Washington, United States | AFP | Jimmy Breslin, a brash, colorful award-winning reporter and newspaper columnist who took on the high and mighty and championed the underdog, died Sunday at the age of 88. His wife Ronnie Eldridge confirmed his death, The New York Times reported. Breslin had been recovering …
Read More »Tanzanian TV journalists suspended over fake Trump news
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP | A top Tanzanian television presenter has been suspended, along with eight fellow employees of the main state-run channel, for relaying fake news in which US President Donald Trump praised his Tanzanian counterpart. In the fake news item, run this weekend, Trump describes Tanzania’s President …
Read More »Shuttered: EU ditches summit ‘family photo’
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The EU has ditched the traditional “family photo” of leaders at Brussels summits as it seeks a more modern image for the bloc, European sources said. Until the end of last year, the 28 European Union leaders gathering for their regular meetings would pose together …
Read More »Gambian journalists pressure govt after attack on reporter
Banjul, Gambia | AFP | Journalists in The Gambia on Tuesday urged the country’s new leadership to uphold their pledge to respect media freedom after a violent public assault on a reporter by President Adama Barrow’s supporters. Kebba Jeffang, a journalist for Foroyaa newspaper, was hit, scratched and insulted at …
Read More »South Africa weighs social media measures to fight fake news
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s state security minister said Sunday the government is considering a move to regulate social media in an effort to curb the proliferation of what he described as “false” information. “The false narrative in the social media, it’s one of the challenges that …
Read More »Zimbabwe journalists arrested over ‘in bad shape’ Mugabe health report
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Two Zimbabwean journalists were arrested Friday over a newspaper report that described President Robert Mugabe as “in bad shape” when he flew to Singapore for what officials called a scheduled medical check-up. Editor of independent newspaper NewsDay Wisdom Mudzungairi and journalist Richard Chidza were released …
Read More »President Oprah? Winfrey doesn’t rule out 2020 run
Washington, United States | AFP | Media mogul Oprah Winfrey did not say she was running for president, but she didn’t rule it out either, raising the unlikely prospect of a titanic celebrity-on-celebrity duel with Donald Trump in 2020. In an interview with Bloomberg TV that aired Wednesday, host David …
Read More »Trump to skip correspondents’ dinner, a first in 36 years
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump has ratcheted up his feud with the US media by announcing he will skip the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, the first US president to do so in 36 years. By boycotting the event Trump breaks a tradition that began in 1921 …
Read More »White House restrictions on media trigger outcry
Washington, United States | AFP | On the campaign trail and in office, Donald Trump has made attacking the press one of his political trademarks. But by restricting the access of certain media, his White House took things one step further, triggering an outcry. The New York Times, the Los …
Read More »White House accused of picking media favorites
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump’s White House barred several major US media outlets from a daily press briefing Friday, raising accusations of favoritism. The White House excluded some outlets that have provided critical coverage like CNN and the New York Times from an off-camera event that …
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