Launched at the beginning of the year by AFP and Relaxnews, the world’s first leisure newswire gets a promising early assessment despite the economic crisis.

J.S. Tissainayagam, a Tamil reporter and editor serving a 20-year prison sentence in Sri Lanka, was awarded the first Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism on Friday. His wife, Ronnate Tissainayagam, accepted the award, named for a 30-year veteran of Agence France-Presse who died last year, at a ceremony at the National Press Club.

AFP photographer Joe Klamar won the Picture of the Year award at the Czech Press Photo 2009 contest with a photo of US President Barack Obama taken during his visit to Prague in April, the organisers said Monday. An international jury selected a picture of Obama giving a speech as he gazed at the statue of the first Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937), with the city skyline in the background hidden in fog.

AFP has joined forces with the Austrian news agency <a rel="external" href="http://www.apa.at">APA </a> to develop an Event Manager, a multilingual application for the editorial management of news events. It is one of the cornerstones of <a rel="external" href="http://www.afp.com/afpcom/en/content/news/project-rich-media-news">AFP's Rich Media News Agency Project </a>, an ambitious project to transform the agency and sharpen its multimedia edge.

We are coming to the end of a year of multiple crises. We had the financial crisis, of course, which disrupted the global economy, halted growth and pushed up unemployment. But 2009 was also the year that threw into question the entire economic model of the media, notably the written press.

AFP hosted the twice-a-year meeting of<a href="http://www.minds-international.com/"> Minds International Association</a> in Paris from October 8-9. <a href="http://www.minds-international.com/">Minds International</a> is a network of research and development centres for 17 European and North American news agencies (including the Associated Press) which promotes the sharing of best practices, business models, new technology, platforms, products and services.

AFP is preparing full multimedia coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics, being held February 12-28 in Vancouver, Canada. AFP will provide extensive coverage with more than 70 journalists, video reporters, photographers and technicians on the ground in Canada.

Two Kenyans and a Moroccan are the winners of the Picture This: Caring for the Earth photo contest organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with <a rel="external" href="http://fondation.afp.com/english/">The AFP Foundation </a>and the Olympus Corporation.

An AFP journalist who is among the few independent reporters still working in war-torn Mogadishu received Tuesday a key press award for his work, along with three other correspondents. "By recognizing me, you are also recognizing the courage of the small band of working journalists still in Somalia," Mustafa Haji Abdinur said at the ceremony for the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) International Press Freedom Awards.

Getty Images, the leading provider of digital media, and Agence France-Presse, the global press agency, today announced an extension of their global relationship, to provide customers in Italy with a comprehensive news photography service, which will leverage the complementary strengths and experiences of the two partners in the Italian market. The goal of the agreement is to increase the breadth, depth, reach and quality of services provided to their customers in Italy.