Freedom Of The Press

When Mikhail S. Gorbachev was ousted, so were some of the achievements that blossomed under perestroika. Among them: Union Treaty: Gorbachev was to officiate at the treaty's signing, scheduled to begin Tuesday. His treaty would have kept the federation together while granting greater autonomy to the republics. These republics were to be given greater powers in the national legislature, military matters, foreign affairs, natural resources and the administration of energy resources.

Egyptian journalists backed off a threatened newspaper strike Saturday after President Hosni Mubarak offered to negotiate changes in a controversial new law restricting freedom of the press. The decision came in an emotional meeting of an estimated 1,500 members of the Press Syndicate, the national organization of journalists. Mubarak, in an apparent attempt to head off the strike, made his compromise offer in a session with syndicate representatives on Wednesday.

The pale hands of Albuquerque poet and free-lance journalist Demetria Martinez trembled as she held the poem that has come to symbolize her status as newest cause celebre of the American Sanctuary movement. But that first image of frailty changed as Martinez--wrapped in a black rebozo--recited her poem, "Nativity: For Two Salvadoran Women, 1986-1987," to the audience filling the pews of a former Presbyterian church, now slightly haggard Pacific Symphony Concert Hall in Santa Ana.

Newspaper publishers criticized this city's efforts to consolidate publications in 1,000 uniform news racks, a plan they said is an attack on freedom of the press. Mayor Willie Brown said the plan, which would ban individually owned and operated news racks, is needed to rid streets of clutter. "In politics, things are rarely what they claim to be," said Phil Bronstein, executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner. "This is being presented as a measure to neaten the streets.

Despite the end of the Cold War, the Bush Administration is "obsessed" with manipulating government informaton and exposing those who make unauthorized disclosures, a media group charged Monday in its annual report on government disclosure policies. "This Administration continues to be obsessed with ferreting out leakers, dictating standards for expressive activities and manipulating the presentation of government information," said Jane E.

The U.S. military should reveal when it pays foreign journalists for favorable news, and the Defense Department should review policies that let it secretly pay Iraqi media, the Pentagon's highest-ranking officer said Thursday. In an interview, Marine Gen. Peter Pace said that although the United States needed to get its message out to Iraqis, Pentagon programs should be reviewed so readers would know what to believe.

A federal judge's dismissal of a case against the American Broadcasting Co. and television reporter Geraldo Rivera has been called a breakthrough for the use of secret recording devices by reporters. U.S. District Judge Alice Bachelder ruled Thursday that reporters may use secret recording devices to record events and conversations as long as the reporters use the recording equipment for the purpose of gathering news.

Press authorities on Monday ordered the temporary closure of Shargh, Iran's leading reformist newspaper, just days after the publication printed a cartoon that appeared to lampoon Iranian nuclear negotiations. In a letter to the paper's managing director, the Press Supervisory Board ordered the shutdown "for publishing articles insulting to religious, political and national figures, and fomenting discord."

In a decision that may signal new willingness to limit press freedom, the Supreme Court on Sunday refused to allow Cable News Network to broadcast government-recorded phone calls between deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega and his lawyers. The high court on a 7-2 vote let stand an order by a judge in Miami requiring CNN to turn over the tapes to him for his examination. The Supreme Court has never formally upheld an order barring the publication or broadcast of news and information.