From the Feb. 11 BBC:

Calcutta Muslims in a 2006 protest against Prophet Muhammad cartoons

The editor and publisher of a top English-language Indian daily have been arrested on charges of "hurting the religious feelings" of Muslims.

The Statesman's editor Ravindra Kumar and publisher Anand Sinha were detained in Calcutta after complaints.

Muslims said they were upset with the Statesman for reproducing an article from the UK's Independent daily in its 5 February edition.

The article was entitled: "Why should I respect these oppressive religions?"*

* Published in the Independent on Jan. 28.

It concerns the erosion of the right to criticise religions.

In it, the author, Johann Hari, writes: "I don't respect the idea that we should follow a 'Prophet' who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn't follow him."

The article has triggered protests by Muslims in front of the newspaper's offices.

Kumar told the BBC he has apologized for running the commentary.

From the Feb. 11 Globe and Mail:

The federal Heritage Minister says he'd consider allowing advertising on CBC Radio to help the broadcaster deal with revenue issues, but the CBC itself denies it has plans to place commercials on its radio services.

"Airing ads on CBC Radio is not being currently considered," CBC corporate spokesman Marco Dubé said yesterday, adding the CBC expects to have a balanced budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year ending March 31.

However, speaking to the Heritage Subcommittee on Monday, Heritage Minister James Moore acknowledged during questioning that he isn't ruling out any option that could help the CBC or any other broadcasters, all of which are facing challenging economic times.

From the Globe and Mail:

A group of Manitoba native chiefs is urging that hate charges be filed against the CBC for what it called “racist and hateful” comments posted on the broadcaster's website.

The Southern Chiefs Organization, which represents dozens of bands in Manitoba, made the allegations yesterday after a year-long study of several online news sites.

While the chiefs are targeting CBC, their charges have potentially far-reaching implications.

The issue of who is responsible for comments posted on online message boards remains a legal grey area in Canada and affects virtually every media outlet in the country.

Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank has turned to a trusted associated to head Canada's largest newspaper newsroom -- Michael Cooke, currently the editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, but whose professional relationship with Cruickshank stretches back a long ways.

A few thoughts on how Twitter helped distribute information about the flooding at Union station on Wednesday night -- and how it didn't. Where it fell down was in the absence of citizen reportage.