The other way. Bait and click. Those online headlines you cannot resist. Last year every time we covered the media story in egypt, we would conduct our producer in cairo. He would advise us on logistics and help en insure we got the story right. But Mohamed Fahmy was not available this week. He and his colleagugiven spreade news and aiding the band muslim brotherhood. Some of the prosecutions evidence was so flimsy, it might have been funny if the consequences were not so serious. In egypt, some Mainstream Media outlets applauded the verdict m echoing a wider view of al jazeera, a big part of the arab spring but fell from grace in the eyes of some over a perceived bias in favor of the muslim brotherhood. The crackdown on press freedom is parallel to larger security operation to quell dissent. Hundreds have disappeared. Some 40,000 have been arrested. Those are the kind of stories that risk going untold with journalists in egypt either parroting the narrative or facing the consequences. Our starting point this week is cairo. June 23rd was the 177th day the three journalists from Al Jazeera English had spent either jailed in a prison or caged in a courtroom. They and the families there to support them hoped it was the last. The judge sentenced them to another seven years, and in one case, 10 years. They say you see journalists being dragged from a cage into his jail sentence and you see the Egyptian Police forcing the journalism to shut down, this is an education he is greeting the media. It shows how low the government is willing to go in order to silence the media. The screams for the families of those defendants, it was actually the sound of pain. I dealt an incredible amount of shame. He script had failed peter and all of them. And failed me and its very difficult to feel shame for being egyptian. And i have never felt it before. But i feel it now because its just disembraceful what this country has done to them. Real justice, it is said, must not only be done but seen to be done. This is how egyptian justice was seen in the case of the al jazeera three. Human rights watch said in todays egypt,cism practicing professional journalism is a crime. Reporters without borders said not content with criminalizing political opposition, the authorities are gagging news media. Amnesty international called it a dark day for press freedom and said the convictions were based on not a single sled of solid evidence. The Huffington Post said the prosecution presented evidence taken from the journalits laptops that and to have nothing to do with the case, the muslim brotherhood, al jazeera and in many instances, egypt, itself. If anything, the way evidence was used made those trials look like a kind of kangaroo court. There were evidence of videos not produced by the journalists who were being accused. There were videos from other news channels where the journalists dont work. There were pictures of goats. There was music videos. There was all sorts of digital artifacts that were unrelated to the Production Team that was being accused. They didnt care to show evidence as long as it showed how this evidence is such a sham that they should have created better evidence. A sham so shamy the prosecution couldnt pretend it wasnt a sham. Their case is based on some random video clip they probably found on the web. You would think that egyptian states would want to have a good name as a purveyor of freedom of press and such. It didnt seem to care, but it communicates something of i can even uses this and get away with it and exercise power. Cnn correspondent ian lee. In an extraordinary act of media solidarity cnn made correspondants available to al jazeera on this story. He scripts domestic media would not or could not do the same. He Job Description journalism came a long way in the years leading up to and culminating in the 2011 revolution. They have since given that ground back to the government and adopted the National Security narrative almost wholesale, particularly on the television side. The poster child for that turnaround is ibrahim eason, a journalist once jailed by the mubarak register email compared what he said about al jazeera in 2011 when it was still the toast of Tahrir Square to what he says today. It was displaceful by ibrahim isa, this journalist, specifically him after what he said about al jazeera, praising al jazeera in the past and also for being in prison for falsifying the news, the same exact charge to then exactly feed these journalists, telling people these are not journalists and feeding on all of these fears. He if he had on all of that and sold out these he fed on that and sold out these journalits. Comments for other journalists. We are seeing a lot of them lose their principal position and become partisan. It may not be a problem but when its starting to justify oppression and starting to give the government ammunition to use against, as a journalist, that is a thing that would be the greatest loss. This story is bigger than a squabble between a news outlet and a government. Those happen all the time. This is government on government. Katrina hancock which owns al jazeera be qatar is seen as providing and banning the movement one year ago which was the countrys democratically elected government. Any state managing its foreign media is towards other regional and international players. This will give sisi maybe six years ahead of him to always have this bargaining chip. So, i think there will be a lot of international playing between the united states, between al jazeera, as an institution of journalism and, also, the state of qatar. These trials have implications around the region because since the arab spring, several kinds of governments have figured out new ways of cracking down on journalists. In particular turkey over the last year has successfully prosecuted several journalists for tweets. Its pretty clear some regimes are being allowed to get away with this, getting away with putting journalists into jail for things that they didnt really do. And for the moment, egypt is getting away with it. The u. S. Secretary of state did call the courts verdict chilling and draconian. But money talks. A diplomatic slap on the wrist walks. President he will sisi can live with the criticism of one side of washingtons mouth as long as the other side has just delivered 572 million in military aid to a man fresh out of uniform. This was never just about free journalists. This was never just about al jazeera. Its about the thousands of people that are now in prison for expressing their opinions. Imagine a world where journalism is silenced. Its not just about criticizing. Its actually now about praising. You have to praise in order to be allowed to work. They are all trying to jam. The foreign media right now are really pretty much the only media that are criticizing or that are presenting a different narrative. And that is why this verdict sent a very strong message. Sending a message to the local media they are already in line. It was sending a message to the foreign media to tow the line or you can be in that cage and you will be in that cell and no mercy will be shown. Our Global Village voices now on the court case, al jazeera, and the state of journalism in egypt. In egypt, the rebate conviction of three al jazeera journalists fills fear within the communicatety but within the Wider Community of dissent, yet while the majority of International Community has expressed outrage at the government, the majority in egypt have been quite supportive of the conviction of the three al jazeera journalists and the wider crackdown on those who express dissent such as yousef and recently, alswani, when the majority of e gyms recognize the crucial role of journalism that press freedom will truly be recognized in egypt. Those who believe with the principles, freedom, dignity were just very much against this verdict. Others were still saying, yes. Finally, the al jazeera journalists who were conspiring and plotting against the country has received what they deserve. This is a polarization the of the country still existing. Its a sad day and hopefully, it will be solved peacefully in the future. Dont miss america tonight exclusive reports front line iraq only on Al Jazeera America time now for listening post news bite. 16 major news organizations have gone to an American Court demanding the release of video footage from the prison at guiterrgi gitmo. A syrian who has never been charged with a crime was cleared for release back in 2009 but remains behind bars five years later. Among the organizations behind the legal case, the New York Times, Washington PostAssociated Press and bloomberg went before a federal judge in washington and argued that under the u. S. First amendment, the American Public has the right to know and in this case, see what is being done in their name in order to exercise their democratic right to judge the actions of their government. Neither the pentagon nor the Justice Department has commented for the record on the case but have argued in other guantanamo cases that they are secret to protect the an animity and to safeguard security techniques. The turkish government proven in the recent past its not shy when it comes to sensoring the media has banned any reporting on isils kidnapping of 49 people in mosul. The blackout was imposed june 16th. Prime primary erduwan urged the immedia media not to prove voc isil. The turkish interesting regulator justified the move as protecting the safety of the hostages. There is a pattern. In march, embroiled in a disruptions scandal, the government blocked twitter and youtube saying social media was being used to destabilize the government. Erduwan has been blamed for failing to evacuate the consulate before it was attacked. With president ial elections set for august, there was a lot to play for in turkib politics. Judgment day for tabloid journalim, one of the former editors has been found guilty in the phone hacking case. The fallout reached all the way to 10 downing street and Prime Minister david cameron. Andy colson was convicted. But Rebekah Brooks was cleared along with her husband and her secretary were cleared. After leaving the paper under the hacking cloud. Colson worked for cameron in the Prime Ministers . I am extremely sorry. Cameron has apologized for bringing him to number 10. This episode left him to serious questions about his judgment. In all, six employees of murdochs News International have now gone down, all convicted over phone hacking. The next days coverage in the british papers was all over the map. The daily mail tabloid focused on downing street. The murdoch own times trump petted the not guilty over the con conviction. They are called red tops. Murdochs son had no shame. It had a triumphant brooks as the page 1 girl, the usually page 3 girl but nary a mention of the guilty verdict against colson until page 4. If you have been on facebook today, you will have seen and it may be even clicked on headlines that seem to pull on your most pointer mouse pointer like a magnet to find out what the enticing intwo does not tell you. Here is one of our own for you. We produced a feature on click bait headlines. You wont believe what we found out because the fact is, most, if not all, of the online outfits that put click bait out there dont care if their contact disappoints. The point is you went there. You cant take the click back. Thats what advertisers care about. But as some news outlets have learned at their expense, there are some news stories web surfers dont want to be manipulated over. The listening post now on the epidemic of click bait and the devious tricks after growing trick. Wow. 21 pictures. Restoring your face in humanity. Twenty things that will blow your mind. Arent headlines supposed to tell us whats in a story so you can decide whether to read it . When did they start promising to blow your mind . Its that sort of feeling that at this irresistible and you have to click on it. This is a very typical clickbait photo. A guy took a photo in the dark with flash o what he captured was terrifying without words. It doesnt tell you what at all this is about but it raises the jee. Terrifying beyond words . What could it possibly be . So even if you feel kind of cynical about the headline and dont really want to read the story, you are almost going to have to click. There was a headline that was Something Like this kid died. What he left behind is onetacular like wondesh stuck into spectacular. You never find out in the headline what the wontacular thing is. They used to be more descriptive because they asued the reader is there to read use. Now, you are there not to be board. The list thing going, they own that where people werent really aware the topic quite as much but because upworthy u uses the headlines in that way and thats really how they became such an overnight success, that, then, was mirrored by different sites. I am started rebelling against it. If it seems interesting, no. Not going to do it. So maybe you click but did the content literally blow your mind . Did it restore your faith in humanity . Probably not. We invited buzzfeed and up worthtock explain their headline writing policies to us but they said they would rather not. We did get the livesington post managing editor and he says despite what some might think, it isnt part of the websites modis operanti within. We have all arrived at a page and kind of being disappointed or having it feel a little flat. For us is something we try to avoid at all costs. I think thats one of the things that may distinguish us from places that are pushing the limit. One example that comes to find for me is the headline for the Government Shutdown. When the Government Shutdown ended, we wrote the headline, men got us into the shutdown. Women got us out. It had that bite to it. It had that humor, kind of cr crystalized the moment in the right way. There were probably very few differences between the story we wrote and the story politico rote and the journal and the story the New York Times wrote but if i had to guess, our headlines probably drew more people to our story than theirs did. In the end, there is nothing more important than getting those clicks. In the online economy, page viewsqual. Advertising remember knew about are any methods justified for any story . In february, there was a story about rape statistics. There was a backlash. They might have said cnn tried out a click bait headline. I understand cnn would want to draw traffic to its article, but i dont think that that is enough of a justification with stories that are controversial or need more nuance. We are talking about hang. How in the world can you use that kind of clickbate headline for that a topic. In response, it posted another tweet. Thanks for feedback. Its genuinely surprising alaskats rape rate is so high. The story deserves attention. You may or may not agree with them. What about this tweet from cnn for from the previous month. 14yearold girl stabbed her little sister 40 times, police say. The reason was will shock you. There are tactics that are okay for some newcomers that probably arent okay for a cnn major media facing competitors like upworthy growing tremendously. They would be remiss if they didnt notice this media has legacy brands to protect and these new outlets like upworthy dont have that. In the battle for online eyeballs, Media Outlets tend to follow the traffic. As buzzfeed and upworthy has skyrocketed. Others have copied the clickbait formula but there is another factor less about the headlines and more about one particular website driving a lot of those clicks. Facebook. Which the social media joint changed whats known as its news feed algorithm, that one change channelled all kind of highly clickable content right there where you are most likely to see it. Suddenly clickbait was everywhere. The news feed is what you see when you log into facebook. Com. Its like the main way facebook shows you content. The affect of this change was so enormous that publishers started to target stories toward facebook users. The upworthy style works well there . I think that the way that news is now viewed is heavily influenced by social media and the type of social media thats available, you know, 10 years ago, you didnt have people using facebook. You didnt have people using twitter. Now, you you know, you slayer it on facebook. You share it on twitter. I think we will experience clickbait fatigue. We are seeing it. We are going to get tired of those types of headlights but sites change with the times. Whats clickbait this year isnt going to be clickbait next year. When you are killing time on the internet and a headline grabs you. 69 facts about new zealand. Out of this world. Will you rise to the clickbait . More Global Village voices now on the clickbait thing . Its rife because it works. Thats the truth of the matter many people feel clickbaiting is cheapening. Its ephemeral, fleeting, designed to elicit an almost unthinking response. Its not a very comfortable relationship either for the journalist or the reader. In the end, superb content is what wins, not sensationaltist headlines that are here for the moment and not going to be here for the long run. This clickbait, talking more about the headlines. Is the you dont believe what gets next. It gets more people reading a great piece, thats a good thing. It can feel a little bit cheap but its part. You see the content doesnt matter. Maybe people are getting wise. They are keeping on clicking. R. Look hard enough into dark story and 1 can find rays of light. Journalists have been moved by the solidarity shown by other news outlets, many our direct competitors over this net worstcase scenarios egyptian might nair. We mentioned cnn earlier doing for al jazeera what we have been banned from doing, reporting the story on our own people from that courtroom in cairo. Our free aj Staff Campaign has been retweeted more than 100,000 times by people would care. Exactly 24 hours after that verdict came down, many news rooms, not just our own fell silent with vigils to protest a judgment seen as a politically motivated attack on journalim in egypt. Our gratitude for the support on our industry is outweighed only by fewer fore colleagues. We have compiled some images from places as far away as london, stockholm. We will see you next time here at the listening post. [silence. Clean iraqs former Prime Minister calls on his supporters to boycott a crucial parliamentae vote on the formation of a new government. Watching al jazeera. Also head, israel strikes against gaza. Net warns of more to come saying he is ready to expand the operation. Defying beijing, people in hong kong head to the polls to demand a right to elect their leaders plus hang on to your sob prior 0s. Mexico taking on the netherlands for a p