Media

HONG KONG – Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo – while the man languishes in prison – has inflicted humiliation of epic proportion upon the thin-skinned Communist leadership in Beijing.

I left the international stage at Brooklyn Book Festival 2010 twice, the second time was to stretch my legs and make my rounds at the vendors selling their wares and promoting their presses in the cold September rain. But before that, I attended the War in Words panel, hosted by the venerable journalist, Laura Flanders. It was a hot ticket. The Brooklyn court room brimmed with political junkies, and even my heroine of heroines Amy Goodman dropped in (Amy, if you’re reading this… drinks?).

Just last month, the media network News Corporation caused some contention as it implemented an online subscription system for The Times and Sunday Times – two of the UK’s most widely read papers¹. In an interview, NC’s Chief Executive, Rupert Murdoch said - “we can no longer afford to give away news for free.” It’s a fair point – newspapers have come up against a whole ran

Gyongyos, Hungary -- While running for a parliamentary seat in Hungary's April elections, far-right candidate Gabor Vona made one campaign promise that was controversial even by his standards: If voted into parliament, the 31-year-old extremist would report for duty wearing the insignia of his outlawed paramilitary organization, the "Hungarian Guard" -- a taboo symbol that, with its ancient, red-and-white-striped emblem, bears a striking resemblance to the flag of Hungary's Nazi-era fascist party, Arrow Cross.

Three days left to the presidential elections in Colombia. The outcome is supposedly quite critical for the country’s future and I am searching the German mainstream media for any updates.

It is a daunting task to write a synopsis of an event led by men with wit as sharp as Christopher Hitchens and Salman Rushdie. PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature 2010's final event, held in the auspicious Great Hall of Cooper Union, was supposed to be the site of a talk given by Sherman Alexie on the artistic, political and economic responsibilities of writers in the digital age but due to unforseen circumstances, he was unable to host the closing plenary.