Journalists worldwide working for news organizations in a business, technology or leadership capacity can apply for a fellowship at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society will host at least one fellow for an academic year to carry out a research project on journalism innovation.

Candidates must propose a project relating to journalism’s digital transformation. Examples might include ideas for new revenue streams to fund journalism, the construction of new tools for reporting or research into news consumption patterns.

Most fellows receive a US$65,000 stipend. Fellows receive additional allowances for housing, childcare and health insurance.

The application deadline is Dec. 1.

For more information, click here: http://nieman.harvard.edu/fellowships/nieman-berkman-fellowship-in-journalism-innovation-2/

Journalists with knowledge of English, German and other languages can apply for the program.

DW Akademie is accepting applications for its 18-month traineeship. The program offers a mix of academic study and on-the-job learning.

The selected candidates spend the first six months participating in theory and practice-oriented seminars. The next nine months are spent in various Deutsche Welle editorial departments in Bonn, Berlin, and one of the organization’s foreign bureaus in Brussels, Washington or Moscow. Trainees spend an additional month atDeutschlandradio.

Trainees earn a starting salary of EUR1,590 (US$2,014) per month and receive two raises over the course of the program. They also receive one month of vacation.

Applicants must have professional proficiency in English or German. Journalists who are native speakers of another language that is part of DW’s language services — especially Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Russian or Spanish — are encouraged to apply.

The deadline is Oct. 31.

For more information, click here: http://www.dw.de/dw-akademie/traineeship/s-12130

A group of Iranian journalists has openly criticized President Hassan Rohani for claiming that reporters are not being jailed in the Islamic republic.

Rohani made the remark in an interview with CNN in New York on September 26.

He told the U.S. cable television network: «I do not believe that an individual would be detained or put in prison for being a journalist.»

But an open letter on October 2, signed by 135 journalists and activists, says the Iranian president is “distorting and denying reality.»

The letter accuses Rohani of not living up to his election promise to ease government controls on the media.

In June, the press rights group Reporters Without Borders said it knew of 58 journalists who were being jailed in Iran.

It said: «Iran is still one of the world’s five biggest prisons for news and information providers.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-rohani-jailing-of-journalists/26617467.html

President Vladimir Putin says Russia is not planning to limit access to the Internet or put it under «total control,» but will need to ensure the stability and security of its Russian segment.

Putin, speaking at a meeting of his presidential Security Council, said Russian Internet domains had faced a growing number of cyberattacks.

Putin said the security services had detected constant growth in the number of cyberattacks, particularly in the last six months — the period when the crisis in Ukraine worsened.

He added that the intensity of the attacks «depends on the current international situation.»

Putin said Russia will consistently and legally close sites disseminating or promoting extremism, xenophobia, terrorism, and child pornography.

«It is obvious that today we need to elaborate and implement a range of additional measures in the area of information security,» he said, adding that Russia did «not intend to limit access to the Internet» or «to put it under total control.»

The Russian leader appeared to be trying to defuse speculation about possible Internet restrictions amid escalating tensions with the West over Ukraine.

The Russian daily «Vedomosti» reported on September 19 that the government may require Russian Internet service providers to install equipment that would make it possible to sever Russia’s access to the global Internet in situations deemed by the authorities as «extraordinary.»

The Kremlin has denied the report, but said on September 30 that Russia was «rehearsing responses should our esteemed partners decide to switch us off from the Internet.»

According to experts, the more domestic service providers a country has, the more difficult it is to completely switch off the Internet.

Domestic providers offer web access after purchasing connectivity from another provider outside the country.

There are more than 300 domestic service providers in Russia that have purchased connectivity from outside the country, and the government  would have to force them all to shut down to fully sever access.

However, there are several precedents. Egypt shut off the country’s Internet for five days in 2011 during the Arab Spring protests.

Syria’s Internet was shut off three times in 2011. Nepal and Myanmar have briefly disconnected, and China shut off access to the mostly ethnic Uighur region of Xinjiang amid unrest in 2009.

An alternative to shutting down the Internet completely is filtering content. Russia has already blocked several opposition sites and passed a law requiring registration by some bloggers.

Russia also has indicated that foreign Internet companies will have to comply with its laws.

According to a September 26 report in the «Izvestia» daily, Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has notified Facebook, Twitter, and Google that they must comply with a law requiring registration with the agency, and store six-month archives of metadata for their users at a location within Russian.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-internet-putin/26615429.html

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has condemned a series of death threats against Artan Haraqija, an RFE/RL journalist who has been reporting on radical Islamic groups in Kosovo.

Jean-Claude Schlumberger, the OSCE mission chief in Kosovo, called on September 18 for authorities in Pristina to bring to justice those who have threatened Haraqija and other journalists in Kosovo.

Haraqija, who also works for the Indeksonline website, received the latest in a series of death threats after appearing on a Kosovar TV program called “Rubikon” on September 16.

Haraqija worked on a joint report about Kosovo’s radical Muslims with “GazetaExpress” journalist Visar Duriqi, who also has received death threats for his work.

On September 17, police arrested 15 Muslim leaders across Kosovo for allegedly recruiting fighters for Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kosovo-journalist-threat-islamists/26593808.html

The chief producer at independent Russian TV channel Dozhd (Rain) has been attacked, beaten, and robbed.

The internet and cable TV company says two unidentified men attacked Ksenia Batanova, who is also an anchor, near her apartment building in Moscow on September 12.

Dozhd says Batanova lost consciousness after several blows to the face and was hospitalized with a facial bone fracture and a concussion.

The attack came two days before Batanova, who is on a local election commission, was to work at a polling place during elections to the Moscow City Duma on September 14.

The attackers stole her mobile phone and earrings.

Moscow police said on September 15 that an investigation had been opened on suspicion of robbery.

Dozhd is often a platform for criticism of the Kremlin.

Based on reporting by tvrain.ru, Interfax and ITAR-TASS

http://www.rferl.org/content/batanova-dozhd-tv-attack-election-robbery-police/26584532.html

UPDATE: The Russian media conglomerate Rossiya Segodnya has confirmed that photographer Andrei Stenin is dead, saying in a statement that medical experts had concluded a body found in a burned vehicle outside Donestk was that of Stenin.

The fate of a Russian photographer who disappeared nearly a month ago in eastern Ukraine remains a mystery despite scattered claims that DNA testing confirmed Andrei Stenin was dead.

A fellow Russian photojournalist claimed on September 2 that Stenin’s remains have been identified, after he disappeared while covering fighting between pro-Kyiv and pro-Russian forces.

Another report, on the Russian FlashNord website, quoted the separatist «Donetsk People’s Republic» as saying genetic tests had confirmed that remains found more than a week ago were Stenin’s.

But Stenin’s employers at news agency Rossiya Segodnya (also known as RIA Novosti) said they had no confirmation of Stenin’s death. «We are awaiting the final results of genetic testing in the near future,» Rossiya Segodnya Director-General Dmitry Kiselyov was quoted as saying.

The case has particularly alarmed Russians and international observers due to suggestions — including by a Ukrainian official — that Stenin, who was on assignment at the time, had been taken into custody by Ukrainian security forces.

Russian colleague and self-described «good friend» Vasily Maksimov (@vasilymaximov) announced Stenin’s purported death via Twitter.

«Andrei Stenin’s remains identified, it seems,» Maksimov said. «RIA will soon let you know. Unfortunately, I no longer doubted this outcome. RIP.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/stenin-ukraine-russia-journalist/26563187.html

Islamic State (IS) militants have released a video showing the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warns governments not to ally with the United States in its fight against the group.

The video, which emerged on September 2, shows Sotloff dressed in orange and on his knees in a desert landscape. A masked militant condemns U.S. attacks on IS, which has been targeted in air strikes in northern Iraq, and cuts the captive’s throat.

Coming two weeks after IS issued a similiar video showing the beheading of another American journalist, James Foley, the video at once underscores the risks of U.S. involvement in battling Islamic State militants and increases pressure on President Barack Obama to step up action against them.

The U.S. National Security Council said on September 3 that it has determined that the video is authentic.

The confirmation came in a statement by National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Sotloff’s killing a «horrific act of violence» and warned Islamic State militants that the reach of the United States is long and that «justice will be served.»

British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the beheading as an «absolutely disgusting, despicable act.»

After the beheading, the militant in the latest video introduces a second captive, identified as David Haines and said to be British, and warns governments to stay out of «this evil alliance with America.»

Sotloff had worked for the magazine «Time,» as well as «The National Interest» and «Foreign Policy.»

His mother made a video on August 27 urging IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to release him.

«The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time,» a spokesman for Sotloff’s family, Barak Barfi, said after the release of the video.

In the video showing the killing of Foley, which was released on August 20, a masked man warned U.S. officials that Sotloff would be killed next if Washington did not end air strikes against IS militants in Iraq.

The United States has recently carried out dozens of air strikes against IS targets in Iraq.

The group and its allies control large parts of northern and western Iraq after entering the country at the start of this year from areas in northeastern Syria.

The report cites «hair-raising» accounts from survivors of massacres that Amnesty said shows IS fighters have committed «war crimes.»

The report said, «The massacres and abductions being carried out by the Islamic State provide harrowing new evidence that a wave of ethnic cleansing against minorities is sweeping across northern Iraq.»

The report said just in the two villages of Qiniyeh on August 3 and Kocho on August 15 «the number of those killed…runs into the hundreds.»

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-sotloff-beheading/26563370.html