Journalists Condemn French Crackdown on Roma and Warn Over Rise of Racism The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its regional body the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today condemned a crackdown by French authorities on the country’s minority Roma community, warning that it will encourage xenophobia and intolerance. [..]

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned that a restrictive order has stopped journalists from going to report on yesterday’s deadly mudslide in north-west China. [..]

(Ijnet) Journalists, students and researchers from around the world are invited to take part in a training on trafficking of women and children in Ghana. The research program, from September 20 to October 5, will include field trips, interviews with law enforcement agencies and judicial representatives and more.Participants will also atten a workshop with key stakeholders.

(Knight Centre) After more than 75,000 classified documents about the Afghanistan war were released on the WikiLeaks website, U.S. democratic senators are re-working a proposed shield law to specify that the protections for refusing to name anonymous sources would apply only to "traditional news-gathering activities" and not to websites like WikiLeaks, according to The New York Times. [..]

(The Hoot)Any media is invitation to distort. The journalist is present to check the drift to distortion. Advertising seeks particular distortion. The difference is a matter of navigation; the tools are near similar, the mission is dissimilar. However, we see the rot in journalism as distinct from journalists. [..]

(Guardian) Congratulations, murdered and mutilated Sierra Leoneans! You finally have a celebrity angle, meaning your obscure little story has been given its brief moment in the limelight, before being reassigned the sort of news value that couldn't hope to trump a Cesc Fabregas transfer rumour. [..]

(News Ombudsmen) Does The Blade have enough African-Americans in its newsroom? A reader who signs his name Thomas Fink doesn’t think so and thinks this is deliberate. “It is my contention that the Toledo Blade [has] established and maintained a totally unacceptable policy of racial bias in employment opportunities and news coverage. ” What’s your ombudsman’s opinion? [..]

(Poynter Institute) The folks at NewsTrust are running an interesting pilot project this week, testing to see how well people can determine the accuracy of statements made in the news. We at the Poynter Sense-Making Project were intrigued enough with the idea to partner with them on the effort.

(Editor’s Weblog) The African National Congress (ANC) is currently in the process of passing a couple of new pieces of legislation which appear antithetical to freedom of the press. The first being the Protection of Information Bill, in which there are relatively low standards for protecting what journalist are allowed to publish. [..]

(Afrique en Ligne)