Attacks on Journalists are State Policy in Oaxaca, Editor Says MEXICO& Others:

MEXICO
Attacks on Journalists are State Policy in Oaxaca, Editor Says

"Independent journalism has become impossible" in the southern state, where critics of the state government are persecuted and repressed, writes Carlos Velasco Molina, editor of El Correo de Oaxaca, in a story published by La Jornada.

Velasco Molina's house was attacked with a Molotov cocktail last week, causing no injuries but sparking a small fire inside, El Universal adds.

The editor says Oaxaca follows a “systematic repressive policy" to silence critics and opponents of the state government. He said he will file a harassment complaint against the Oaxaca government with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and pledged that his newspaper will continue to publish.

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CANADA
Government Continues to Block Access to Information, Audit Finds

In its fourth annual audit, the Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) found that government institutions, ranging from local police forces to federal departments, continue to hinder access to public records through “excessive delays, prohibitive fees and the refusal to provide records in electronic form,” the National Post reports. The audit can be downloaded here.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC), the public broadcaster, received a "D," the worst grade of all federal institutions tested, the Post’s Andrew Mayeda says. In response to requests for a list of top employees and their salary ranges, CBC sought a six-month extension. “There’s an irony there, I guess,” CBC spokesman Jeff Keay said of a media outlet’s failure of an openness test by the media. He says the CBC became subject to the legislation in September 2007 and was unprepared for the high volume of requests. (See CBC’s story on the audit here.)

The audit involved sending 219 requests to 22 municipal governments and their police services, 10 provinces and the Yukon, and 11 federal departments, the Canadian Press explains. Students made the requests, acting as ordinary citizens.

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USA
New Web Startup Seeks to Revive Foreign News

The U.S.-based news service GlobalPost wants to restore foreign reporting for U.S. readers at a time when struggling newspapers have drastically cut foreign coverage, Reuters and AFP report.

The company, whose site went live this week, says it has assembled a team of 65 correspondents in 45 countries, and 15 staff members at its Boston headquarters. Much of the content is free, but beginning in February, readers will be charged to gain access to “premium content,” the Boston Globe reports. The company hopes to earn a profit through ad sales and subscription and syndication fees, it adds.

Co-founder Charles Sennott, a former Boston Globe correspondent, says the site will target Americans interested in international news. President and CEO Philip Balboni, a media executive who has raised US$8.2 million for the site, said GlobalPost will sell news to papers to supplement what they get from news wires, the Globe and Reuters say. However, some observers question whether newspapers that have cut staff to survive will be able to afford the new service.

GlobalPost’s regional editor for Latin America is John Dinges, a former foreign correspondent who has written three books on Latin American topics. Reporters are also based in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Venezuela


(Source:Journalism in America collaboration with Muktidooth)\