Inter Press Service (IPS)

Inter Press Service (IPS) was set up in 1964 as a non-profit international cooperative of journalists. Its founders were Roberto Savio, an Italian freelance journalist, and Pablo Piacentini, an Argentinean political scientist who was then a student in Rome. Savio served as Director General of IPS until 1999 and is now the agency’s president emeritus. Piacentini served the organisation in various capacities and is currently editor of the columnist service.

As Canada’s Democracy Trembles, a New Global Architecture Emerges

TORONTO, 28 Jun (IPS) - Nearly 600 people were arrested as global leaders and elites met behind a fortified perimetre during the G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto this weekend. Read more read

date of on-line publication : 1 July 2010

EU Boosts Israel Ties, Ignores Illegal Settlements

Diplomats representing the European Union (EU) have drawn up a new plan for strengthening their relations with Israel despite the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Read more read

date of on-line publication : 23 March 2010

Mideast and North Africa Cited for Press Abuses

A report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on press freedom around the world in 2009 depicts an especially gloomy situation in the Middle East and North Africa, where authorities continue to use repressive measures to muzzle journalists. Read more read

date of on-line publication : 23 February 2010

Africa: Civil Society to AU: Investment Must Address Marginalisation

> By Diletta Varlese, Terna Gyuse and Joyce Mulama

No gathering hosted by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is ever dull, and the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the African Union, concluding in Sirte, Libya today has not disappointed. A surprise invitation to Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is facing down massive popular protest over his disputed re-election as president, briefly threatened to overshadow the meeting, but he did not in the end attend. The other source of drama was the renewed challenge to the International Criminal Court, on (...) read

date of on-line publication : 16 July 2009

Nigeria: Award-Winning Film Lands Director in Jail

The first time I visited award-winning Northern Nigerian filmmaker Hamisu Lamido Iyan-Tama in prison, a week after his arrest, the former Kano State gubernatorial candidate seemed to be in high spirits. Dressed immaculately in a crisp dogon riga, the only physical sign that he was in prison was his rubber slippers. He joked with the friendly prison guards, greeted each visitor by name, and narrated how in December 2008, a mobile court justice had sentenced him to three months in prison and (...) read

date of on-line publication : 24 February 2009

Ahmed to challenge ’press offences’

Makram Mohamed Ahmed, newly elected Egyptian Journalists Syndicate chairman, has promised to pursue the syndicate’s longstanding goal of outlawing the practice of issuing jail terms for so-called "publication offences". "The legality of sentencing journalists to prison remains the biggest challenge to Egyptian journalism," Ali Hashem, former Journalists Syndicate secretary-general, told IPS. "The practice will never be done away with in the absence of a strong syndicate leadership capable (...) read

date of on-line publication : 18 December 2007

Ultrapobres, o la infravida

Las estrategias de asistencia deben reformularse para que una creciente marea de riqueza planetaria llegue a los más pobres, pues el mero aumento de la producción no alcanza por sí solo, según el Instituto Internacional de Investigación en Políticas Alimentarias (Ifpri). Los países en desarrollo elevaron a grandes cantidades de sus habitantes por encima de la línea de pobreza definida por la comunidad internacional, de un dólar por día. Pero pocos de los denominados "ultrapobres" —162 millones de (...) leer

Fecha de publicación : 15 de noviembre de 2007

Aumento de precios rebaja el desarrollo

> Por Marwaan Macan-Markar

Un nuevo mecanismo para medir el impacto del elevado precio del petróleo sobre los pobres de Asia deja en evidencia grandes amenazas. El flamante Índice de Vulnerabilidad del Precio del Petróleo, que incorpora 18 indicadores diferentes, sugiere que los países analizados resultaron perjudicados con el aumento del barril de crudo de 22 dólares en 2003 a alrededor de 80 dólares ahora. La semana pasada, el petróleo alcanzó un récord de 90,07 dólares por barril, lo que condujo a especulaciones sobre la (...) leer

Fecha de publicación : 26 de octubre de 2007

Indigenous People Make Best Forest Custodians

> By Marwaan Macan-Markar

The millions of indigenous people living across Asia and the Pacific are finally gaining recognition for the key role the play in forest conservation. This shift has been a feature of a major conference being held here this week to shape forest management policies in this region for the next 20 years. Activists championing the cause of local communities welcome this sea change, given that forests have been sacred to these people and central to their identity. ‘’Indigenous people have a (...) read

date of on-line publication : 25 October 2007

Climate Change Also Drives Evolution

New scientific evidence confirms that human action, such as carbon emissions causing global warming, and industrial-scale search for food, is decimating biodiversity - and, in some cases, is driving threatened species to evolve and adapt at unexpected speed to new living conditions. An example of this evolution accelerated by human action is the new sexual behaviour of codfish, says the Austrian biologist Ulf Dieckmann, an evolution and ecology researcher at the International Institute for (...) read

date of on-line publication : 22 May 2007

Poor Could Lose 67 Billion Dollars

Poor countries risk receiving 50 billion euros (67 billion dollars) less than what they have been promised from the European Union by 2010 unless the bloc improves the quality of its development aid, anti-poverty campaigners have warned. The EU’s development aid ministers are to assess what progress has been made in realising commitments to increase aid at a Brussels meeting May 15. Although EU officials say the ministers will express confidence that pledges are being upheld, non- (...) read

date of on-line publication : 22 May 2007