Transcripts For ALJAZAM Listening Post 20150913

Post. Here are some of the media stories the refugee crisis, the story in hungary and the image that was the covers. Those arrested. Pushing the brown envelope, the culture of bribee in nigerian journalism refugee crisis spans many countries, and theres a number of pressure points. One is hungary. The government, headed by viktor orban, was criticized for the treatment of refugees and the media. Journalists said they have been pushed away from distressing scenes. Hungarys authority is denying accusations that it told stateowned it was not to broadcast images of refugees children. When made public it was determined as a governmental effort to limit snathy sympathy for the refugees. As we saw one image of a child, the photograph of a lifeless 3yearold boy face down on a bitch led to many seeing the crisis differently and provoked news outlets to rescore coverage of the largest story. The starting point is the hungarian capital budapest. Having survived the trip across the mediterranean to the shores of europe and heading overland, for many, its destination germany. The refugees made it to hungary to find the government had already put them on its political agenda. One of those was a campaign, there was 1,000 billboards around hungary saying if you come to hungary, dont take the jobs of hungarians, respect the laws of hungary, and certain slogans, interestingly in the hungarian language who were they aimed at, probably not the migrants. Translation and then the right wing press of the Government Party took up the narrative. Story after story of terrorists posing as refugees saying that they are saying and spread disease across hungary. The Media Campaign fuss generated, the government was not prepared or organised. While the media continues the refugee narrative. Nothing was done to handle the wave of refugees for reporters from the outside, the story turned into a crash course on Prime Minister Viktor Orbans approach to the media. Within a year of taking office for the second time in 2010, his government passed a law to grant the authorities thu powers to impose fines for vague journalistic infractions, it led toe demonstrations. As to the proposal last year, to put a tax on the internet, shelved after hungarians protested that it would limit freedom of expression. Thats the latest, limits on access to refugees and a directive from the Hungarian Media Authority to go to television, not show images of refugee children. When arrived the Media Authority denied issuing a directive, but went on to say appear translation this is hypocritical. In reality what they want is to avoid portraying the refugees as human being. Its easier to cal vannize sentiment against a faceless people. Migrants, syrians, have been open. Its remarkable considering the situation where theyd be avoiding fingerprinting but give the name and will another person information to report. Many migrants said to me that the reporters with protection stay with us. The police are nice to us as long as the media are around. Reporter the orban government and others that have taken a hard line against refugees do have influence. However, a single tragedy captured by a lone photographer on a turkish beam undermined arguments and shifted the debate and the news coverage. The photographers worked for turkey, and the images went global, tweeted out by peter buick heart of the n. G. O. Human rights watch. Reporter i was not surprised it went viral on twitter. I was taken aback by the fact so many came out on the streets saying enough is enough. Ill do something to make sure the refugees get to germany. 2,000 drivers in austria drove into hungary to pick people up. Its a beautiful reaction. A picture of a policeman tenderly holding the young 3yearold boy had a very particular effect because it involved the person who represents the policeman, the person and the person that represented them, a tiny child, but they were sort of embraced together in a moment that must have been tragically sad for that policeman to find that boy and we couldnt say us and them. Suddenly it was all in one picture. We must share these images, without them we cant understand the refugee crisis. In the last couple of weeks the tragic development affected Public Opinion in a positive way. No longer is the narrow focus, the danger at the refugee post. We can see that across broadcast and other publications the tragic element of the story is in the forefront. Not just hungry. The Sunshine City chefs, the biggest the sun is a notable example. Gone the hostile headlines, the editorial hard lines, the paper is one of men news outlets. A big tab loit. Printing a pullout guide in arabic welcoming refugees to berlin. That shift is something no one saw coming before a few pictures changed the narrative. Because the photos went viral, journalists are looking at socialle media to see what stories are breaking. Especially with Something Like asylum. So many Asylum Seekers operate. Thats where they find the stories. I think they began to realise that they were out of step and maybe a bit oldfashioned. We are dealing with a media that often doesnt tem the human tell the human angle of the story. It is possible to counteract the uninformed western media dialogue with the stories of new people. It was not an easy decision to quite the brutal picture. The world needed to see it. It opened peoples hearts. And i think that is the greatest tribute that we can pay. I liked it. Its hard to believe that a friend would set you up. People dont get federal life sentences. And beat them. They had been trafficking on behalf of the United States government. The cia admitted it. Other media stories on the radar. Here is a quote from turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a year ago he said theres no freer press in europe or the world than turkey. That day two journalists working with vice news were deported to the u. K. After a few days in a turkish prison. They were arrested in the southeastern part of the country after filming clashes between police and supporters of the p. K. K. They were charged with deliberately aiding an armed organization. The iraqi colleague remains in gaol, and the charges against him relate to encryption software. Software that has proven popular with i. S. I. L. Militia among others. In a bizarre piece of television. Those long loyal to president Recep Tayyip Erdogan put two columnists on the air calling the vice journalists specially trained agents saying they were organising for i. S. I. L. [ speaking Foreign Language ] vice denied the allegations. Frederica, a dutch journalist, was arrested for the second time this year while covering clashes between the police and kurdish mill fantastic. Hes been released and deported to the netherlands. Thats just the foreign journalists. The journalist with the paper faces charges of insulting president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in columns he wrote. The editorinchief has been handed a suspended sentence over 21 months. With elections in november, the turkish media story is heating up. Supporters of the ruling a. K. Party attacked the officers, stoning the building following a Twitter Campaign organised by progovernment activists, accusing the newspaper of misreporting a speech by the president. The interamerica report of human rights ordered the venezuela government to reestablish the broadcasting licence of an opposition tv channel. Radio caracas television. That licence was pulled in 2007 under the government of president nicolas maduros predecessor. The late hugo chavez. R c. T. V. Had been on the air since 1953, and was the most watched channel, along with another channel. R c. T. V. Backed a coup against chavez in 2002, that led to the president s temporary overthrow. The new ruling noted how chavez accused the tv of being involved in the coup, and said that the decision not to the renew the licence was based on an editorial lie. The court that operates under the ooeg res of the organization of american state heard lawyers argue that the licence was revoked after tv abused its right to freedom of expression. The programming characterised by misreporting of facts. With holding the information and manipulation of quotes presented in a bias way in china news stories have a habit of being in the headlines one day and disappearing the next. That is the case with wang, a Business Reporter that wrote a piece. His article revealed some inner workings of chinas regulatory commission. The csrc. And that alleged to have contributed to the crash that followed thereafter. At the end of august. With the market in turmoil. He was one of 200 rounded up, accused much colluding and spreading fake information. He was shown on the state broadcaster c c. T. V. , confessing. The next day, according to the hong kong paper there was a confession, 17 ran the confession. The following day, an outlet close to the ruling party wrote that he cannot share all the blame. Since then, nothing. The story all but vanished this weekend is the First Anniversary of a big news story out of nigeria. The collapse of a hostel in lagos. 116 lives were lost. The way the story was reported stank of corruption. It was known as brown envelope journalism. The money is given to travel a journalists travel costs and expenses, the money affects the way a story is reported. Thats what happened with the hostile last year. Its easy to condemn journalists, but the reality is that theres complex dis involved. Journalists are among the worst paid reporters. In a country where corruption is from the top down, rooting it out of single institutions such as the news media is easier said than done. The listening posts nick muir howed from lagos, a populous country. Reporter september 2014, nigerian journalists raced to the scene of a collapsed hostile. More than 100 worshippers came there to see a bestknown evangelist. They now were dead beneath the rubble. Eager for details. Said something. They werent going to say anything. Possibly playing it between about the tragedy. Every journalist was leaving. They were handed an envelope. Which out of 50,000 is about 200 300 roughly. I was aghast. When he mentioned money. It changed. They were suggesting you should see what you should do. The brown envelopes work. Here is what many focus on in the days after the tragedy. That there was a mysterious aircraft hovering above the community. The militant Group Boko Haram may have been responsible. And the victims were called martyrs of the kingdom of god. Fewer floors were added to the building. Members of the church possibly hindered the first respondsers. Later the coroner said the church was criminally negligent, that evangelists refused to accept and a far cry from the whitewashing in a nigerian media. No one arrived the questionsment on the saturday i woke up and the first picture i saw on the phone was then president shaking hands. And he had gone for a visit to the church. That was the final straw for one of the reporters, saying he did not accept a brown envelope and after reading the coverage felt compelled to exlows a cover up. Tweeting that they bribed journalists. The pastor has not commend on the authenticity. Not publicly or in response to the question. The backlash was swift. And the most deathing attacks came from journalists. People wrote damaging articles about me. We are talking about one with six lives. All we could see is if we were trying to become famous. Bribing journalists. Oivening to the audio and was 50,000 iraqis. Through there was a big kerfuffle on social media. Journalists were uncomfortable. They were uncomfortable. When theres one that doesnt, because it shows them off. Deep inside they feel a sense of shame, and they know what they are doing is wrong. This much july the State Government chose not to prosecute the church but slapped it with a misdemeanour shorge. Journalists abbing we esque to brown book adjourn. The average salary is 200,000 a month. Less than the bribe that was covered last year. In july, the Nigerian Union of journalists protested, demanding the payment of salaries owed to its members. Going ban nine months. We tried to arrange an crew with the owner, managing director. No one was available. We went to the fors to try their luck. We have been there to find posters saying the company was understand investigation. One told me that the company does not promote journalist. What was told was not every journalist means what they say. Ultimately, journalists are left with little choice but to fend for themselves. Are the government expect Public Officials to supplement their income. The media is a driver. And you could feel sorry for journalists who have not been paid for a while, or are even encouraged by their publishers. I have not paid the salary, you earn an number of. Thats working paper way of having brown note journalism. The music, hunger plays in your stomach makes you deaf to reason. When journalists are not paid, they are prone to being compromised. Im not saying they were not paid that take brown envelopes. Those well paid go. It gets to the root of the problem. Transparency international is an n. G. O. Showing how corrupt the public tech sore is accused of being. There is systematic corruption in nigeria, going behind journalism. The brown envelopes are a symptom. Corruption is deep in the society. Its no wonder they have been infected by a disease affecting everything else. A lot of editors and publishers try to stay within the well of verifiable tact. Remember. You have a corrupter and corruptee. Its in the interests of those that dominate the political economy of nigeria to corrupt the journalists. Make yourself on honest man and theres one crook left. When you have resolved to be an ethical journalist, then it affects the industry. So if the majority of journalists decide to be ethical. They make a repetition of the profession, it has been cleaned up. Journalism is meant to hold power to account. As long as air time and column inches are up for sale. What do you want me to write . Journalism will be forced. Not all journalists are for sale. Some are the watch dogs of their own profession. And for now its a start. I finally get to blossom into the beautiful flower i am finally, back to the refugee story. Hans is a swedish medical doctor, a statistician, an academic, a giver of ted talks, a big thinker that ends im on the lists of influential people. He comes at the refugee story as a director, as a measure of social progress. Als a states tirn he looks hard at the numbers and academic. He nation the point. News coverage is not enough. Without the background or the context. The headlines or images concues us. The answer, he says, lies in educating ourselves. And watching the news coverage. When is the last time you have seen an intellectual making the point. Its a salient point. See you next time here at the listening post. The Nuclear Agreement that iran signed with the United States and five other world powers is a big complicated deal thats taken years to arrive at and some people as im sure youve gleaned really hate it. The bottom line is if government of iran has agreed to slow down its Nuclear Program dramatically in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions