From CTV.ca:

A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced the editors of two weekly newspapers to two months in jail for harming religious feelings by reprinting offensive caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The lawyer for Jihad al-Momani, chief editor of the Shihan, and Hashim al-Khalidi, chief editor of al-Mihwar, said he would appeal the decision and that both men had been released on bail awaiting the hearing.

Both had pleaded not guilty. Al-Momani said he had published the cartoons to show readers "the extent of the Danish offence.'' Al-Khalidi said that his newspaper had reprinted them along with an article criticizing the Danish newspaper that first ran them.

Lieut. Commander Steve Tatham, former head of the British Royal Navy's Media Operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf, was involved in the media planning for Iraq invasion. He's written a book -- Losing Arab Hearts and Minds: The Coalition, Al Jazeera and Muslim Public Opinion -- and spoke about it Monday with Democracy Now!

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Cameraman Doug Vogt, who was seriously injured earlier this year in Iraq, talked about his friends with CBS who died in Iraq on Monday.

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Citizen journalism evangelist Dan Gillmor has been writing fairly regulary for the Beeb's website. This entry is actually from a few weeks ago. It's one of his responses to readers columns. This is a glum little excerpt:

Reader: Organisations that produce newspapers have an enormous head start over any new entrants because they have the skills and networks needed to provide the content. The challenge for existing media organisations and new entrants alike is in developing revenue from the web, either from subscription, sponsorship or advertising. The revenue streams may be smaller, but the distribution costs for electronic news are orders of magnitude smaller than using dead trees. Keith Dowsett, London

Dan: I agree that traditional news organizations have a built-in advantage, but they have moved with remarkable slowness. What I don't know is whether the online revenues will reach the levels that support the journalism soon enough to make up for what will be lost on the print side, even with the potential savings. The early numbers aren't encouraging.

From the BBC:

Online journalists have the same rights as traditional reporters, a Californian court has ruled.

The decision was made in a case brought by Apple against a number of reporters who published information online about a future Apple product launch.

Apple filed the lawsuit to find out the source of the reporter's information.

But judges said that online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as offline media.

"Today's decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large," said Attorney Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights organisation who have been defending the journalists.

CTV colleague David Akin reminisces about about being in the little leagues of journalism before he got a desk with a view in Ottawa. :)

William Thorsell, former editor of The Globe and Mail, calls for a wider sense of inquiry by journalists -- and defecates on traditional notions of "investigative journalism." I offer some context and rebuttal.

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A CBS cameraman and soundman are dead and a reporter seriously injured after the convoy in which they were riding was hit by an IED in central Baghdad.

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Ex-politician Jim Pankiw apologizes to reporter

Harper-media spat gets more international attention

Amnesty International & Observer fight Internet censorship

Censorship by Indigo/Chapters/Coles

 

You can find the list here.

After another grieving father blasted him, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it sound like a communications problem was behind banning the media from covering repatriation ceremony of Capt. Nichola Goddard's remains from Afghanistan.

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The Canadian Newspaper Association has produced a study that claims young people still have some time for old media forms. But there's a catch.

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Gov. Gen Michaelle Jean delivered a speech at the annual meeting of The Canadian Press, talking up the issue of journalistic responsibility.

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This CP story talks about how the PMO told the Conservative caucus to avoid comment on the coming marriage of RCMP Consts. Jason Tree and David Connors.

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismisses the PMO-PPG feud as "inside Ottawa stuff" during an appearance in Vancouver.

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Peter Donolo, former communications director for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and Michel Gratton, who held the same job for Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, will hold forth on globeandmail.com on Friday starting at noon EDT.

Update:

Thursday's globeandmail.com story on the PMO-PPG feud attracted 302 comments. A measly 217 people  commented after the Friday follow-up story. And only 97 commented on Friday after the Donolo-Gratton chat.

So I guess interest is dying down. :^)

However, the Globe also ran an editorial and two op-ed pieces: One by Jeffrey Simpson and one ny former press secretary Mark Entwhistle.

So they must figure somebody's interested in this stuff.

An NYT story looks at the current crop of college interns who head off to corporate jobs -- and then blog about what goes on behind closed doors.

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An Alternet article on the growing number of "you be the editor" news websites.

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Susan Delacourt, the Toronto Star's bureau chief, had a note to Zerby on the PMO-PPG imbroglio turned into a posting.

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Maclean's magazine columnist Paul Wells reprinted part of a late 2003 speech he gave to civil servants. You can find it here.

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Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean has a "scheduling conflict" and won't be attending this fall's Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner, CTV is reporting.

Last week, officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office indicated he might not be going. Harper, of course, is in a righteous snit with the gallery these days.

Sigh. Nobody wants to party with the pundits any more. :^)

My pal Deborah Jones blogged on the Harper-PPG controversy over at Canadian Journalist.

Here's an excerpt:

 The absurd tug of war with Canada's Prime Minister's Office is simply a part of a much bigger picture. As much as the idea appals any professional journalist, walking out of a press conference with the prime minister is the right thing to do. I'm on side with Yves Malo, a TVA reporter and president of the press gallery, who said yesterday, "We can't accept that the prime minister's office would decide who gets to ask questions . . . Does that mean that when there's a crisis they'll only call upon journalists they expect softball questions from?"
I support Malo, and say that reporters who stay and play by the prime minister's rules are betraying not just their colleagues, but our craft.