US - Google Inc has given $2 million to the Knight Foundation, it was announced yesterday, and the search giant has said it will invest $3 million more in journalism projects outside the US, "through a similar partnership." More details will be available early next year, according to a post on Google's blog by Nikesh Arora, President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development.

AMSTERDAM - FOI expert Roger Vleugels releases a new overview of all FOI laws. The architecture of this overview changed and has now seperate lists for national, sub-national and international FOIAs. 238 FOI laws in 84 countries

AMSTERDAM - The right of journalists to protect their sources will be strengthened throughout Europe, after a judgment from the European Court of Human Rights Tuesday. In a ruling strongly reaffirming the "vital importance" protection of sources plays to press freedom, the court overturned a ruling that had compelled Dutch journalists to reveal the names of participants in illegal car races.

GENT - The conference of the Dutch-Belgian Investigative Journalists’ Association VVOJ is to take place on Friday November 19 and Saturday November 2010 in the Belgian town of Ghent. This year’s theme is Journalism on the Edge.

BRUSSELS — Waaris.eu stands for Whereis.eu. It is an online competition that challenges everybody to make a movie of 60 seconds about the European Union. What does the EU mean to you? What impact does it have on your daily life? And maybe your one-minute movie will appear on the International Film Festival of Flanders in Ghent! You win your share of the € 2500 prize money! Or you get a digital FLIP camera! 

NEW YORK - The new Facebook + Media page is geared to media organizations to help them “drive referral traffic, increase engagement, and deepen user insights”.

STOCKHOLM - Whistleblowers' website Wikileaks obtained the files and made them available to The Guardian newspaper as well as the New York Times and German weekly Der Spiegel.

ATHENS - Journalist Socrates Giolias was shot at his house's entrance in the district of Ilioupolis. It is reported that police collected from this point minimum 15 shells from a 9mm firearm.

BRUSSELS – Romanian journalist Adrian Mogos has won the CEI – SEEMO award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism. Mogos is praised for his cross-border stories, among them the Slave Labour Trafficking, which was made possible through a grant from Journalismfund.eu.

BRUSSELS - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is partnering with WageIndicator, a global wage survey that has measured wages of over 1,500 different occupations and 400 industries in over 48 countries around the world to date, to campaign for decent pay for journalists.

LONDON - The Bevins Prize, established to recognise outstanding achievement in investigative journalism, has opened for entries for its 2010 award.

REYKJAVIK - Het IJslandse parlement heeft unaniem een wet aangenomen waardoor de vrijheid van meningsuiting en van informatie wordt versterkt. Nieuwsorganisaties, blogs en andere personen en instanties kunnen namelijk gevoelige informatie veilig onderbrengen op het eiland.

BRUSSELS - "Through the Lorenzo Natali Prize, the European Commission recognises journalists who contribute to the cause of development, democracy and human rights. Many work in what are often difficult conditions, but the light they shed on the realities on the ground is key to raising public awareness of the importance of development policy. That is why we wish to help them to continue providing information in the cause of combating poverty." 

BRUSSELS - The World Press Photo Foundation in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung organizes the ‘SEE New Perspectives’ - Masterclass for professional photographers from Southeastern Europe.

LONDON - For the sixth year running, Private Eye and The Guardian is awarding a prize for investigative/campaigning journalism in memory of Paul Foot.

 Follow here in streaming the 6th global conference of investigative journalism. Debates take place from the 22th to the 25 of april, in Geneva.

BRUSSELS -- Journalismfund.eu now can distribute another round of research grants. If journalists have a good idea for an investigative story but lack time or money to carry out the research, they can apply for funding. As a new option this call not only offers support for cross-border stories but also for European affairs stories.

VIENNA — Vedat Kursun, former editor of the Kurdish daily, Azadiya Welat was on Wednesday sentenced by a Turkish court to three years in prison in connection with two articles deemed to have spread propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK - which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union, the United States and many other countries.

VIENNA — The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is pleased to announce the 2010 Dr. Erhard Busek - SEEMO Award for Better Understanding in South East Europe. Sponsored by Dr. Erhard Busek - Jean Monet Professor ad personam, President of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, Coordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), Former Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and President of the European Forum Alpbach - the EUR 3,000 award will be presented to a journalist, editor, media executive, media expert, writer or journalism trainer in South Eastern Europe, who has promoted better understanding amongst peoples in the region and worked towards ending minority-related problems, ethnic division, racism, xenophobia, or who has helped in any other form to foster understanding in South East Europe. 

GENEVA — One of the most awarded investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh has accepted the invitation made by the GIJC 2010 to be a keynote speaker in Geneva. Known as early as 1969 to be the journalist who broke the My Lai scandal in Vietnam, Seymour Hersh has more recently exposed the Abu Graib scandal. Hersh has published eight books, including, most recently, "Chain of Command" which was based on his reporting on Abu Ghraib for The New Yorker.

It is the first time that Seymour Hersh will speak at a GIJC and he will open the morning session on Friday the 23d april.

BRUSSELS - 6 films selected for the shortlist of the Dirk Vandersypen Award 2010. The winning filmmaker comes from Peru, VS, Brasil, Spain, UK or Bolivia.

BRUSSELS — An internal report by the EU anti-fraud office, Olaf, has shed light on how close the bureau came to hunting down the sources of a German investigative journalist, in a case with implications for press freedom in the EU capital.

ALEXANDRIA - At the start of the second edition of the International Journalists of the Mediterranean the "Caravella of the Mediterranean" -prize will be given to the winning journalists.

BELGRADE — Each year ten journalists are chosen to receive funding and professional support to research and report on a topic of regional and European importance.