers editors the opportunity to meet their peers, discuss issues of mutual concern and take home new ideas and alternative ways of improving their business and solving their problems." The conference is designed to involve high ranking editors, publishers and media practitioners and the aim is to "encourage debate on the issues of the day and review strategies for development." More information about the organization and its events can be found on the CPU website.

Source: CPU April 2004 newsletter and CPU website

"Egypt is experiencing an expansion in privately owned media outlets and breaking down years of state control" writes Alaa Shahine for Al-Jazeera. It looks as though this could be a positive time for private newspapers in Egypt as the private sector is also attempting to compete with dominant state-owned print media. Two new daily newspapers will launch in May. The first, Nahdit Misr - Egypt's Renaissance - is owned by Adib's Good News group, while the second, al-Masri, is reportedly owned by a group of businessmen including Dream TV's Bahjat. Lets wait and see whether these new titles will prove a success and significantly change the landscape of Egyptian press.

Source: Al-Jazeera