WikiLeaks may be shut-down by the end of the year due to a financial blockade caused by banks and credit card companies - who have slashed its income by 95 per cent.

The website's founder, Julian Assange, announced that a "temporary suspension" of publishing at a press conference in central London, saying that it was a result of the refusal by companies including Mastercard, Paypal, Visa and Bank of America to process payments since last December.

Assange described the blockade as "dangerous, oppressive and undemocratic", and declared that WikiLeaks would now be required to direct its energy towards "aggressive fundraising" in order to help the organization continue.

On the front page of Turkey's Habertürk Daily print edition last Friday, a photo of a naked and bloodstained murdered woman was shown, causing a social and media uproar.

The article was titled "The last point of violence against women", and whilst there are daily reports of abuse and ‘honour-killings’, Habertürk has been the first to show a photo so graphic and uncensored. The photograph clearly shows the woman's identity and the kitchen knife used to kill her that was still planted in her back.

An international research team based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs has released a detailed report that tracks and analyzes the difficulties of broadcasting the news into jurisdictions that censor the Internet, including Iran and China.

The report, titled Casting a Wider Net: Lessons Learned in Delivering BBC Content on the Censored Internet, reports on a series of real-world tests to deliver access to BBC websites into Iran and China, where they are regularly blocked by authorities. The research combines data from three major sources: two years’ worth of traffic data from the BBC’s web content services, in-field testing of Iranian and Chinese Internet censorship undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), and service delivery of Psiphon Inc, a Canadian “circumvention” service that delivers uncensored connections to the web for citizens living behind national firewalls.

Parliamentary media policy in South Africa will be subject to legal advice after complaints journalists have a lack of freedom in reporting government proceedings.

The move follows a call to ban journalist Deon de Lange from reporting on parliament, after he allegedly breached reporting protocol by speaking to a parliament official without permission. De Lange quoted the unnamed official who criticised a push to pass the Protection of State Information Bill, which would ban whistle-blowing on classified documents.

The editor of Independent Newspapers, de Lange's employer, has stated he was unaware of the parliamentary media rule. Other media groups, including the National Press Club and the Cape Town Press Club believe the move to ban De Lange is "ridiculous" according to Eye Witness News, also saying they were unaware of the rule.

A few days ago Siegfried Kauder, Chairman of the Legal Committee of the German Parliament, announced a plan to introduce a two-strikes model for persistent pirates. After two warnings, Internet users would lose their Internet access to protect the interests of copyright holders. However, it now turns out that the politician himself might be the first to be disconnected as his website features copyrighted photos that were lifted without permission.

We see it time and time again. Copyright is a double edged sword, and those who sharpen one side often get cut by the other.

When the German politician Siegfried Kauder introduced a two-strikes model to beat online piracy a few days ago, his own actions with regard to copyright were weighed carefully.

It didn’t take long before people spotted Kauder’s first infringement on his personal website, which was quickly followed by another one.

Leonidas Montes, president of the executive board of Chilean television channel Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) said on Tuesday in a statement to the Chilean Journalists Association that he acknowledged the channel had "commited an error" when it used videos of 'hooded delinquents' (encapuchados) to present reports on the on-going student protests in the country, on TVN's news programme 24 Horas. The statement was released the day after more than 60 university students attempted to interrupt the broadcasting of 24 Horas; the students accused the "channel of all Chileans" to "not giving enough coverage to the student protests, and for supporting the Government in education-related news."

The French government has recently prohibited the use of the words "Facebook" and "Twitter" on television or radio broadcasts; except where these social networks are a central part of a news report.

The regulation, issued by the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), cites a 1992 statute governing the relationship between journalists and advertising, sponsorship, and "teleshopping". Mentioning the words "Facebook" or "Twitter" on air, in the eyes of the CSA, constitutes "clandestine advertising". CSA spokesperson Christine Kelly explained her organization's desire to set a level playing field when it comes to social networking: "Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition," she said. "This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it's opening a Pandora’s Box — other social networks will complain to us saying, 'why not us?'"

Police in the Australian state of Queensland have arrested a technology journalist covering a security conference, raising troubling questions about the legal implications of everyday online behaviour.

Ben Grubb, deputy technology editor at Fairfax, was arrested at the AusCERT conference on the Gold Coast and had his iPad confiscated by police. Grubb is accused of receiving stolen photos from a hacked Facebook account as part of a presentation which sought to highlight privacy vulnerabilities in the popular social networking site.