Full Coverage: Information & media

19.06.2006 Journal writers are masters of half-truths and distortion that goes along the the paper's policy of being hostile to any government not in line with the neoliberal Washington Consensus (wreaking havoc wherever it spreads) and not fully subservient to US wishes.

14.06.2006 Fouad Riaz Bajwa, the Head of the FOSS Foundation of Pakistan, sent and open letter to all concerned global FOSS Bodies, ICT stakeholders & UN-GAID, protesting the selection of members of UN-GAID Council and Committees. During the process, the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Movement was completely ignored.

14.06.2006 Zambia's approaching general elections have increased pressure on the government to enact the Freedom of Information bill, more than three years after it was withheld for "wider consultation".

12.06.2006 APC condemns the unjust detention of free speech bloggers and journalists in Egypt. Alaa Seif Al-Islam, a seasoned blogger and APC colleague, is one of four Egyptian online diarists being held in detention for criticising the current regime since May 7. In addition, APC has heard disturbing reports about violent actions taken by state security against several of the bloggers who were released from custody last week, only to be subsequently re-arrested. Authorities prevented human rights lawyers from visiting the bloggers who had been beaten and tortured on Thursday May 25.

08.06.2006 The Pakistan Press Foundation reports that the government has once again banned Blogspot in the country. The Pakistani government banned the site after receiving an order from the Supreme Court because of the controversy related to the prophet.

07.06.2006 The World Disasters Report is an annual publication of the IFRC. World Disasters Report 2005 focuses on the role of information in disasters, also shedding some light on the sharing of information for tsunami recovery in South Asia.

05.06.2006 Police have shut down 87 FM radio stations which were operating illegally from religious seminaries and mosques in various districts of the NWFP, officials said on May 22. Law-enforcement officials said they had shut down the radio stations after conducting joint raids with representatives of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on seminaries and mosques.

02.06.2006 In spite of the decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia, the Security and Information Agency (BIA) didn’t provide, within the legal deadline, the number of people whose communications it wiretapped in 2005, says the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.