The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called for the release of Davison Maruziva, the editor of a privately owned weekly The Standard, who has been arrested and charged with "false statements prejudicial to the state and contempt of court" after his paper published an opinion piece by a leading opposition politician.

The Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has lost an appeal to keep secret its meetings with business lobbying group the Confederation of British Industry. The case has dragged on for three years and originally concerned secret meetings between the CBI and BERR, which was formerly known as the Department of Trade and Industry.

The case involves a colorful cast of characters that includes former intelligence agents, Canadian TV pirates, Bulgarian and German hackers, stolen e-mails and the mysterious suicide of a Berlin hacker who had been courted by the Murdoch company not long before his death.

An audience of senior media practitioners, commentators and press freedom experts voted this morning that journalism is alive and well. When presented with the motion new media is killing journalism at the annual World Press Freedom Day event, a vigorous debate ensued, cumulating in a powerful consensus (13 for the motion, 43 against, 4 abstaining). The event, hosted annually by the UK National Commission for UNESCO and Press Freedom Network, drew on arguments and expertise from across the world, including Iran, Mexico, Africa and the US.

The CPBF is supporting campaigns by Index on Censorship and the NUJ against the decision of Tesco's to sue three writers for libel. Like the NUJ, the Campaign is calling on supporters to write to the Chief Executive of Tesco Sir Terry Leahy, asking him to stop the libel actions against the Thai writers and the Guardian. Supporters are also asked to raise the issue with their MP.

If ever there was an example of how important it can be for politicians to understand how to exploit the news media it has to be Enoch Powell's calculated timing of his "Rivers of Blood" speech. Although Powell's apologists insist to this day that it was never his intention to deliver such a highly-inflammatory speech, the build-up had been prepared with great precision on the advice a close friend, Clem Jones, who had in effect become the MP's personal spin doctor.

A survey of journalism student placements among various media outlets in the UK has found that over 50 per cent of them took place after the students had gained their qualifications. It has prompted the National Union of Journalists - which conducted the survey - to declare that "media companies are breaking the law by using bogus work experience placements to cover full-time jobs".

Three years after the start of the ALTER-EU campaign, we have now reached the moment of truth: the coming two-month period will decide whether any real and lasting results will be achieved in our struggle for mandatory EU lobbying transparency and ethics rules. Therefore, active participation of the full ALTER-EU network in the next weeks is crucial!

Unite members are protesting (Friday 18th April) outside a branch of Pizza Express against the sacking of a union activist who spoke to the media about unfair deductions from tips taken by management.

NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, has warned against simplistic arguments to 'top-slice' the BBC licence fee to fund public service broadcasting on ITV and Channel 4. A consultation document published by Ofcom recently highlighted this as one of a range of possible approaches it is considering. Whilst the consultation document includes a range of possible future funding methods for public service broadcasting, the union is concerned that 'top-slicing' tends to dominate public debate because the alternative models of funding are more technical and complex.

The front page apologies to Kate and Gerry McCann ... make no mention of the way both newspapers and their Sunday stable-mates profited by running hundreds of stories implicating the couple [in the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine]. Their main object was to increase sales by playing to the prurient interests of their readers. Speculation became news – the more sensational the alleged 'revelations' the better. It is this cynical abuse of power as much any additional hurt caused to the couple and their family, which should now be exercising the minds of editors, journalists and the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

Proposals to improve the European Ombudsman's access to EU documents as a means of increasing transparency within the EU institutions were approved by MEPs on 10 March.

"From now on, we will organise activities every 12 March to condemn cyber-censorship throughout the world," Reporters Without Borders said. "A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites. We thank UNESCO for providing its support for this special day from the very first year."

On 19 February, Ofcom announced measures to strengthen viewer and consumer protection in participation TV programmes through new mandatory licence conditions for television broadcasters.

Two items from The Guardian prompt this piece. The first by Julia Finch, on the financial pages, (Viewpoint, 'Look to US for a real housing crisis', 27/02/08, p25) had this throw-away comment on the fact that homes repossessed by US lenders during January was 90% higher than a year ago. She wrote, 'The US banks might this year dump 1m seized homes into the market, which will force prices lower. If the UK had this scale of problem, it would be a political as well as a financial crisis. In the US there will likely be further interest rate cuts as recession looms.'

Former BBC foreign correspondent, William Horsley, told a packed meeting in Brussels recently that the latest survey from the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) revealed growing threats to media freedom in Europe. The threats include blatant media bias for pro-government candidates, interference in editorial policies, manipulation of the flow of news and comment, blocking of access to official information, threats and intimidation, and increasing commercial pressures. The survey covers 15 European countries and shows media freedom in retreat across much of the continent. Horsley, the AEJ Media Freedom Representative and survey editor, said that it is time for journalists to get together to face these issues and deal with them.