Be a Freelance Writer

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First Edition, 2007

ISBN 978 81 89940 33 1

Published by:

Global Media

1819, Bhagirath Palace, Chandni Chowk, Delhi-110 006 Email: [email protected]

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Freelancer

A freelancer or freelance worker is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer. The long-term was first coined by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) in his well-known historical romance Ivanhoe to describe a "medieval mercenary warrior." The phrase later transitioned to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was then officially recognized as a verb in 1903 by various authorities in etymology such as the Oxford English Dictionary. Only in modern times has the term morphed from a noun (a freelance or a freelancer) into various verb forms (a journalist who freelances), and an adverb (she worked freelance).

The author and poet Ernest William Hornung (1866 - 1921) also used the term in "The Gift of the Emperor" to describe something of poor quality: "I warmed to my woes. It was no easy matter to keep your end up as a raw freelance of letters; for my part, I was afraid I wrote neither well enough nor ill enough for success."

Fields where freelancing is especially common include journalism and other forms of writing, computer programming and graphic design, consulting, and many other professional and creative services. The practice is widespread: for example, bounty hunters and mercenaries are freelancers, with their full-time counterparts being, respectively, the police and the military.

The Internet has opened up many freelance opportunities, expanding markets and helping to build it into one of the largest economic segments for many economies. Development for freelancing has been especially high for software development, information

technology, and business documentation.

Freelance practice varies greatly. Some require clients to sign written contracts, while others may perform work based on verbal agreements, perhaps enforceable through the very nature of the work. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients.

Payment for freelance work also varies greatly. Freelancers may charge by the day or hour, or on a per-project basis. Instead of a flat rate or fee, some consultants have adopted a value-based pricing method based on the perceived value of the results to the client. By custom, payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or upon completion.

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For more complex projects, a contract may set a payment schedule based on milestones or outcomes.

Benefits and drawbacks

Freelancers generally enjoy a greater variety of assignments than in regular employment, and almost always have more freedom to choose their work schedule. The experience also allows the opportunity to build up a portfolio of work and cultivate a network of clients in hopes of obtaining a permanent position.

A major drawback is the uncertainty of work — and thus income — and lack of company benefits such as health insurance or retirement pay.

Another drawback is that freelancers often must handle contracts, legal issues,

accounting, marketing, and other business functions by themselves. If they do choose to pay for professional services, they can sometimes turn into a significant out-of-pocket expense. Working hours can extend beyond the standard working day and working week.

Freelancers vs. Society

From a cultural standpoint, freelancing is viewed as either above or below the social system. In keeping with Scott's original coinage, some Americans and most Europeans view freelancing as a socially elevated occupation.

However, many Asian countries appear to follow Hormung by holding low regard for freelancers, often associating the practice with personal failure (an inability to find work with a major employer) and even criminality

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Journalism

Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news

regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists.

News-oriented journalism is sometimes described as the "first rough draft of " (attributed to Phil Graham), because journalists often record important events, producing news articles on short deadlines. While under pressure to be first with their stories, news media organizations usually and proofread their reports prior to publication, adhering to each organization's standards of accuracy, quality and style. Many news organizations claim proud traditions of holding government officials and institutions accountable to the public, while media critics have raised questions about holding the press itself accountable.

Reporting

Journalism has as its main activity the reporting of events — stating who, what, when, where, why and how, and explaining the significance and effect of events or trends. Journalism exists in a number of media: newspapers, television, radio, magazines and, most recently, the World Wide Web through the Internet.

The subject matter of journalism can be anything and everything, and journalists report and write on a wide variety of subjects: politics on the international, national, provincial and local levels, economics and business on the same four levels, health and medicine, education, sports, hobbies and recreation, lifestyles, clothing, food, pets, sex and relationships.... Journalists can report for general interest news outlets like newspapers, news magazines and broadcast sources; general circulation specialty publications like trade and hobby magazines, or for news publications and outlets with a select group of subscribers.

Journalists are usually expected and required to go out to the scene of a story to gather information for their reports, and often may compose their reports in the field. They also use the telephone, the computer and the internet to gather information. However, more often those reports are written, and are almost always ed, in the newsroom, the office space where journalists and ors work together to prepare news content.

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Journalists, especially if they cover a specific subject or area (a "beat") are expected to cultivate sources, people in the subject or area, that they can communicate with, either to explain the details of a story, or to provide leads to other subjects of stories yet to be reported. They are also expected to develop their investigative skills to better research and report stories.

Print journalism

Print journalism can be split into several categories: newspapers, news magazines, general interest magazines, trade magazines, hobby magazines, newsletters, private publications, online news pages and others. Each genre can have its own requirements for researching and writing reports.

For example, newspaper journalists in the United States have traditionally written reports using the inverted pyramid style, although this style is used more for straight or hard news reports rather than features. Written hard news reports are expected to be spare in the use of words, and to list the most important information first, so that, if the story must be cut because there is not enough space for it, the least important facts will be

automatically cut from the bottom. ors usually ensure that reports are written with as few words as possible. Feature stories are usually written in a looser style that usually

depends on the subject matter of the report, and in general granted more space (see Feature-writing below).

News magazine and general interest magazine articles are usually written in a different style, with less emphasis on the inverted pyramid. Trade publications can be more news-oriented, while hobby publications can be more feature-oriented.

Broadcast journalism

Radio journalists must gather facts to present them fairly and accurately, but also must find and record relevant and interesting sounds to add to their reports, both interviews with people involved in the story and background sounds that help characterize the story. Radio reporters may also write the introduction to the story read by a radio news anchor, and may also answers questions live from the anchor.

Television journalists rely on visual information to illustrate and characterize their reporting, including on-camera interviews with people involved in the story, shots of the

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scene where the story took place, and graphics usually produced at the station to help frame the story. Like radio reporters, television reporters also may write the introductory script that a television news anchor would read to set up their story. Both radio and television journalists usually do not have as much "space" to present information in their reports as print journalists.

On-line journalism

The fast and vast growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has spawned the newest medium for journalism, on-line journalism. The speed at which news can be disseminated on the web, and the profound penetration to anyone with a computer and web browser, have greatly increased the quantity and variety of news reports available to the average web user.

The bulk of on-line journalis has been the extension of existing print and broadcast media into the web via web versions of their primary products. New reports that were set to be released at expected times now can be published as soon as they are written and ed, increasing the deadline pressure and fear of being scooped many journalists must deal with.

Most news websites are free to their users — one notable exception being the Wall Street Journal website, for which a subscripton is required to view its contents — but some outlets, such as the New York Times website, offer current news for free but archived reports and access to opinion columnists and other non-news sections for a periodic fee. Attempts to start unique web publications, such as Slate and Salon, have met with limited success, in part because they do or did charge subscription fees.

However, the growth of blogs as a source of news and especially opinion on the news has forever changed journalism. Blogs now can create news as well as report it, and blur the dividing line between news and opinion. The debate about whether blogging is really journalism rages on (see blogging entry below).

Variations of journalism

Feature journalism

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Newspapers and periodicals often contain features (see under heading feature style at article news style) written by journalists, many of whom specialize in this form of in-depth journalism.

Feature articles usually are longer than straight news articles, and are combined with photographs, drawings or other "art." They may also be highlighted by typographic effects or colors.

Writing features can be more demanding than writing straight news stories, because while a journalist must apply the same amount of effort to accurately gather and report the facts of the story, the reporter must also find a creative and interesting way to write the article, especially the lead, or the first one or two paragraphs of the story. The lead must grab the reader's attention yet accurately embody the ideas of the article. Often the lead of a feature article is dictated by its subject matter. Journalists must work even harder to avoid clichéd images and words when writing the lead and the rest of the article.

In the last half of the 20th Century the line between straight news reporting and feature writing blurred as more and more journalists and publications experimented with different approaches to writing an article. Tom Wolf, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson and other journalists used many different approaches to writing news articles. Urban and alternative weekly newspapers went even further blurring the distinction, and many magazines fan more features than straight news.

Some television news shows experimented with alternative formats, and many TV shows that claimed to be news shows were not considered as such by many critics, because their content and methods did not adhere to accepted journalistic standards. National Public Radio, on the other hand, is considered a good example of a good mixture of straight news reporting, features, and combinations of the two, usually meeting standards of high quality. Other U.S. public radio news organizations have achieved similar results.

However, a majority of newspapers still maintain a clear distinction between news and features, as do most television and radio news organizations.

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Sports journalism covers many aspects of human athletic competition, and is an integral part of most journalism products, including newspapers, magazines, and radio and television news broadcasts. While some critics don't consider sports journalism to be true journalism, the prominence of sports in Western culture has justified the attention of journalists to not just the competitive events of sports, but also to athletes and the business of sports.

Sports journalism in the United States has traditionally been written in a looser, more creative and more opinionated tone than traditional journalistic writing; however, the emphases on accuracy and underlying fairness is still a part of sports journalism. An emphasis on the accurate description of statistical performances of athletes is also an important part of sports journalism.

Science journalism.

Science journalism is a relatively new branch of journalism, in which journalists' reporting conveys information on science topics to the public. Science journalists must understand and interpret very detailed, technical and sometimes jargon-laden information and render it into interesting reports that are comprehensible to consumers of news media.

Scientific journalists also must choose which developments in science merit news coverage, as well as cover disputes within the scientific community with a balance of fairness to both sides but also with a devotion to the facts.

Many, but not all, journalists covering science have training in the sciences they cover, including several medical doctors who cover medicine.

Investigative journalism

Investigative journalism, in which journalists investigate and expose unethical, immoral and illegal behavior by individuals, businesses and government agencies, can be

complicated, time-consuming and expensive — requiring teams of journalists, months of research, interviews (sometimes repeated interviews) with numerous people,

long-distance travel, computers to analyze public-record databases, or use of the company's legal staff to secure documents under freedom of information laws.

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Because of its inherently confrontational nature, this kind of reporting is often the first to suffer from budget cutbacks or interference from outside the news department.

Investigative reporting done poorly can also expose journalists and media organizations to negative reaction from subjects of investigations and the public, and accusations of gotcha journalism. However, done well, it can bring the attention of the public and government problems and conditions that the public deem need to be addressed, and can win awards and recognition to the journalists involved and the media outlet that did the reporting.

'Celebrity' or 'People' journalism

Another, less reputable, area of journalism that grew in stature in the 20th Century is 'celebrity' or 'people' journalism, which focuses on the personal lives of people, primarily celebrities, including movie and stage actors, musical artists, models and photographers, other notable people in the entertainment industry, as well as people who seek attention, such as politicians, and people thrust into the attention of the public, such as people who do something newsworthy.

Once the province of newspaper gossip columnists and gossip magazines, celebrity journalism has become the focus of national tabloid newspapers like the National Enquirer, magazines like People and Us Weekly, syndicated television shows like Entertainment Tonight, Inside ion, The Insider, Access Hollywood, and Extra, cable networks like E!, A&E Network and The Biography Channel, and numerous other television productions and thouasands of websites. Most other news media provide some coverage of celebrities and people.

Celebrity journalism differs from feature writing in that it focuses on people who are either already famous or are especially attractive, and in that it often covers celebrities obssessively, to the point of these journalists behaving unethically in order to provide coverage. Paparazzi, photographers who would follow celebrities incessantly to obtain potentially embarrassing photographs, have come to characterize celebrity journalism.

Role of journalism in society

In the 1920's, as modern journalism was just taking form, writer Walter Lippmann and American philosopher John Dewey debated over the role of journalism in a democracy.

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Their differing philosophies still characterize a debate about the role of journalism in society and the nation-state.

Lippmann understood that journalism's role at the time was to act as a mediator or

translator between the public and policymaking elites. The journalist became the

middleman. When elites spoke, journalists listened and recorded the information, distilled it, and passed it on to the public for their consumption. His reasoning behind this was that the public was not in a position to deconstruct a growing and complex flurry of

information present in modern society, and so an intermediary was needed to filter news for the masses. Lippman put it this way: The public is not smart enough to understand complicated, political issues. Furthermore, the public was too consumed with their daily lives to care about complex public policy. Therefore the public needed someone to interpret the decisions or concerns of the elite to make the information plain and simple. That was the role of journalists. Lippmann believed that the public would affect the decision making of the elite with their vote. In the meantime, the elite (i.e. politicians, policy makers, bureacrats, scientists, etc.) would keep the business of power running. In Lippman's world, the journalist's role was to inform the public of what the elites were doing. It was also to act as a dog over the elites as the public had the final say with their votes. Effectively that kept the public at the bottom of the power chain, catching the flow of information that is handed down from experts/elites.

Dewey, on the other hand, believed the public was not only capable of understanding the

issues created or responded to by the elite, it was in the public forum that decisions should be made after discussion and debate. When issues were throughly vetted, then the best ideas would bubble to the surface. Dewey believed journalists not only had to inform the public, but should report on issues differently than simply passing on information. In Dewey's world, a journalist's role changed. Dewey believed that journalists should take in the information, then weigh the consequences of the policies being enacted by the elites on the public. Over time, his idea has been implemented in various degrees, and is more commonly known as "community journalism."

This concept of Community Journalism is at the center of new developments in journalism. In this new paradigm, journalists are able to engage citizens and the experts/elites in the proposition and generation of content. It's important to note that while there is an assumption of equality, Dewey still celebrates expertise. Dewey believes the shared knowledge of many is far superior to a single individual's knowledge. Experts

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and scholars are welcome in Dewey's framework, but there is not the hierarchical structure present in Lippman's understanding of journalism and society. According to Dewey, conversation, debate, and dialogue lie at the heart of a democracy.

While Lippman's journalistic philosophy might be more acceptable to government leaders, Dewey's approach is a better descriptor of how many journalists see their role in society, and, in turn, how much of society expects journalists to function. Americans, for example, may criticize some of the excesses committed by journalists, but they tend to expect journalists to serve as dogs on government, businesses and other actors, enabling people to make informed decisions on the issues of the time.

Professional and ethical standards

Journalists are expected to follow a stringent code of journalistic conduct that requires them to, among other things:

• Use original sources of information, including interviews with people directly involved in a story, original documents and other direct sources of information, whenever possible, and cite the sources of this information in reports;

o For more information on using sources, see Journalism sourcing.

• Fully attribute information gathered from other published sources, should original sources not be available (to not do so is considered plagiarism; some newspapers also note when an article uses information from previous reports);

• Use multiple original sources of information, especially if the subject of the report is controversial;

• Check every fact reported;

• Find and report every side of a story possible;

• Report without bias, illustrating many aspects of a conflict rather than siding with one;

• Approach researching and reporting a story with a balance between objectivity and skepticism.

• Use careful judgment when organizing and reporting information.

• Be careful about granting confidentiality to sources (news organizations usually have specific rules that journalists must follow concerning grants of

confidentiality);

• Decline gifts or favors from any subject of a report, and avoid even the appearance of being influenced;

• Abstain from reporting or otherwise participating in the research and writing about a subject in which the journalist has a personal stake or bias that cannot be set aside.

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There are several professional organizations, universities and foundations that recognize excellence in journalism. The Pulitzer Prize, administered by Columbia University in New York City, is awarded to newspapers, magazines and broadcast media for excellence in various kinds of journalism. The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism gives the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for excellence in radio and television journalism, and the Scripps Howard Foundation gives the National Journalism Awards in 17 categories. The Society of Professional Journalists gives the Sigma Delta Chi Award for journalism excellence. In the television industry, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gives awards for excellence in television journalism.

Failing to uphold standards

Such a code of conduct can, in the real world, be difficult to uphold consistently. Journalists who believe they are being fair or objective may give biased accounts -- by reporting selectively, trusting too much to anecdote, or giving a partial explanation of actions. (See Media bias.) Even in routine reporting, bias can creep into a story through a reporter's choice of facts to summarize, or through failure to check enough sources, hear and report dissenting voices, or seek fresh perspectives.

As much as reporters try to set aside their prejudices, they may simply be unaware of them. Young reporters may be blind to issues affecting the elderly. A 20-year veteran of the "police beat" may be deaf to rumors of departmental corruption. Publications

marketed to affluent suburbanites may ignore urban problems. And, of course, naive or unwary reporters and ors alike may fall prey to public relations, propaganda or

disinformation.

News organizations provide ors, producers or news directors whose job is to check reporters' work at various stages. But ors can get tired, lazy, complacent or biased. An or may be blind to a favorite reporter's omissions, prejudices or fabrications. (See Jayson Blair.) Provincial ors also may be ill-equipped to weigh the perspective (or check the facts of) a correspondent reporting from a distant city or foreign country. (See News management.)

A news organization's budget inevitably reflects decision-making about what news to cover, for what audience, and in what depth. Those decisions may reflect conscious or unconscious bias. When budgets are cut, ors may sacrifice reporters in distant news

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bureaus, reduce the number of staff assigned to low-income areas, or wipe entire communities from the publication's zone of interest.

Publishers, owners and other corporate executives, especially advertising sales

executives, can try to use their powers over journalists to influence how news is reported and published. Journalists usually rely on top management to create and maintain a "firewall" between the news and other departments in a news organization to prevent undue influence on the news department. One journalism magazine, Columbia

Journalism Review, has made it a practice to reveal examples of executives who try to influence news coverage, of executives who do not abuse their powers over journalists, and of journalists who resist such pressures.

Reporting versus orializing

Generally, publishers and consumers of journalism draw a distinction between reporting — "just the facts" — and opinion writing, often by restricting opinion columns to the orial page and its facing or "op-ed" (opposite the orials) page. Unsigned orials are traditionally the official opinions of the paper's orial board, while op-ed pages may be a mixture of syndicated columns and other contributions, frequently with some attempt to balance the voices across some political or social spectrum.

However, the distinction between reporting and opinion can break down. Complex stories often require summarizing and interpretation of facts, especially if there is limited time or space for a story. Stories involving great amounts of interpretation are often labelled "news analysis," but still run in a paper's news columns. The limited time for each story in a broadcast report rarely allows for such distinctions.

Ambush journalism

Refers to aggressive tactics practiced by journalists to suddenly confront with questions people who otherwise do not wish to speak to a journalist. The practice has particularly been applied by television journalists, such as those on the CBS-TV news show 60 Minutes and by Geraldo Rivera, currently on the Fox News cable channel, and by hundreds of American local television reporters conducting investigations.

The practice has been sharply criticized by journalists and others as being highly unethical and sensational, while others defend it as the only way to attempt to provide

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those subject to it an opportunity to comment for a report. Ambush journalism has not been ruled illegal in the United States, although doing it on private property could open a journalist to being charged with trespassing.

Gotcha journalism

Refers to the deliberate manipulation of the presentation of facts in a report in order to portray a person or organization in a particular way that varies from an accurate portrayal based on balanced review of the facts available. It particular is applied to broadcast journalism, where the story, images and interviews are tailored to create a particular impression of the subject matter.

It is considered highly unethical to engage in gotcha journalism. Many subjects of reporting have claimed to have been subjected to it, and some media outlets are guilty of deliberately biased reporting.

Legal status

Journalists around the world often write about the governments in their nations, and those governments have widely varying policies and practices towards journalists, which control what they can research and write, and what press organizations can publish. Many Western governments guarantee the freedom of the press, and do relatively little to

restrict press rights and freedoms, while other nations severely restrict what journalists can research and/or publish.

Journalists in many nations have enjoyed some privileges not enjoyed by members of the general publlic, including better access to public events, crime scenes and press

conferences, and to extended interviews with public officials, celebrities and others in the public eye. These privileges are available because of the perceived power of the press to turn public opinion for or against governments, their officials and policies, as well as the perception that the press often represents their consumers. These privileges extend from the legal rights of journalists but are not guaranteed by those rights. Sometimes

government officials may attempt to punish individual journalists who irk them by denying them some of these privileges extended to other journalists.

Nations or jurisdictions that formally license journalists may confer special privileges and responsibilities along with those licenses, but in the United States the tradition of an

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independent press has avoided any imposition of government-controlled examinations or licensing. Some of the states have explicit shield laws that protect journalists from some forms of government inquiry, but those statutes' definitions of "journalist" were often based on access to printing presses and broadcast towers. A national shield law has been proposed.

In some nations, journalists are directly employed, controlled or censored by their governments. In other nations, governments who may claim to guarantee press rights actually intimidate journalists with threats of arrest, destruction or seizure of property (especially the means of production and dissemination of news content), torture or murder.

Journalists who elect to cover conflicts, whether wars between nations or insurgencies within nations, often give up expectation to protection by government, if not giving up their rights to protection by government. Journalists who are captured or detained during a conflict are expected to be treated as civilians and to be released to their national government.

Rights of journalists versus those of private citizens and organizations

Journalists enjoy similar powers and privileges as private citizens and organizations. The power of journalists over private citizens is limited by the citizen's rights to privacy. However, many who seek favorable representation in the press (celebrities, for example) grant journalists greater access than others enjoy. The right to privacy of a private citizen may be reduced or lost if the citizen is thrust into the public eye, either by their own actions or because they are involved in a public event or incident.

Citizens and private organizations can refuse to deal with some or all journalists;

however, the powers the press enjoy in many nations often make this tactic ineffective or counter-productive.

Citizens in most nations also enjoy the right against being libeled or defamed by

journalists, and citizens can bring suit against journalists who they claim have published damaging untruths about them with malicious disregard for the truth. Libel or defamation lawsuits can also become conflicts between the journalists' rights to publish versus the private citizen's right to privacy. Some journalists have claimed lawsuits brought against them and news organizations — or even the threat of such a lawsuit — were intended to

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stifle their voices with the threat of expensive legal procedings, even if plaintiffs cannot prove their cases. This is referred to as the Chilling effect.

In many nations, journalists and news organizations must function under similar threat of retaliation from private individuals or organizations as from governments. Criminals and criminal organizations, political parties, some zealous religious organizations, and even mobs of people have been known to punish journalists who speak or write about them in ways they do not like. Punishments can include threats, physical damage to property, assault, torture and murder.

Right to protect confidentiality of sources

Journalists' interaction with sources sometimes involves confidentiality, an extension of freedom of the press giving journalists a legal protection to keep the identity of a source private even when demanded by police or prosecutors; withholding sources can land journalists in contempt of court, or jailtime.

The scope of rights granted journalists varies from nation to nation; in the United Kingdom, for example, the government has had more legal rights to protect what it considers sensitive information, and to force journalists to reveal the sources of leaked information, than the United States. Other nations, particularly Zimbabwe and the People's Republic of China, have a reputation of persecuting journalists, both domestic and foreign.

In the present decade in the U.S., despite a long tradition of a journalist's ability to protect sources from government inquiry, the Supreme Court has upheld lower federal court rulings that restrict to varying degrees the rights of journalists to withhold information, and prosecutors on the state and federal levels have sought to jail journalists who refuse demands for information and sources they seek to protect.

Right of access to government information

Like sources, journalists depend on the rights granted by government to the public and, by extension, to the press, for access to information held by the government. These rights also vary from nation to nation (see Freedom of information legislation) and, in the United States, from state to state. Some states have more open policies for making information available, and some states have acted in the last decade to broaden those

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rights. New Jersey, for example, has updated and broadened its Sunshine Law to better define what kinds of government documents can be withheld from public inquiry. In the United States, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guarantees journalists the right to obtain copies of government documents, although the government has the right to redact, or black out, information from documents in those copies that FOIA allows them to withhold. Other federal legislation also controls access to information (see Freedom of information in the United States).

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News

New is any new information or current events. The reporting of news falls into the field

of journalism. News is often reported by a variety of sources, such as newspapers, television and radio programs, wire services, and web sites. News reporting is a type of journalism, typically written or broadcast in news style. Most news is investigated and presented by journalists and can be distributed to various sites via news agencies. The weather is typically presented by a Weather reporter.

Newsworthiness

To be considered newsworthy, an event usually must have broad interest in one or more news values

• Effect (how many people were, are or will be affected?)

• Timeliness (did the event occur very recently?)

• Revelation (is there significant new information, previously unknown?)

• Proximity (was the event nearby geographically?)

In recent years increasing weight has also been given to the following news values:-

• Entertainment (does it make for a fun story?)

• Oddity (was the event highly unusual?)

• Celebrity (was anyone famous involved?)

News items and journalism can be divided in various ways, although there are grey areas. Distinctions include between hard news (serious and timely topics) and soft news (lighter topics); breaking news (immediate events); news analysis; and enterprise or investigative reporting, in which a topic is examined in great detail.

News coverage traditionally begins with the "five W's and the H"—who, what, where, when, why and how.

Objectivity

In democracies, news organizations are often expected to aim for objectivity: Reporters try to cover all sides of an issue without bias, as compared to commentators or analysts, who provide opinion or personal point-of-view.

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In the United Kingdom, limits are set by the government agency Ofcom, the Office of Communications. Both newspapers and broadcast news programs in the United States are generally expected to remain neutral and avoid bias except for clearly indicated orial articles or segments.

Many single-party countries have operated state-run news organizations, which may present the government's views. Even in those situations where objectivity is expected, it is difficult to achieve, and individual journalists may fall foul of their own personal bias, or succumb to commercial or political pressure. Individuals and organizations who are the subject of news reports may use news management techniques to try to make a favourable impression.

Etymology

"News" developed as a special use of the plural form of "new" in the 14th century. In Middle English, the equivalent word was 'newes', based on the French 'nouvelles'. It is not, as is often claimed, an acronym for "north, east, west, south".

Current events

Current events/Southeast Asia

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Highlights in October 2006

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• China-ASEAN Summit:

o Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was meeting Monday with leaders of Asean members, including Malaysia, in the south China city of Nanning for a summit showcasing Beijing's influence and increasingly close ties with its neighbours. (The Star)

o Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is expected to discuss the Korean issue when he meets his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao today. (The Star)

• About 10,000 volunteers are on standby and ready to be mobilised in evacuation operations in the eventuality of floods in the interior areas of Ulu Kelantan next month and in December. (Bernama)

• Typhoon Cimaron, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines in eight years, blasted out to the South China Sea today after bringing the north of the archipelago to a near standstill. (Reuters)

October 27, 2006 (Friday)

• President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo departs for a five-day visit to China to discuss trade and chair a summit for China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (AFP) (INQ7)

• Southeast Asian haze: Rains douse forest fires and clear skies in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Airports reopen on Sumatra that were closed due to the smog. Air quality is improved in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. (Reuters)

• South Thailand insurgency: Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont makes a surprise visit to Songkhla, where he pays a visit to Buddhist monks and Royal Thai Army soldiers injured in a bomb attack on Sunday in Narathiwat. (Nation) (AFP)

• Junta leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin warns deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra that he should not return to Thailand without his permission. (AFP)

October 26, 2006 (Thursday)

• ASEAN receives permanent observer status at the United Nations after the approval of a resolution for its application. (INQ7)(People's Online Journal)

• Pojaman Shinawatra, wife of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra meets with Privy Councilor Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda at his home for about 15 minutes. "There was no discussion about politics or power seizing. Khunying Pojaman met General Prem in a respect-paying manner and simply asked about each other's well-being," an aide to Prem is quoted as saying by The Nation. (TNA) (Nation) (Nation)

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one-day visits to neighboring countries since assuming the premiership, flying to Hanoi, where he meets with his counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung and other leaders to reaffirm diplomatic trade ties. (AFP) (TNA)

• Vietnam will be granted full membership in the World Trade Organization, the trade body reports. (Reuters)

October 25, 2006 (Wednesday)

• The coup in Thailand and the Myanmar issue could keep planned talks between ASEAN nations and US President George W. Bush from

happening next month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. (AFP)

• Parliament passes a bill for compulsory military service for men between 18 and 30, despite pushing by international donors to reduce the size of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. (Australian)

• East Timor crisis: A clash between rival armed groups near Dili leaves two people dead and causes the closure of Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport. (AFP)

• South Thailand insurgency: On the second anniversary of the Tak Bai Incident, in which more than 80 Muslim protestors died after being arrested, Human Rights and Amnesty International call on the government to bring those responsible for the deaths and injuries to justice. (TNA)

• Interim government:

o Junta leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin who led the coup d'état that ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra says an investigation has thus far turned up no links between the deposed premier and any corruption scandals. "It will be difficult to implicate him," Sonthi tells The

Nation. (Nation)

o Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont meets with leaders of political parties and promises to ease restrictions on political gatherings set by the junta. (AFP)

• Seventy-six North Koreans are arrested with illegally entering the kingdom. They were among 91 suspected defectors, including 52 women and 10 children under the age of 15, found on Tuesday in an apartment in Pathum Thani. (AFP) (TNA)

• In a 8-7 vote, the Supreme Court of the Philippines votes against a 'People's Intiative' intended to change the constitution. (INQ7)

October 24, 2006 (Tuesday)

• Princess Marie Ranariddh, the estranged wife of ousted Funcinpec leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh, is appointed to a ministerial post by the

National Assembly. The move makes public the much-rumored split of the royal couple.(AP)

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since the execution last month of three Christian militants. One person died in a clash on Monday. (Reuters)

• Two Muslims, Sirojul Munir and Muhammad Rudi bin Salim, convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings, are released from prison. Both had been

sentenced in 2003 to five years for their part in bombings. Their early releases spark condemnation from victims' families and the Australian government. (Australian) (Guardian)

• Jail time is reduced by six weeks for Tommy Suharto, the former

dictator's son, who was sentenced to 15 years in 2002 for paying a hitman to kill a Supreme Court judge. His sentence had earlier been reduced to 10 years. (Age)

• South Thailand insurgency:

o Three Muslims are killed as celebrations begin for Eid al-Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan. One is fatally shot in front of a mosque in Yala. Two others, including an iman, were shot on Monday in Pattani. (AFP)

o In a move the government hopes will pave the way towards peace in southern Thailand, the Cabinet endorses the revival of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center, which was shut down in 2001 by the Thaksin administration. The center will coordinate various government activities and serve as a mediation body. Its approval comes on the eve of the second anniversary of the Tak Bai Incident. (TNA) (Nation)

• Thailand interim civilian government:

o Meechai Ruchuphan, who served as legal adviser to the

administration of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is elected speaker of the National Legislative Assembly. Other candidates were Prasong Soonsiri and Purachai Piumsomboon. (TNA) (Nation)

o 100 protestors demonstrate at the parliment building call for the members of assembly to resign, saying they are "junta lapdogs" and the "servants of dictators". (Nation)

October 23, 2006 (Monday)

• Continuing his round of visits to neighboring countries, Thailand's interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont visits Manila, where he meets President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who backs his "very strong"

commitment to undertake a "roadmap to constitutional democracy" in a year's time. Surayud says he discussed the South Thailand insurgency, noting that Manila is in talks with Moro Islamic Liberation Front. "I appreciate the role of the Philippine government in adopting the right approach to tackle insurgency in its southern region," Surayud said. "I told

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ongoing insurgency in its three southern border provinces." (TNA) (INQ7) (AFP)

October 22, 2006 (Sunday)

• East Timor crisis: Fighting breaks out between two rival gangs after the mutilated remains of two bodies are found. Two men are stabbed in the fighting, and four others are injured. United Nations peacekeepers are brought in to restore order. (AFP) (AP)

• Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad meets with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi amidst hopes by their party, the United Malays National Organisation, that the two would put an end to their public

bickering. However, after two hours, Mahathir emerges as critical as ever. "I can't say I am happy, I am satisfied I am able to say these things directly to him," he says. "I will continue to criticise if I feel something is done which is not beneficial to the country." (AFP)

• South Thailand insurgency: A bomb hidden in a wastebin in front of an electronics shop in Narathiwat explodes, killing a soldier and injuring a dozen people, including five Buddhist monks making their morning alms rounds. (AFP) (TNA)

• Thailand flooding:

o Already under pressure from flooding to the north, the Bangkok area is on the alert for floods during a period of hide tides. (TNA)

o The Department of Fisheries warns that crocodiles bred in illegal farms have been escaping from their confinement due to the floods encompassing much of the central provinces. (TNA)

o The total number of patients suffering from flood-related ailments has soared to 472,897 as measured up to October 20, a public health official says. (TNA)

October 21, 2006 (Saturday)

• Southeast Asian haze: 12 airlines cancel domestic flights from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport due to smog at many destinations, including Jambi, Banjarmasin, Jayapura, Semarang, Surabaya, Bengkulu, Denpasar, Makassar, Pekanbaru and Padang.(Antara)

• Thai interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont continues his round of visits to ASEAN neighbors, paying a one-day visit to Indonesia. He meets President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who encourages the junta-backed premier to lift martial law. (TNA) (AFP) (Antara)

• Flooding in Myanmar and Thailand has killed 143 people. Flooding since August in central and northern Thailand has claimed 124 lives, the government says. At its peak earlier this month, after heavy rains from

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central and eastern Myanmar, floods have killed 19 people, though the water has already subsided in most places. (AFP)

• Southeast Asian haze:

o Malaysia calls for a regionwide firefighting taskforce to put out the forest fires in Indonesia, where farmers are clearing land for oil palm plantations. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid says he'll push the proposal at ASEAN ministerial talks in the Philippines next month. (AFP) (Bernama) (Star)

o Indonesia signs a contract with the Russian government to lease two Beriev Be-200 airplanes, amphibious aircraft that can be used to fight forest fires. The planes are expected to arrived in Indonesia on November 1. (Novosti)

• South Thailand insurgency: Five people are killed and 12 injured in overnight and early morning attacks. Two people die and 10 are injured in a bomb blast at a tea house in Songkhla. Two people are killed in drive-by shootings late Thursday in Narathiwat and another fatally shot early today. Two soldiers are injured in another bomb attack. (TNA) (AFP)

• The legislative assembly of the interim civilian government is sworn in by Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. "If all of you perform your duty properly, the country will be stabilized, and the people will be happy. But if you work poorly, the country and the people will suffer," the prince says. (AFP) (TNA)

• Southeast Asian haze: NGOs call for a detailed study on the the economic impact of the haze, which they say is worst since 1997, costing about US$9 billion in losses. (CNA) (Straits Times)

• Ousted as leader of the Funcinpec party, Prince Norodom Ranariddh says he plans to form a new political party. (AFP)

• Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, a critic of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, ends a sit-in after winning a court ruling against his suspension. Binay, his deputy and council were suspended on Tuesday after the

government said there were 500 non-existent employees on the city payroll. (AFP)

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ouster "illegal". The party names Keo Puth Rasmey, Cambodia's ambassasor to Germany, as its new head. (Reuters) (AP)

• The United Nations issues its report on the East Timor crisis, which calls for former prime minister Mari Alkatiri and other officials to be criminally investigated. The 79-page report clears President Xanana Gusmão of ordering former military police chief Major Alfredo Reinado "to carry out criminal actions," but says Reinado himself, who was jailed on weapons charges but later escaped in a prison break, could be "reasonably suspected of having committed crimes." (AFP) (Age)

o Air quality in Kuala Lumpur and Johor hit unhealthy levels due to the land-clearing fires in Indonesia. In Kuala Lumpur, the API is 108. (AFP)

o Visibility improves in Singapore, which reports a PSI falling from 92 to 70, but hazey conditions are likely to return on Thursday. (CNA)

• Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont meets with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar during a visit to re-affirm ties and discuss security issues, including the South Thailand insurgency. Former premier Mahathir Mohamad says the insurgents want to hold talks. "I think they are at a stage where they want to talk, so they need a response from the government," he told the New Straits

Times, and says he's willing to continue as a negotiator. (AFP) (TNA) (NST)

o Rain brings relief to residents in Pekanbaru on Sumatra but

firefighters working to douse forest fires in Central Kalimantan are hampered by a lack of adequate equipment. (CNA)

o Civil servants in Central Kalimantan Province are offered two days off work if they help fight fires in the Borneo jungles. Visibility in Palangkaraya is less than 100 meters. In Jambi on Sumatra, visibility is less than 300 meters and flights from the provincial airport have been suspended indefinitely. (AFP)

• Indonesia confirms the 55th death from H5N1. The victim is a 27-year-old woman from Central Java. (AFP)

• Lapindo Brantas, the gas-drilling company that officials say is responsible for the mudspill that has left 12,000 people homeless in Sidoarjo, East Java, will pay more than US$100 million this year towards the clean up. The company's parent, Energi Mega Persada, says it will spend around $106 million on the disaster, for which it has yet to admit any

responsibility. The mudflow, meanwhile, is being routed towards the sea. (AFP) (AP)

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bank in Yala, bringing to 13 the number of people killed in violence in the southern provinces since Sunday. Five people were killed late Monday in drive-by shootings: four people in Yala and a one person in Pattani. (AFP)

• Tarisa Watanagase is appointed governor of the Bank of Thailand, replacing Pridiyathorn Devakula who was appointed finance minister in the interim government. Tarisa, 57, was an assistant governor of the BoT and is the first female governor in the bank's 64-year . (TNA)

• A Christian priest, The Rev Irianto Kongkoli, is fatally shot in Palu, Sulawesi. Kongkoli was an outspoken priest who had led many protests against last months execution of three Christian militants found guilty of taking part in an attack on a Muslim boarding school. (BBC)

• South Thailand insurgency: A Pattani Province official is killed in a drive-by shooting (TNA)

• Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont pays a visit to Phnom Penh and meets Prime Minister Hun Sen to reaffirm ties and pledge cooperation on cross-border issues. (TNA) (TNA)

• Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont embarks on his first international mission, for a round of visits with neighboring countries. In Vientiane, he meets with Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh and President Choummaly Sayasone. (TNA) (TNA)

• Southeast Asian haze: Air quality in Singapore worsens after being in the good to moderate range for more than a week. The Pollutant Standards Index hits 110 at 8pm, well into the PSI's "unhealthy" range of 100-200. (CNA)

• Deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has expressed a desire to return to Thailand. "As a Thai citizen, Mr. Thaksin has the right to return to Thailand but the timing will have to be discussed among all parties

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o At a meeting of environment ministers in Pekanbaru, Sumatra, Indonesia appeals for help from its neighbours to deal with blazes that are creating the regionwide smog. "We are open to suggestions that will increase our effectiveness in suppressing current and future fires, and we welcome assistance from within and outside the region to overcome this dreadful problem which affects millions of lives," Indonesian environment minister Rachmat Witoelar says. (AFP)

o Indonesia is "respectfully urged" by its neighbors to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong also calls on Indonesia to sign the treaty. (AFP) (CNA)

• South Thailand insurgency: A police sergeant is injured in Yala as he inspects a suspicious object left in a food shop. (Nation)

• Southeast Asian haze: Environment ministers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand will meet in Pakanbaru, Riau, to discuss the haze. (AFP)

• East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta says his country does not want a United Nations peacekeeping force and will continue to rely on troops deployed by regional neighbors, such as Australia, which were sent after the political crisis. Cambodia says it plans to send troops.

• Thailand interim civilian government: A new parliament, comprising 242 members selected by the Council for National Security is endorsed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Members include Chamlong Srimuang, one of the leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy; former Thai Rak Thai party member and interior minister Purachai Piumsombun, former foreign

minister Surin Pitsuwan, and Wissanu Krea-ngam, who served as deputy prime minister in the Thaksin administration. The new body may question government policy but has no power to change laws or remove government officials from office. (AFP) (TNA)

• South Thailand insurgency: Three people are fatally shot in separate attacks. One was a rubber factory worker in Yala. Another was a man who was gunned down at his home in Narathiwat. The third was killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani. (AFP)

• Thailand floods:

o A family of three is swept away in a flash flood in Mae Hong Son, bringing the flooding death toll to 42. (TNA)

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and flooding farmland. (Nation)

o President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono apologizes to Malaysia and Singapore for the haze that originates from land clearing fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. "Clearly, this is not a problem we intend to inflict to our neighbours and we are continuously trying to tackle it and prevent it in future," he says, vowing to punish the plantation firms that are setting the fires.

o Singapore invites environment ministers for a meeting of the affected nations, which also include Brunei and Thailand, but Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda insists the meeting should be held in his country, possibly in Pakanbaru, Riau.(AFP)

• Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is in Australia on a visit to discuss security and trade relations. He holds a news conference with his Australian counterpart, John Howard, in which both leaders decry the North Korean nuclear test. (VOA)

• Communist Party of Vietnam secretary-general Nông Đức Mạnh arrives for a four-day visit in Laos, where he's to meet his counterpart, Choummaly Sayasone, as well as Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh. (AFP)

o Malaysian Natural Resources and Environment minister Azmi Khalid says talks with his counterparts from Singapore and Indonesia are being planned. (AFP) (CNA) (Reuters)

o Malaysia's Meteorological Services Department reports improved visibility in northern regions of peninsular Malaysia. (BERNAMA)

• More than 1,000 delegates gather in Yangon for the reconvening of the constitutional convention in Myanmar, chaired by the junta, which lashes out at the United Nations Security Council for its discussion of the country in sessions last month. (Guardian) (BBC) (AFP)

• Six people are killed and at least 42 injured in a bombing during a town celebration in Makilala, Cotabato on Mindanao. Two others are killed and four injured in a blast at a market in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat. Officials blame Muslim extremist groups. (AFP) (Sun.Star) (BBC) (CNN)

• Heavy rains cause flooding in Bangkok, with footpaths in Siam Square under water and key roads snarled with traffic. However, King Bhumibol Adulyadej orders flood runoff from the Chao Phraya River diverted to the

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(Nation) (Nation) (TNA)

• As it prepares to re-open its constitutional convention, the junta criticizes the National League for Democracy, which is boycotting the proceedings, and vows that any party "attempting to undermine the National Convention will be crushed with the people's strength." (AP)

• Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's cabinet, chosen Sunday, is sworn in by King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Among the names are Bank of Thailand Governor Pridiyathorn Devakula as finance minister and deputy premier and Nit Phibunsongkhram as foreign minister. The monarch urges the new government to look after Thailand's image. "The country is in dire straits confronted with flooding and other problems and bad things about Thailand are widely said among Thais and foreigners, hence it is important to rectify the tainted image," he told the cabinet. (Nation) (Nation)

• Seven villagers are killed in flash floods and mudslides in Chiang Mai Province, bringing the nationwide death toll from flooding to 39. (TNA) (Nation)

• Sixteen provinces are affected by flooding, which has caused 32 deaths, 138,000 to be ill and affected nearly 1.8 million people. (Nation)

• New People's Army rebels burn airport equipment in Silay on the central island of Negros after contractors refuse to pay revolutionary taxes.(Yahoo! News)

• The haze hits the unhealthy stage for the first time in years, reaching a PSI of 150 by 2100 hours, the worse in a decade, and triggering the first health advisory by the National Environment Agency. (CNA)

• The largest shopping mall in Singapore, VivoCity, opens with 1.1 million square feet of retail space. (CNA)

• In response to an orial in the recently banned Far Eastern Economic

Review, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts advises

the magazine to seek legal redress (FEER) (AFP) (CNA)

• Flooding is problematic throughout Thailand, including Chanthaburi, where residents waded through chest-deep waters because of a shortage of

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• Around 1,200 pieces of luggage is lost in the baggage-handling system at Suvarnabhumi Airport after a malfunction shuts down the computerized system for an hour, leaving more than 6,700 pieces to be moved by hand. (AP)

• Sok Sam Oeun and Born Samnang, convicted last year of killing labor leader Chea Vichea are in court for an appeals hearing, which is then postponed when one of the three judges does not show up. Sok Sam Oeun denounces his conviction, saying "courts in Cambodia are totally stupid and merciless." Earlier in the week, a witness to the killing released a statement saying neither man was at the scene, but the witness has gone into hiding fearing for her safety. (AP) (AFP)

• Human Rights decries the overturning of a 14-year sentence for Pollycarpus Priyanto, a Garuda Indonesia pilot convicted in the 2004 arsenic-poisoning death of rights activist Munir Said Thalib. (AFP)

• Haze reaches the worst level of the year in Singapore, as Indonesian officials say they are "working round the clock" to douse land-clearing fires in Kalimantan. (CNA) (AFP)

• The Philippines military says it has captured Istiada H. Oemar Sovie, the wife of Jemaah Islamiyah leader Dulmatin, who's said to have been behind the 2002 Bali bombings. She was arrested on Tuesday in a raid on Jolo Island. (AFP)

• The Far Eastern Economic Review says it has been banned in Singapore because it refused to apologize for an article about Democratic Party leader Chee Soon Juan over which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Lee Kuan Yew have both filed defamation suits. (FEER) (AFP)

• Haze from land-clearing fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra are blamed for disrupting travel in Malaysia, closing schools in Jakarta and has now spread to the Northern Mariana Islands.(AFP)

• South Thailand insurgency:

o Royal Thai Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin says he's been contacted by leaders of various rebel factions who are interested in starting peace talks. Another official says members of Patani United Liberation Organization and Bersatu have made contact and that negotiations could begin as early as next month.(AP) (AFP)

o Sources say meetings between Thai officials and rebel leaders to set up the peace talks were held on Langkawi three months ago and

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(Nation)

• Thailand's candidate for Secretary-General of the United Nations, Surakiart Sathirathai, is withdrawing his candidacy, says interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, after an informal poll of the 15 Security Council members gave their nod to South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon. (AP) (AFP)

• The steaming mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, caused by a

gas-exploration drilling accident, could continue for years, officials say, as they prepare to route the mud towards the sea, despite warnings from

environmental groups. Drilling crews are seeking the source of the hot mud, which they say is a hole the size of a large pizza. (CNA)

• Malaysia opens its national space center, the first in Southeast Asia. It is seen as a strategic milestone for the country, which is sending its first astronaut to the International Space Station next year. (AFP) (BERNAMA)

• Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says he's "taken note" of Lee Kuan Yew's apology on statements he made about Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia and calls for Lee to make assurances "that such a statement should not be made again." (NST) (Star)

• India is transferring some military hardware to Myanmar in a bid to counter the influence of China and to aid the junta in fighting such insurgent groups as the United Liberation Front of Asom and the Nagaland Rebels, which seek shelter in Myanmar's jungles. (IANS)(IANS)

• Singapore Airlines says it wants to be compensated for delays in the Airbus A380. As the new jumbo jet's first customer, the airline expected delivery this year but it has now been delayed until October 2007. (CNA)

• Typhoon Xangsane:

o Officials reported 110 dead and 79 missing.

o Officials say 59 people were killed, with floods submerging thousands of homes as rains continue. (AP)

• Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra announces his resignation as leader of the Thai Rak Thai Party as the former ruling party undergoes an "exodus" of membership in the face of regulations imposed by the Council for National Security that would ban party leaders from politics for five years if their parties are dissolved for breaking electoral laws. (Nation)

• Severe flooding continues across northern and central Thailand. A schoolboy is swept away and drowned in Prachin Buri, bringing the death

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barriers and inundate Mueang Ang Thong. (TNA) (Nation)

• Cambodia's National Elections Committee responds to an address by envoy Yash Ghai to the United Nations Human Rights Council, who said policies of the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen "have subverted the essential principles of democracy." The elections body said the envoys comments were "unsubstantiated." (AFP)

• The state-run New Light of Myanmar reports on fighting between government troops and the Shan State Army-South in which 17 villagers were killed. (AP)

• Interim civilian government:

o Surayud Chulanont begins his first day as prime minister by paying a visit to Supreme Patriarch Nyanasamvara Suvaddhana at Wat

Bowonniwet, offering good wishes for the religious leaders 93rd birthday. Surayud also pays a call on US Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce and Bank of Thailand Governor Pridiyathorn Devakula (Nation)

o Responding to the new prime minister's assertion that he will focus on a sufficiency economy that puts people's happiness before economic growth, a poll by Assumption University has 89% of respondents approving of that approach; 64% approve of the new government. (Nation)

• The government reports at least 11 people were killed and dozens more injured in Typhoon Xangsane. (AFP)

• Thailand coup d'état: Gen. Surayud Chulanont is appointed interim prime minister of by the ruling military regime. (BBC)

o 76 people are dead and 69 are missing in flooding and landslides, with parts of Luzon and Manila still without power. (AP)

o The storm hits central Vietnam, including Danang, killing 10 people and injuring more than 130 others. SOS Children has opened its school in Danang as an emergency centre and reports that 25% of the roofs in its village have blown off. SOS(Xinhua) (VietnamNet)

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been celebrating its 18th anniversary this week. (AP)

• Thailand coup d'état: The Council for Democratic Reform submits an interim constitution for formal approval to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. (TNA) (AFP)

o Relief efforts begin following the worst typhoon to hit metro Manila in more than a decade. (Inq7) (Reuters)

o Vietnam prepares to evacuate 180,000 people from nine central provinces before the typhoon hits. (AP)

September 29, 2006 (Friday)

• Typhoon Xangsane lashes the Philippines, killing at least 60 people and causing extensive damage in Manila and several provinces, including Quezon, Laguna, Bulacan, Bataan, Bicol, Iloilo, Antique and Leyte. (AP) (DPA)

• Thailand coup d'état:

o Surayud Chulanont will be named as the interim prime minister, several officials say, though his appointment won't be official until it is ratified over the weekend by King Bhumibol Adulyadej.(Times) (AFP)

o Responding to criticism and the suspension of aid by the US, junta spokesman Gen. Winai Phattiyakul asks the US to "understand the decision of Thailand." The general also appeals to the foreign press to tone down its negative coverage of the coup and says that "we are considering lifting (restrictions against the press) very soon." (AP)

o The Council for Democratic Reform announces its annual military shuffle, removing several pre-Cadet classmates of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The junta's secretary-general, Gen. Winai Phattiyakul, is named permanent secretary for defence. Deputy Supreme Commander Gen. Boonsang Niampradit is named supreme commander, replacing Gen. Ruangroj Mahasaranond. Fourth Army Region command, which is dealing with the south Thailand insurgency, goes to Lt. Gen. Ongkorn Thongprasom, who swaps posts with Army adviser, Lt. Gen. Viroj Buacharoon. (TNA)

September 28, 2006 (Thursday)

• The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts bans the Far Eastern Economic Review from local circulation for failing to comply with amended conditions in Section 24 of the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act. (CNA)