From the BBC:

An annual survey of media freedom has reported a mixed picture in East Asia - with some losses and some gains.

The US-based Freedom House organisation says China tightened some restrictions in 2007, but also tolerated more investigative journalism into cases of official corruption.

The report noted gains last year in Thailand and Malaysia, but said Vietnam and Laos continue to fare poorly.

It ranked North Korea as the world's most restricted media environment.

Here's Freedom House's Freedom of the Press 2008 Survey Release.

You can find Freedom House's findings on Canada on page 40 of the Draft Country Reports.

Canada scored 18, the U.S. 17. Finland and Iceland, the media freedom havens, scored nine each.

In comparison, Turkmenistan scored 96, Uzbekistan 92. But if you crave media freedom, North Korea is not the place for you. It scored 98, the worst ranking of any country in the world.

This morning, I got a chance to interview BBC journalist Alan Johnston -- someone I thought I'd never meet in person. Someone that I thought at some points would probably not survive his captivity last year at the hand of militant Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

Anyway, after I was done with the official questions, I let it slip that I had blogged extensively about his case, from the time he went missing until he was freed and beyond (if you don't believe me, look here). I even had up the "Free Alan Johnston" button on my blog.

At this news, his pupils dilated and his body jolted. And then his face broke out in a big smile, and he said, "Oh! Thank you so much!"

Here's another snippet from my CTV.ca story. The set-up is that Johnston's captors gave him a radio, and through that, he was able to hear messages from Brian Keenan and Terry Waite, two fellow Britons who had spent years as hostages in Lebanon in the late 1980s:

"Brian Keenan said things I desperately wanted to hear at that time. He said, 'Hundreds of thousands of people are lighting a candle for you. We are waiting, and we shall not walk away.' And I paced up and down my cell, repeating that again and again and again."

Needless to say, I'm gratified to learn of his obvious and genuine gratitude (almost 10 months after the fact) for what little I did.

If you ever signed the online petition, blogged about Johnston's case in your own little patch of cyberspace -- or even just read about him here and sent him a silent good wish -- I'm sure he'd shake your hand and thank you as well (he seemed like a very decent fellow).

There's a lot of nastiness and injustice in the world, and it can be overwhelming. But when you see a case that strikes a chord with you, please don't stay silent about it. You might never get cross paths with the person you're trying to help, get a direct thanks or even have them learn about your efforts, but I'm sure they will be grateful all the same.

From CTV.ca:

For BBC journalist Alan Johnston, his time as a captive in the Gaza Strip reminds him of the adage that freedom is like air -- you only really notice it when it's gone.

"I had taken everyday freedoms of life completely for granted, as we all do, and I only really noticed their catastrophic loss when they were gone," he told CTV.ca on Wednesday.

"It's a sad thing, but I think you have to have been a prisoner of some kind, your freedom has to have been taken from you completely, for you to completely understand its importance and value and beauty."

From al-Jazeera.net:

Turkish legislators are debating a proposal to soften a law restricting freedom of speech that has been used to prosecute several writers.
 
A vote on the proposed amendment to Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which bars insults to the Turkish identity or the country's institutions, is expected on Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The ruling party, which proposed the change, has a majority in the 550-seat parliament and the amendment is expected to pass.

Turkey says close to 7,000 people have been prosecuted under that law and its precursor since 2003, including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize winner.
 
A total of 745 were convicted in that period.

From the April 28 Moscow Times:

The State Duma passed in a first reading Friday a bill that would allow courts to close media outlets for publishing libelous statements, a law critics say would give authorities an additional tool to crack down on dissent.

The bill would add "dissemination of deliberately false information damaging individual honor and dignity" to the list of offenses for which a media outlet can be shut down.

Pop quiz: This bill is not related to what scurrilous recent act of reportage aimed at the personal life of a major Russian political figure?

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Tesco Lotus, a subsidiary of multinational retailer Tesco, is suing Kamol Kamoltrakul, a Thai commentator and academic for his attacks on the chain's expansion within Thailand.

Can you say "libel chill"?

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From the Globe and Mail:

The Department of National Defence has produced a guide instructing the military how to justify its arguments for censoring records requested by the public and journalists.

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Allan Johnston, who spent nearly four months in captivity in the Gaza Strip, is speaking out on what he sees as a dangerous climate for press freedom.

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A tale of sorcery, black magic and loss -- either real or imagined -- from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Read on ... if you dare.

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From CBC.ca:

Charges have been dropped against an Australian TV comedy troupe who crashed last year's APEC summit posing as Canadians.

Eleven cast and crew from satirical show The Chaser's War on Everything were charged with breaching a security zone in connection with the prank.

The comedy team got close to U.S. President George W. Bush's hotel by flying the Maple Leaf and claiming to be a Canadian motorcade.

They were found out when Chaser team member Chas Licciardello climbed out of a car dressed as Osama bin Laden.

Sarah Fulford is the 33-year-old editorial boss of Toronto Life magazine, long considered to be somewhat Rosedaleian in its preoccupations.

So what's with the new emphasis on topics near and dear to 20 and 30-somethings?

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From the Guardian blurb: He quit his job to continue covering the Afghanistan conflict, got shot during an ambush but went back again six months later. Photojournalist John D McHugh explains why he has returned once more.

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From the NYT:

With print revenue down and online revenue growing, newspaper executives are anticipating the day when big city dailies and national papers will abandon their print versions.

That day has arrived in Madison, Wis.

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Barry Bearak of the New York Times dishes on his four days in incarceration while trying to cover the elections in Zimbabwe.

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From the Globe and Mail:

Russia's super-rich love to flaunt their wealth. Soon they will have a magazine called Snob to help them.

Mikhail Prokhorov - whose wealth is estimated at about $22-billion - plans to spend $150-million setting up a magazine, website and television station called Snob, the general director of the new venture told Reuters this week.

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From the Globe and Mail:

Dozens of amateur videos and photographs, willingly provided by an outraged public, have helped police in Montreal make fresh arrests in the wake of Monday's hockey riot.

In a modern twist on the age-old art of snitching, citizens are e-mailing photos, offering amateur videos and turning to police websites to help investigators identify individuals involved in the downtown fracas.

Police credit public co-operation for boosting the number of riot-related arrests yesterday to 23.

For example, police posted six new photos of rioters on a department website yesterday, some showing vandals damaging a police car. All were provided by people mixed in with the throngs of revellers marking the Canadiens' first-round playoff series victory.

RSF.org is reporting that Russian authorities kicked the Globe and Mail's Jane Armstrong out of Chechnya a week ago, purportedly for not having her papers in order.

Here's the news release.

(h/t to Canadian Journalist)

From Globe and Mail Update:

In a report titled Food Inflation: Coming to a Grocery Store Near You, (CIBC World Markets economist Avery) Shenfeld noted that while consumers are seeing higher costs of grain prices in food such as bakery products and pasta, that has been offset by stable or falling prices for other products, partly because of the strong Canadian dollar.

“Even relative to our closest neighbour, food prices have been remarkably tame in the last year,” Mr. Shenfeld said. “But after looking at what's behind that exceptional gap, it's clear that Canada's good luck on food prices is likely to run out in 2009.”

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From the BBC:

Israel has sentenced a soldier to 19 days in jail for uploading a photograph taken on his military base to the social networking website, Facebook.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the nature of the image, but said the soldier was serving with an elite intelligence unit.

Local media say it is the first such conviction for an Israeli soldier.

The case follows widespread reports about the potential security risk of soldiers posting photos on the web.

From CTV.ca:

Police in Montreal showed up at various newsrooms in the city, armed with warrants for the seizure of video footage of Monday night's riot.

News organizations, including CTV Montreal, will challenge the seizure in court. The CTV station handed over its riot footage, but placed the two DVDs in a sealed envelope. It has asked the envelope remain sealed until a judge rules on the matter. The station also filed a letter of protest.

Disclosure: I work for CTV.ca News

The police visited a total of 10 newsrooms.

The CAJ, moral paragon that it is, reared up on its hind legs and bleated about this issue.

The new owners of TQS, a Quebec television network, wants to get out of the news business. The move, if okayed by the CRTC, would throw 270 people out of work.

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From AP via CTV.ca:

In a move combining user-created online encyclopedias with the printed page, Germany's Bertelsmann AG will publish what could be the first in a series of annual yearbooks whose content is derived from the many hundreds of thousands of user-created entries on Wikipedia.

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Once upon a time, branding is all that mattered for those advertising online. Now, as the U.S. economy tightens, advertisers want clicks converted into actual business.

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Don Cherry just made no apologies about being pro-Boston Bruins in his commentary on that team's NHL playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens.