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A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday. Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal. She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper's Web site says it is monthly publication a Brenda Lee column is posted on it. Calls to the newspaper and the White House press office...

A credentialed reporter from a small Georgia newspaper was dragged, kicking and screaming from Air Force One this afternoon. The woman, identified as Brenda Lee, said she wanted to give President Obama a letter before he departed from Los Angeles.

A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday. Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal. She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper's Web site says it is a monthly publication, and a Brenda Lee column is posted on it.

TEHRAN, Iran – The lawyer for Roxana Saberi says the American journalist accused of spying on Iran has left the country after being released from jail.

The White House press briefing this afternoon has been contentious, with some major give-and-take between CNN's Ed Henry, ABC's Jake Tapper and other correspondents as they pressed press secretary Robert Gibbs over the decision today by Pres. Obama not to release detainee abuse photos.

The American journalist Roxana Saberi was jailed for espionage in Tehran after obtaining a confidential Iranian document about the American invasion of Iraq, it was claimed today. Saleh Nikbakht, one of Ms Saberi's Iranian lawyers, revealed that a document Ms Saberi had obtained while working as a translator for a powerful clerical lobby had been used as evidence to convict her on charges of espionage. Ms Saberi, 32, was released on Monday after an appeal court dismissed charges of spying and reduced her eight-year prison term to a two-year suspended sentence. Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, the lead defence counsel, said that she...

Gibbs seizes reporter's phone @ 2:28 pm by Eric Zimmermann At his daily press briefing today, press secretary Robert Gibbs got fed up when a reporter's cell phone rang repeatedly, eventually deciding to simply seize the device. When the phone first rang, Gibbs snapped at the reporter to turn the volume down. "Put it on vibrate," he said. "We've been through this before." A few minutes later, the phone rang again, and this time Gibbs decided to take action. He strode off the podium and demanded the reporter hand the phone over. "Give me the phone," he demanded, as the...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.S.-born journalist Roxana Saberi is to be freed soon after an Iranian appeals court cut her eight-year jail sentence for spying to a suspended two-year term. A judiciary source said Saberi, whose jailing on April 18 on charges of spying for the United States became a new source of tension between Tehran and Washington, had already been released and would be allowed to leave Iran.

Lawyers for the 32-year old said the court had reduced the eight-year jail sentence to a suspended two-year term and she would soon be freed.

A court in Iran has heard an appeal by Roxana Saberi, the US-Iranian reporter charged with spying, against her eight-year prison sentence. Saberi's lawyer said on Sunday that he was optimistic the verdict against the 32-year-old would be overturned. Saberi's appeal was heard before a panel of three judges, and representatives of the Iranian Bar Association, but was not open to the public. The appeal was originally scheduled for Tuesday, and it is not known why the hearing was brought forward. Reports say Saberi looked "pale and gaunt" when she arrived for the closed-door hearing. Appeal verdict 'likely'Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Saberi's...

When President Obama made his debut as the nation's Stand-Up-in-Chief last night -- the star attraction at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner -- no one in his administration was safe from his one-liners. Not Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: "The minute she got back from Mexico, she pulled me into a hug and said I should go down there myself." Not Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: "This is a tough holiday for Rahm. He's not used to saying the word 'day' after 'mother.' " Not even, it turned out, himself: "During the second 100 days, we will...

A lawyer for the Fargo-raised journalist says the change could hurt their hopes for an acquittal or a reduced sentence. TEHRAN, IRAN - An appeals court hearing for Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist from Fargo, N.D., who was sentenced to eight years in prison on spying charges, is scheduled for Sunday, two days earlier than expected, one of her lawyers said Saturday. The lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, said he had initially been told that the case would be heard Tuesday but was later informed that a mistake had been made. Although Khoramshahi said he was optimistic that Saberi would win either...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 1, 2009 Statement by the President in honor of World Press Freedom Day World Press Freedom Day is annually observed on May 3 to remind us all of the vital importance of this core freedom. It is a day in which we celebrate the indispensable role played by journalists in exposing abuses of power, while we sound the alarm about the growing number of journalists silenced by death or jail as they attempt to bring daily news...

Two reporters for Current TV, the web broadcasting firm, are being held in North Korea: Two female American journalists face five years or more in a labour camp, after North Korea announced today that they would be prosecuted for allegedly crossing the Stalinist state’s border with China. Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of the web-based channel Current TV, were arrested in mid-March while reporting from the Tumen River, which marks North Korea’s north-east border. They were investigating the plight of North Korean refugees and appear either to have crossed the border or been abducted from the Chinese side by Chinese...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Two U.S. journalists accused by North Korea of crossing into the country illegally from China and committing "hostile acts" will be tried on criminal charges, the isolated nation announced Friday.

As many of you already know, I was arrested and roughed up by USC campus police while I was outside the event where Katie Couric got her journalism award for her Sarah Palin interview. I have written the truth about what really happened there and I would very much like you to read it here: What really happened!I will have more to say about this outrageous episode in the near future. Also, we have three very important screenings this week. Tuesday I am in St. Louis and Thursday in Birmingham. Tickets for those events can be obtained here: Events LinkFor...

TEHRAN — The head of Iran’s judiciary said Monday that he had ordered the “careful, quick and fair” consideration of an appeal against the eight-year jail sentence imposed on an Iranian-American journalist, one day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the chief prosecutor to reexamine the case. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Iran’s highest judge, issued a decree to the head of the Tehran court, calling on the appeal to be “considered at the appeals stage in a careful, quick and fair way,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported. President Ahmadinejad had urged Tehran’s chief prosecutor on Sunday to examine the...

Diplomatic row breaks out as Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi threatens to go on hunger strike after eight-year sentence US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who has just been jailed as a spy in Iran for eight years, taking footage in Tehran. Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images An Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday by the Iranian authorities after being found guilty of spying for the United States. The jailing of Saberi - a freelance who has worked for the BBC - seems certain to deepen tensions between America and Iran following indications that, with Barack Obama in...

"...These were the tiny, fleeting pleasures I clung to after my son was born. They felt like all I had left. When a child was added to my life, it was as if something enormous and coveted was subtracted in return, and the transaction left me reeling, like someone who'd just gambled away his soul. I fell into a well of depression so deep I wasn't even aware of it. It was only years later, after I spoke to a psychotherapist, that I learned I was experiencing male postpartum depression...But not 48 hours after we returned home with our boy,...

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - The White House says President Barack Obama is "deeply disappointed" by Iran's sentencing of an American journalist. A lawyer for journalist Roxana Saberi said Saturday the 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen was convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison. Obama's deputy national security adviser, Denis McDonough, says Saberi is an American reporter who was simply practicing journalism. The U.S. is working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to get details about the court's decision and to ensure Saberi's well-being.

Diplomacy under way to free American journalists held in N. Korea: State Dept. By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, April 16 (Yonhap) -- Diplomacy is under way to free two American journalists detained in North Korea for alleged illegal entry, the State Department said Friday, amid reports that North Korea is seeking to use the case to establish bilateral contact. "They are still there," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. "We're working through a number of different diplomatic channels to try to see what we can do to get these folks released." Some analysts say North Korea aims to contact the U.S....

An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, dashing any hopes for her quick release. The verdict was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of spying, and it was unclear how the conviction would affect recent overtures by the Obama administration for better relations and engagement with Washington's longtime adversary. Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious...

Iran charges US journalist with spyingApril 9, 2009, 9:42 am An American journalist jailed for more than two months in Iran has been charged with spying for the US, a judge said on Wednesday, dashing hopes of a quick release days after her parents arrived in the country seeking her freedom. The espionage charge is far more serious than earlier statements by Iranian officials that the woman had been arrested for working in the Islamic Republic without press credentials and her own assertion in a phone call to her father that she was arrested after buying a bottle of wine....

SEOUL -- Two American journalists detained at North Korea's border with China two weeks ago will be indicted and tried, with "their suspected hostile acts" already confirmed, Pyongyang's state-run news agency said Tuesday. The Korean Central News Agency report did not say when a trial would take place but that preparations to indict the Americans were under way as the investigation continues. "The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into [North Korea] and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements," the report said. The report did not elaborate on what "hostile acts" the journalists are accused...

NBC Newsman Irving R. Levine Dead at 86 BOCA RATON, Fla. — Irving R. Levine, the professorial NBC newsman who explained the fine points of economics to millions of viewers for nearly a quarter century, has died. He was 86.

Al Gore seeks release of Americans March 21, 2009 Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has asked United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for help in obtaining the release of two journalists being held by North Korea. The two work for Current TV, an organization co-founded by Gore in 2005. CNN reported yesterday it’s not immediately clear what Clinton can do. The United States is also asking Beijing for help, and China said it is investigating, according to CNN. The journalists, Chinese-American Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee, were captured Tuesday while filming North Korea near the China-North Korea...

According to Pyongyang, North Korea has two American journalists in custody after allegedly attempting to enter the DPRK illegally. Laura Ling and Euna Lee apparently were in the Tumen region, where refugees flee from the oppressive Kim Jong-Il regime into somewhat less oppressive China. The international incident puts pressure on the new administration to resolve the situation and get the two women back:

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 10, 2009) – Longtime Washington, D.C., journalist Helen Thomas will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at the 2009 University of Kentucky Commencement on May 9. Thomas, a Winchester native, was one of three individuals chosen by the UK Board of Trustees today to receive honorary degrees. Also chosen were engineering scholar Mark E. Davis and University System of Maryland Chancellor William B. Kirwan. Thomas is being recognized for her role as a trailblazer for women, having served as White House correspondent and later Washington bureau chief for United Press International for four decades. She...

(LEAD) N. Korea says it is holding, investigating two Americans SEOUL, March 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's state news agency said Saturday that the country detained two Americans earlier this week and is investigating them for allegedly intruding into North Korean territory illegally. The Korea Central News Agency report, monitored in Seoul, said that authorities detained two Americans on March 17 while they were "illegally intruding the territory of the DPRK by crossing the DPRK-China border." DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The report came as two female reporters from Current TV, an...

After the United Nations diplomat John Solecki, who had forcefully converted to Islam under the doctrine of the Taliban militants, a Canadian journalist - Beverly Giesbrecht, became the latest Taliban target, with the deadline of March 30 being announced by the militants for her release. Even as the 48-hour deadline for kidnapped United Nations official John Solecki ends, the Taliban has released another hostage video, this time of a Canadian journalist, threatening to behead her by March 30. As Beverly desperately calls out for help, she says, "The timeline is very short and my life is going to end. So...

(2nd LD) N. Korea detains two American journalists By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States are in talks over the fate of two American journalists detained by the communist nation, a diplomatic source here said Thursday. "Two reporters working for a U.S.-based Internet news media outlet, including a Korean-American, were detained by North Korean authorities earlier this week, and they remain in custody there," the source said. The journalists, who are both women, were videotaping a scene near the North's border with China despite repeated warnings by North Korean border guards, according to...

NORTH Korea's military has detained a female US broadcast journalist working along its northern border, a South Korean newspaper said. Munhwa Ilbo, quoting a diplomatic source in Seoul, said the journalist surnamed Ming was detained on Tuesday along the Yalu river, which marks the border with China. It said US and North Korean authorities are holding talks about her release. A US embassy spokesman in Seoul referred inquiries to the State Department. "It is not known yet exactly where this journalist was working, what activities she was involved in and how she came to be detained,'' the afternoon newspaper quoted...

BAQUBAH — Addressing complex issues ranging from journalistic license to the independence of the press, Mr. Richard Tomkins recently gave a media class to local journalists at the Diyala Governance Center in downtown Baqubah, the capital city of Diyala province, March 11. A veteran journalist currently writing for the Washington Times, United Press International, and the Middle East Times, Tomkins has a career that spans more than 36 years, four continents, and a multitude of different publications across the globe. Recently, while embedded with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, in Diyala, Iraq, Tomkins indicated that he...

The attorney for an Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at then-President George W. Bush says his client has been sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign leader. ... Al-Zeidi says his action was a "natural response to the occupation" and shouted "long live Iraq" when the verdict was read.

David Rhodes Still Missing 11 March 2009 Few people realize that New York Times journalist David Rhodes was kidnapped in Afghanistan back in November. There were a few scattered stories early on, but big reporting apparently has been squashed. In December, during a trip with Secretary Gates, I asked a New York Times reporter if she knew the status of the situation. The story had been kept so quiet that she didn’t actually know the kidnapping had occurred. The information came to me from several sources some weeks after the kidnapping in Afghanistan. I sat on the information, but there...

A US journalist has been arrested and detained in Iran, apparently after being reported to the authorities for buying a bottle of wine. Roxana Saberi, 31 – who has worked for the BBC – was taken into custody more than a month ago, according to her Iranian-born father. Her whereabouts are unknown and it is unclear whether she is still being held. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, today said Saberi had been engaged in "illegal activities" and had continued to work after her press credentials had been withdrawn. "This reporter should not have been illegally seeking news and...

In 1979, Iran violated international law by invading the American embassy and holding American citizens hostage. The same country that recently practiced piracy on the high seas against the United Kingdom has kidnapped an American citizen, Roxana Saberi. The excuse that Iran used for this latest act of criminal savagery was that Ms. Saberi attempted to buy a bottle of wine in Iran, where alcohol is illegal. "She said that she had bought a bottle of wine and the person that sold it had reported it and then they came and arrested her." We wonder why the individual who sold...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran said on Monday that a freelance US journalist with Iranian nationality who is reportedly being detained in the Islamic republic has been gathering news "illegally." Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi did not confirm or deny whether Roxana Saberi, 31, was being detained by the Iranian authorities, but said her activities were "illegal". US-based National Public Radio and Fox News, citing Saberi's father, reported last week that the US-born journalist was arrested in late January on charges of buying alcohol, which is prohibited in the Islamic republic. "Ever since her credentials were revoked by Ershad, her activities...

A former Miss North Dakota, who's been working in Iran as a freelance reporter, is being detained in undisclosed location there. 31-year-old Roxana Saberi has reported for NPR, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", and Fox News Channel, among others as the Tehran bureau chief for Feature Story News. Her press credentials were revoked by the Iranian government more than a year ago, but she was being allowed to file short stories until her arrest about a month ago. NPR reports the Saberi family decided not to go public with Saberi's arrest until yesterday. Her father, who still lives in Fargo,...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2009 – It’s not unusual for servicemembers to find themselves in new jobs during deployments. But what sets each one apart is how they handle those transitions. Marine Corps Cpl. Kimberly Crawford, a combat correspondent stationed at Camp Lejuene, N.C., edits video with assistance from Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeff St. Sauveur at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Feb. 14, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Matthew Thompson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Those who work with Marine Corps Cpl. Kimberly Crawford say she is an example of how to make the most of changing...

Taliban Shoot And Behead GEO TV Journalist hat tip Kasper Just days after Pakistan's agreement with the Taliban to restore Sharia law in Swat Valley, a Geo TV reporter was shot at and beheaded in the region. The Geo TV reporter, Musa Khan Khel, was covering the rally organised by extremist group Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) in Matta, Swat when he was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. The rally was being led by TNSM chief Su More..fi Mohammad which the 28-year-old Musa Khan was covering.

The website of a New York TV network whose aim is to improve American perceptions of Islam was shut down this morning, two days after its founder admitted to the beheading of his wife. And while that irony might bring a momentary smile, another attempt to conceal the facts behind an honor killing right here in America should stir nothing short of outrage. Muzzammil Hassan, CEO of Bridges TV, whose motto is "connecting people through understanding," apparently didn't think Thursday's honor killing -- and make no mistake about what this was -- at the station might somehow blur that message....

A year into the war, hundreds of men from other parts of the Muslim world had arrived in Bosnia. Many had come to train. Some - though we did not know it at the time - had already fought in Afghanistan. We Western reporters knew they were there. What we did not know is that they were already part of a nascent global jihad led by a group whose name was not yet familiar to us: al-Qaeda. We thought them a sideshow - irrelevant to the much more compelling dynamic of the war between actual Bosnians. .....

Following Leon Panetta’s confirmation hearing Thursday, several reporters approached the CIA director-designate in the hallway outside room G-50 in the Dirksen Building. There, CongressDaily reporter Chris Strohm — upon asking a question — was physically restrained by a man who accompanied Panetta at hearings both days. Strohm, when reached by phone Friday, said he was unsure of the man’s role. “I felt this hand grab my right arm and push me aside,” Strohm said. By his account, Strohm told the man, “Please don’t touch me” more than once. Eventually, the man let him go. Tim Starks, a reporter for Congressional...

MOSCOW – The dead loom over the morning editorial meeting at Russia's leading investigative newspaper. Novaya Gazeta's staff is trying to plan the next issue and editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov is in an understandably foul mood. In a corner hang photos of four reporters he has lost in the past eight years — one beaten to death, one allegedly poisoned, two shot — the most recent on Jan. 19. It's not easy to put a paper out these days, Muratov says.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2009 – A civilian journalist received a top Navy honor in Iraq on Jan. 24 for his heroism in saving a Marine’s life while in Afghanistan. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Paul Lefebvre, deputy commanding general for Multinational Corps Iraq, awards cameraman Chris Jackson with the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award at Al Faw Palace on Camp Victory, outside of Baghdad, Jan. 24, 2009. He received the award for saving a Marine from a burning vehicle in Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Joy Pariante  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

Lasantha Wickrematunge served as the Editor of The Sunday Leader paper in Sri Lanka. He wrote about current issues and corruption in the Government. During his tenure he was attacked three times. On January 8th, 2009, he was assassinated. Amnesty International was asked to execute an international probe. The request was declined. In his last communication to his friend, the President of Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickrematunge said, “In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries...

A female journalist who reported on women's rights and spoke out against the dowry system in southern Nepal was killed by a group of attackers, an official said Monday.

BAGHDAD – The jailed journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has asked for a pardon for what he described as "an ugly act," a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister said Thursday. Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader. He remained in custody Thursday night. "It is too late to now to regret the big and ugly act that I perpetrated," al-Zeidi wrote in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the prime minister's spokesman.

What would have happened during the reign of Saddam Hussein if an Iraqi “journalist” (not that such a thing existed at the time) had stood up during a presidential press conference and thrown a shoe at the podium? Let’s see. The offender might have been simply taken out and shot, but you can’t write off the possibility of Saddam’s sadistic sons sticking the guy’s head in boiling acid to make the point a little more forcefully. None of this applies today, because Iraq was liberated by George W. Bush. So when the very same George W. Bush finds himself the...