Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency says two filmmakers arrested last month over their alleged links to BBC’s Farsi-language service have been released.

Fars said Monday that Nasser Saffarian and Mohsen Shahrnaz had been freed, without providing further details.

The agency did not say if four other independent filmmakers detained on the same charges — providing the British Broadcasting Corp. with video and news reports perceived as damaging to Iran — would also be released.

Tehran has accused the BBC of operating as a cover for British intelligence and of seeking to harm Iran by hosting Iranian dissidents.

Source: Washingtonpost.com

Read More »Iran frees two of six jailed journalists

Google has posted geospatial data on Georgia. From now on any interested user can find detailed information about Georgia on Google Map.

The National Agency of Public Registry of the Ministry of Justice has been conducting talks with the Google administration.

According to the Ministry spokespersons the public registry had been accumulating geographic and spatial data for a year and a half now to launch detailed information on Georgia on Google.

From Georgia the Google administration was sent a detailed map of the country providing info on roads, mountains, peaks, ferries, rivers as well as other sights and railways. The GIS group of the public registry was working on the interactive map.

The Public Registry, the Ministry of Justice said, has retrieved data from the Institute of Geography, department of statistics and roads, Ministry of Environment and other agencies.

Google Map will be providing tourists with complete information about the means of transport and lodging locations. Through the online map users can easily find streets, the destinations of importance and interest. Each of the destinations is attached with useful information, geographic coordinates and so on.

With the use of the map tools one can measure distance between destinations as well as zooming in and out.

Read More »Google Posts Data for Georgia

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini considers baseless the accusations of the BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks that the relatives of staff working for BBC incur pressure from the government in Iran.

BBC promoted the colonial policy of Britain, caused a controversy in society, and therefore, its activity in Iran has been stopped, Hosseini told Trend.

According to Horrocks, after BBC displayed a documentary film about the Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran, six documentary filmmakers were arrested, also the families of ten Iranian staff working for BBC incurred pressure.

The journalists who cooperate with some foreign media outlets were warned to be attentive with the media outlets, of which activities run counter to the interests of the Iranian state. Some journalists have been punished, the minister said in an interview with Trend.

“There were many people who came to Iran under the guise of journalists, but then engaged in spying,” said Hosseini. According to the minister, the freedom of speech in Iran is at a high level, all conditions have been created for the media outlets in the country, more than 4,500 media outlets have been registered, of which 3,000 are currently working.

Read More »Iranian minister of culture considers BBC accusations baseless

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini considers baseless the accusations of the BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks that the relatives of staff working for BBC incur pressure from the government in Iran.

BBC promoted the colonial policy of Britain, caused a controversy in society, and therefore, its activity in Iran has been stopped, Hosseini told Trend.

According to Horrocks, after BBC displayed a documentary film about the Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran, six documentary filmmakers were arrested, also the families of ten Iranian staff working for BBC incurred pressure.

The journalists who cooperate with some foreign media outlets were warned to be attentive with the media outlets, of which activities run counter to the interests of the Iranian state. Some journalists have been punished, the minister said in an interview with Trend.

“There were many people who came to Iran under the guise of journalists, but then engaged in spying,” said Hosseini. According to the minister, the freedom of speech in Iran is at a high level, all conditions have been created for the media outlets in the country, more than 4,500 media outlets have been registered, of which 3,000 are currently working.

Read More »Iranian minister of culture considers BBC accusations baseless

From October 1, 2011 Perviy Informatsionniy Kavkazsky (PIK) (First Caucasus News), the Russian-language channel of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) will be headed by Ekaterine Kotrikadze, incumbent head of news service of the channel and Robert Parsons, incumbent Director General will be appointed to the position of the chairperson of the PIK Board of Trustees.

“Reorganization is being on at PIK,” said Zurab Kodalashvili reporting to Media.ge. He quit the position of PIK’s Executive Director in September.

The Tabula magazine of September 12 published the interview with Robert Parsons. According to the respondent PIK is going to merge with the Russian-language Region TV.

“In the small county such as Georgia there is no need for two Russian-language languages,” said Parsons then. The reorganization, he said, which implies the merger of these two channels is due to end late this year.

PIK conducts broadcasting through satellite across East Europe, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as well as Middle East and Asia Minor.

The PIK website is being visited by approximately 50,000 unique users on a daily basis.

Since autumn 2010 PIK has been managed by a private company K1 having invited British specialists as managers. Some of them have already left the channel.

Read More »Staff Changes Being on at TV PIK

A Turkish prosecutor conducting the investigation into the assassination of Turkish- Armenian journalist Hrant Dink said on Monday that the murder was committed by Ergenekon’s cell in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.

Prosecutor Hikmet Usta announced his opinion as to who masterminded the assassination and as to the accusations directed at suspects during the 20th hearing of the 20-suspect Dink trial at the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court. The prosecutor said the murder was the work of Ergenekon’s Trabzon cell and demanded life imprisonment for seven suspects, including key suspects Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, on charges of attempting to destroy the constitutional order.

“The Dink assassination was the latest assassination of the deep structures. The suspects acted on ideological motives. The target was the Turkish Republic and public order. There is suspicion that the murder is linked to the Ergenekon network. We have reached the conclusion that the Dink murder was committed by the Trabzon cell of the Ergenekon terrorist organization,” Prosecutor Usta said.

Read More »Prosecutor says Ergenekon’s Trabzon cell committed Dink murder

Maestro TV journalists request police to return the video footage made at President Mikheil Saakashvili’s premises in Kvareli on September 25.

The crew of Maestro show ‘Without Accreditation’, including its author Shalva Ramishvili, was detained during filming, taken out of the territory and the video equipment was confiscated.  Later police returned the equipment, but without memory cards and a microphone.

As Ramishvili describes on his page at social network facebook, his crew and he entered the territory, purchased by the President from a private person just recently (there is a vineyard and a country house at the territory) without any problem, despite the fact that there were policemen at the territory.

“No one asked were I was going.  Everyone was running away from us; policemen were hiding in the vineyard.  I was asking them – “whose house is this?  But they did not answer,” Ramishvili recalls.  According to him President’s premises did not have any entrance gates.

Ramishvili claims that a little later Kvareli police chief, wearing civil clothing, came later and took them outside the territory.

Read More »Georgia: Maestro TV Crew Requests Return of Footage Made at President Owned Premises

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul received on Sunday German journalists, who were detained in Iran on charges of espionage but who were released after his initiatives.

Gul’s first meeting in the German capital of Berlin, where he is paying a formal visit, was with Bild newspaper’s reporter Marcus Hellwig and photo journalist Jens Koch.

Hellwig and Koch thanked President Gul in Turkish, while Gul said German President Christian Wulff briefed him on the detention of the two journalists before his visit to Iran last February, and President Wulff also exerted efforts for the journalists.

During the meeting, Hellwig and Koch said they learned from radio when they were in a prison in Tabriz that Gul would visit Iran, and hoped that President Gul would save them.

German journalists Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch were arrested in Iran when they wanted to interview with the family of Sakina Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death penalty on charges of adultery.

German President Christian Wulff briefed President Abdullah Gul on the issue before Gul’s visit to Iran last February, and asked for Gul’s support.

Two journalists were released some time after President Gul brought up the issue to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad.

Read More »Turkish president receives freed German journalists

The Hrant Dink Foundation bestowed the Hrant Dink Award for the third time Thursday evening in Istanbul. The award — handed out every year on Dink’s birthday, Sept. 15 — is traditionally shared between two people: one, a citizen of Turkey; the other, a foreign national.

As noted on the official Hrant Dink Award website, the award is given to “people who work for a world free of discrimination, racism, and violence, take personal risks for their ideals, use the language of peace and by doing so, inspire and encourage others.”

This year, independent Istanbul-based newspaper Taraf editor-in-chief and lead columnist Ahmet Altan (pictured below) was the Turkish recipient of the award.

“It’s not with joy but with shame that I accept this award. Along with Turkey’s 70 million people, I was unable to prevent Hrant’s murder. With 70 million people, I was unable to discover the real perpetrator. Accepting this award with shame, I am going to keep it as a deposit — to return it one day to the person who uncovers Hrant’s iniquity,” said Altan in his address.

Read More »Hrant Dink Award goes to Ahmet Altan (Turkey) and Lydia Cacho Ribeiro (Mexico)