A few years ago, I was told by the OpEd editor of The Baltimore Sun that his newspaper would no longer publish guest columns addressing international topics.

The BBG, an independent federal agency with a budget of more than $750 million, is tasked with overseeing U.S. government information services including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Free Asia.

Beijing's new response is typically massive and ambitious: a $6.6 billion global strategy to create media giants that will challenge agenda-setting Western behemoths such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the BBC and CNN. The stations don't broadcast outright propaganda but rather programming with a Chinese focus and flavor, tailored for local audiences.

Technology experts in Washington, DC say the recent blocking of Voice of America radio and Internet broadcasts by the Ethiopian government is likely to have a negative long term impact... The prime minster of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, accuses VOA of broadcasting destabilizing propaganda...

The Arab News, since its inception, has carefully maintained a style of reporting on Saudi-UK relations that might best be described as one of friendly formality. It is almost never critical.

The 162-year-old Associated Press news agency, an American icon, has chosen London as the hub of its global television operation. Ian Burrell pays a visit to its historic offices.

After using enhanced diplomacy and trade to bolster ties with Middle Eastern neighbours, Turkey now has a new weapon to seduce the Arab world: a state television channel in Arabic accessible to more than 300 million Arabic speakers.