The Associated Press had to retract a story from an India-based stringer that had Paris Hilton reportedly blathering about the need for action on drunken elephants in rural northern India. The chain of sourcing on the quote is something to behold.

On May 18, 1966, a real bomb detonated inside Parliament Hill's Centre Block, killing the man who wanted to detonate it in the House of Commons.

Six months later, five Carleton University students -- Mike Steinberg, Al Kaufman, David Balcon,Victor Nerenberg and John Hanlon -- decided to test Parliament Hill's security by trying to smuggle tape recorders into the Commons' public galleries. They succeeded and managed to make an unauthorized audio recording. In the process, they found out that Hansard is somewhat sanitized.

Veteran radio journalist Hanlon -- formerly with CBC in Alberta; now with NHK in Japan -- recalls the story and reaction in this Oct. 20 Ottawa Citizen story:

Blog reader John Hanlon reminded me of this graf from a BBC story about Spanish cartoonists getting spanked for making fun of a royal there:

In Romania, a law has just been passed which exposes journalists to the risk of seven years in jail if they publish video footage taken secretly of politicians taking bribes. It follows a case in which film of a government minister accepting a secret cash payment was shown on TV, leading to his resignation.

Here's some other stuff that I didn't highlight the first time, but is worth noting:

In France, a newspaper expose written during this year's presidential election campaign, revealing that Cecilia Sarkozy - the then wife of winning candidate Nicolas Sarkozy - failed to cast her vote, was removed on orders from the newspaper's owner, a close associate of the new President.

In Turkey, the infamous Article 301 of the criminal code makes it an offence punishable by jail terms to insult the armed forces or those in positions of high office.

Criminal prosecutions

Turkish officials insist that similar laws protecting the holders of high offices of state also exist in France and other Western countries.

But a Turkish legal expert explained the difference: "It's like the laws in some American states that still ban oral sex between married couples", he said. "They exist on paper but are no longer used!"