Friday, December 28, 2007

Trailing Bhutto's assassination

To help journalists understand yesterday's killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Poynter Online columnists Amy Gahran and Al Tompkins looked for available online resources.

Follow Bhutto Assassination News via Blogs, Twitter
December 27, 2007
By Amy Gahran

As I was making tea this morning, I heard on NPR that Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had just been assassinated at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Immediately I jumped on my laptop. Of course, Google News already offers a slew of mainstream news coverage of the assassination -- based almost entirely on reporting done outside Pakistan, since tight restrictions on journalists remain in force in Pakistan even though President Pervez Musharraf lifted six weeks of emergency rule on Dec. 15. (More on that country's press restrictions from the International Federation of Journalists and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.)

Given the current dearth of available professional journalism from within Pakistan, the country's lively blogosphere -- much of it in English -- has become a key source of original and diverse news, analysis, commentary, and context from around that troubled nation. Today especially would be a good time for journalists around the world to start paying close attention to Pakistani blogs.

Read more here.

Pakistan Resources

December 28, 2007
By Al Tompkins

Pakistani bloggers have been actively posting updates on the country's escalating tensions after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

You can check out the official Bhutto Web site, but the site was down a lot on Thursday. Here is Google's cached version.

Read more here.

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