The family of American journalist Marie Colvin, who died in Syria in 2012, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a US court, accusing the Syrian government of deliberately killing her.

Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement are to face trial, along with three people accused of leaking them the information.

Italy’s Hacking Team, which makes surveillance software used by governments to police the web, appears to be the victim of hacking on a grand scale itself.

Yesterday’s deadly attack on the offices of a Paris magazine exposes not just the horrors of extreme religious fundamentalism but the paucity of moderate Islamic voices.

A journalist from a local television network in Iraq has been killed by the Islamic State group.

At least 65 journalists have been killed since the Syrian conflict began and kidnappings are rife. Former war reporter Janine di Giovanni writes about the risks involved in filing from the frontline.

The WikiLeaks leader has impugned the reputations of two member states, says Ana Palacio

Burma yesterday abolished direct media censorship, the latest dramatic reform by its quasi-civilian regime, but journalists face other formidable restrictions including a ban on private daily newspapers and a pervasive culture of self-censorship.

A French TV journalist said today she was punched and roughed up, then sexually assaulted while covering protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square.

A media watchdog has advised news organisations to stop sending women to Egypt after two reports of sex attacks on female journalists.

Four New York Times journalists, including a Briton, have been reported missing while covering the fighting in Libya.

AROUND the world, the news went out: Plane accident in Zimbabwe, black smoke on runway, ambulances screaming in.

Emergency rule was imposed on two Philippine provinces today as security forces found more bodies from one of the worst incidents of election violence in the nation’s history, taking the death toll to 46.

IRELAND has the greatest press freedom in the world, according to an independent index of journalism around the globe.

Tens of thousands of people, including journalists and media rights activists, gathered in a Rome square today to defend press freedom, accusing premier Silvio Berlusconi of trying to silence critical voices.

An international human rights group said an Iranian family only learned of the death of their 19-year-old son weeks after he was shot during a demonstration against the country’s disputed presidential election.

SUPPORTERS of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defeated challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi staged rival rallies yesterday, while the clerical regime said it would recount some disputed ballots from the presidential election.

An international media rights group has renewed a call for the release of two American reporters held in North Korea for the past month, as the US State Department said diplomats were continuing work to win their release.

Sri Lanka’s president today urged the Tamil Tiger rebels to allow the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the northern war zone to flee to safety following reports of heavy casualties among non-combatants stuck in the shrinking territory.

China has resumed blocking access to the internet sites of some foreign media, including the BBC, human rights groups said today.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics next month, his office said today.

Riot police, protesters and Chinese well-wishers converged on Nagano in central Japan today as the embattled Beijing Olympic torch arrived on one of its final international stops before moving on to China.

The Olympic flame arrived in Japan today for the next leg of the global torch relay amid tight security, with human rights groups expected to stage protests against China’s crackdown on Tibet.

Egyptian authorities detained at least nine Egyptian photographers and cameramen today after economic riots erupted earlier this week, a security official said.

Around 3,000 French police on motorcycles, in jogging gear and on skates will protect the Olympic torch relay today as it departs from the Eiffel Tower and criss-crosses Paris amid threats of pro-Tibet protests.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called today for “restraint” in Tibet, and offered France as a go-between in any new talks between China and the representatives of the Dalai Lama.

China pledged strict security measures to ensure its segment of the Beijing Olympics torch relay will not be marred by protests similar to the one at today’s lighting ceremony in Greece.

A journalist with state-run Russian television has been found dead in a Moscow apartment with a belt around his neck and numerous stab wounds.

Russians complained today about being pressured to vote, with some saying their ballots were already filled out for President Vladimir Putin’s party and others reporting cash bribes, election watchdogs said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned an attempt by a French group to spirit more than 100 children out of Chad on the grounds that they were orphans from Darfur in danger of being killed.

WITH all internal media controlled by the state, the internet is one of the last routes left for getting eyewitness reports from inside Burma.

Angelina Jolie insisted reporters sign an agreement not to ask questions about her "personal relationships" at the premiere of A Mighty Heart last night - despite the event doubling as a freedom of the press benefit.

Security guards at the Palestinian parliament today scuffled with a crowd of Palestinian journalists who were demonstrating in support of kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, pushing back reporters and beating two of them with rifle butts.

FRANCE’S Interior Ministry last night defended a new law that makes it illegal for anyone other than professional journalists to film and distribute images of real-world violence, saying judges will ensure that the measure does not infringe freedom of expression.

France's Interior Ministry today defended a new law that makes it illegal for anyone other than professional journalists to film and distribute images of real-world violence.

An Egyptian blogger went on trial today on charges of insulting Islam and inciting sectarian strife for his Internet writing criticising Muslim authorities and the Egyptian government, his lawyer and court officials said.

Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich today received the EU’s top human rights award – the Sakharov Prize – in recognition of his fight for democracy in the ex-Soviet republic.

A Pakistani reporter for the BBC said he was released today by unknown men in the capital, Islamabad, a day after they abducted, blindfolded and beat him.

A global media rights group expressed concern that a missing Pakistani journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation may have been abducted.

An Associated Press photographer was released late tonight after a harrowing day in the hands of Palestinian gunmen who abducted him at gunpoint in Gaza - the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreigners in the chaotic area.

Somalia's Islamic radicals closed down a second radio station today, just days after introducing strict new laws for the media in the war ravaged country.

The United States has stopped press access to Guantanamo Bay as the prison comes under renewed criticism for the apparent suicides of three detainees last weekend.

Nine bombs exploded across Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa today, killing three and injuring more than 42, in what police call a co-ordinated attempt to discredit the government.