Needless to say, the editorial boards of the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail were pleased with the Supreme Court ruling in the Rafe Mair case.

From CP via CTV.ca:

Sources say former lobbyist and Reform party activist Kory Teneycke is the prime minister's new communications director.

Highly placed sources tell The Canadian Press that Teneycke will take over Monday from Sandra Buckler, who announced her resignation June 26.

As executive director of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, Teneycke launched a national ad campaign last year praising Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally for assisting the industry.

However, the article said Teneycke moved on from that gig to a job in the Tories' research bureau, providing talking points to MPs and ammo with which to attack the opposition.

So sayeth Joshua Micah Marshall, founder of the liberal U.S. political blog Talking Points Memo, and the winner of a prestigious Polk award for his coverage of the firing of eight U.S. federal attorneys.

In 1993, author Michael Crichton had a seminal commentary published in Wired magazine (he also delivered the message in a speech at the U.S. National Press Club in Washington). He might have had the timing off, but his analysis is worth revisiting, considering the industry's recent troubles.

This page at Registan.net has photos (where available) and thumbnail sketches of journalists murdered over the past decade in Russia and other former republics of the Soviet Union.

A sample listing:

Alisher Saipov, 10/24/2007. Reporting in Uzbek from Kyrgyzstan and smuggling papers into Uzbekistan, he was gunned down for a reported $10,000 bounty. He had said he was disappointed it was so small.

The page also offers this qualifier:

It is worth remembering these are only those journalists who were unlucky enough to be murdered for their work. It does not include the further dozens upon dozens who have been physically assaulted and/or imprisoned.

Sadly, the page needs updating. :(

NYT journalist Timothy Egan on what might be the end result of the decline and possible fall of serious newspapers in the United States. From the NYT's Outpost blog (July 2):

We could be left with a national snark brigade, sniping at the remaining dailies in their pajamas, never rubbing shoulders with a cop, a defense attorney or a distressed family in a Red Cross shelter after a flood.

My lament this Fourth of July is to ask readers to see newspapers as not just another casualty in the churn of business. Sure, reporters say stupid things and write idiotic stories. Everyone stumbles. But on its best days, a newspaper is a marvel of style and wit, of small-type discoveries and large-type overstatements, a diary of our deeds.

We may still prove Jefferson’s preference wrong: perhaps a nation can function without newspapers. But it would be a confederacy of dunces.

From the BBC (July 1):

Israel has denied allegations by a journalist from Gaza that he was injured by Israeli security personnel.

Mohammed Omer says he was detained for four hours as he crossed from Jordan into the occupied West Bank on 26 June.

Afterwards, Israeli officers summoned a Palestinian ambulance to take Mr Omer to hospital in the West Bank.

Mr Omer emailed the BBC the following day, saying he had "difficulty in breathing and pain in my chest" because of the treatment he received.

He is now back in Gaza, where hospital doctors have diagnosed several broken ribs. They also say Mr Omer suffered a nervous breakdown.

The journalist, 24, was returning from London, where he had received the Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism. He has also contributed to the BBC news website.

From the BBC:

It is exactly two months since Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, causing widespread death and devastation.

In a country that has been under military rule since 1962 and controls almost all aspects of the media, it was a huge challenge to report on the aftermath of this disaster.

BBC journalists who managed to get into Burma either had to enter secretly, or pretend to be tourists and report undercover.

They shared their experiences of reporting in such difficult conditions for the BBC World Service's Assignment programme.

I'm standing late Thursday evening at the intersection of Queens Quay and Lower Simcoe Street, waiting for a Spadina streetcar to take me towards Queen St.

Suddenly, a rodent-like creature zooms off the sidewalk and into the intersection.

"Is that a rat?" someone asked.

"Nope, it's a ferret," I said.

The ferret looked dazed and confused. It darted here and there, back and forth -- and came perilously close to meeting its end underneath an eastbound streetcar. If not for the quick reflexes and instinct to preserve life of a few cabdrivers, it could have died under their wheels too.

People gasped with each near miss and applauded in relief when the ferret finally spotted a break in the crowd and made a mad dash for safety on the south sidewalk.