Free Republic

Hong Kong “elected” a new chief while the world wasn’t paying attention. Hong Kong’s current chief Carrie Lam will retire at the end of June. The selection of her successor has followed the rules Beijing dictated since it took control of Hong Kong in 1997. Beijing stamped out any hope of universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2004. Rather than letting more than 7 million residents in Hong Kong have a say in whom the city’s chief should be, Beijing created a “nomi­nating committee” (which has more than 1,400 members today), the majority of which are pro-Beijing elites. The committee...

The Obama White House’s war against leaks, and its penchant for secrecy and noted lack of transparency, are the worst “since the Nixon administration,” according to a major new study that relied on interviews from leading Washington reporters and news organization chiefs. The report, released Thursday by the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ), found that reporters from many renowned media outlets consider the Obama administration the most closed-off in recent memory, and that there is not “any precedent” for its often hostile relationship toward the press.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government's aggressive prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information are having a chilling effect on journalists and government whistle-blowers, according to a report released Thursday on U.S. press freedoms under the Obama administration.

PARIS (Reuters) – The United States and Israel, despite their democratic credentials, fall down badly in their respect for press freedoms in conflict zones, a media group said on Wednesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the U.S. had slipped to 119th in respect of press freedoms outside its own territory in an annual ranking of more than 160 countries, from a joint ranking at 111 in its previous annual report. Israel, whose armed forces killed a Palestinian journalist this year for the first time since 2003, was 149th on the list for press freedoms beyond its frontiers, compared with...

note: Translated from original source Picture appearing in the official, and only, national newspaper in Cuba The communist party’s paper GRANMA - December 4, 2003 Edition: By Claudia Márquez Linares – Independent Cuban Journalist in Cuba HAVANA, in December (www.cubanet.org) - My teacher of journalism, Puerto Rican Ruth Merino, would always repeat that rumors are not news. Her affirmation forced me to ignore the daily gossip among Cubans, the aptitude to exaggerate everything, and the intelligence to perceive in official statements when something looks bad. But during this month of December in Cuba the rumor has come to reach its...