Do stay with us as the listening post is coming up next thank you for watching. On accounting a cost us billionaire President Donald Trump wants to cut taxes but how will his plan impact ordinary americans spain versus catalonia the economic implications plus cama given whats behind the collapse of australias Auto Industry counting the cost at this time on aljazeera. With. A. Week. To go down but always a referendum. On the. Alarm Richard Geres britain europe the listening post here are some of the media stories were covering this week catalonia you know the journalism is problematic when some of the journalists want their own bosses fired vietnam where many bloggers are challenging the state controlled news narrative and are paying the price indian journalists taking on nationalist voices say theyre getting a cease and desist Death Threats via whatsapp fight this violence something lies and americas biggest progun lobby group doing its thing online were taking a second crack this week at the politicized polarized coverage coming out of spain in the aftermath of the independence referendum in catalonia hundreds of would be voters were left injured in a Brutal Police response to an electoral process the Spanish Government called unconstitutional that provoked another round of largely partisan coverage the tone and content of which depended on the news source whether the report was coming from outlets based in the dread or barcelona journalists at the madrid based National Broadcaster t. V. Or calling out their own bosses for one sided reporting on the catalonian side the coverage on the publically funded t. V. Three was similarly biased the rival channels do have one thing in common the way theyre run illegal changed. Five years ago allows both governments to directly appoint the heads of their publicly owned t. V. Channels politicians may like that but the resulting journalism leaves much to be desired our starting point this week once again is the catalonian capital. One assessing journalism its not just what you see its what you dont see open and shut case in point Catalonian Television and International News outlets all led with images of police battling and in some cases bloodying people trying to vote in barcelona madrid stayed on t. V. We started with this. Kid i want to start with. The channel showed what looked like a standoff skirmishes nothing more police breaking a door down carting away ballot boxes not swinging their batons at people and the first voice spaniards heard apart from the anchor duo a t. V. Was an official one from madrid. That offended. Me about it and yet it does and in. T. V. Began with the political side of the story comments from the deputy Prime Minister instead of starting with the events in catalonia that altered the natural order of this new story this sign great importance to the government in madrid even though the story was about to the lonely and its a constant subversion is theres less. Could not follow every detail of t. V. Coverage however i did see a spanish policeman helping a man with his son i havent seen him this have you dont buy them i dont know if this is the local soloist but its great that the police are considerate with children but to elevate one single story into a heroic act on a day when almost nine hundred people were injured could be seen as a bit unbalanced. Journalists tend to be skeptical creatures so newsrooms can be hotbeds of discontent but you will seldom see a revolt as public as the want to t. V. The hash tag says very go ends up spanish for shame t. V. Employees in madrid waved those signs at their senior producers who Issue Editorial orders and who remained in their seats. For any thought or course of the protest was not organized it was spontaneous it made absolutely clear to the management that we do not condone this behavior we feel ashamed we are seeing things of the channels state television which should be the first to tell the public what is happening actually relinquished that obligation together they have chosen not to report on an extremely serious matter one of the biggest constitutional crises of recent years thats why we are calling for the resignation of the head of news so painfully mission. Which brings us to how t. V. Head of news. Got the job up until two thousand and twelve if the Spanish Government wanted to appoint a new director of t. V. It require the consent of two thirds of parliament a rule meant to ensure a consensual approach in the running of public broadcasting in spain the government of Prime Minister mariano it off or is Popular Party changed that reverting back to the days when the government could make that appointment unilaterally and stack the journalistic back in its favor. Not a very unsettled. Politicians should not be able to appoint the directors of public television. They should be chosen by an independent professional body which rewards professionalism not their willingness to follow a particular political agenda t. V. E. Is acting as press officer for the government in madrid and t. V. Three is acting as a press officer for the catalonia government that had been sent there. Well we have the legs in and out. Because that rule change did not just the fact madrid and the way t. V. Was run it also allowed the Regional Government in barcelona to appoint its own man to run t. V. Three the publicly funded broadcaster in catalonia t. V. Three and its sister news Channel Three twenty four have a clear Pro Independence bytes reflecting the position of catalonian president carla speech to mark three twenty four is not above taking the story from referendum day and decorating it with a rousing soundtrack taking dramatic license melo dramatic license with the name. Absolutely response having the other night in a way that i think. Professionally that the last for the support of the. You can leave the last sort of international. Professional. Even more than. What someone came to by working to set in january two thousand and sixteen one of his friends and actually for marry mr nice partner was appointed director of the cattle in wales. This year actually very prying the bend and move man journalist we found out and just west point theyre very rector of the cattle on television the current director of the t. V. He was the chief Information Officer of. The taliban but the the popular meaning that he has a clear political profile. And the consequence is what we have no a days. If you will got a government in madrid made a mistake putting the Party Faithful in charge of the state broadcaster it wasnt just that they were jeopardizing a basic civil right they were compromising a Public Service a service that belongs to the people that is paid for by the people. Many of the staff or t. V. Have complained about the polarization of the news and their loss of audience it shows that people have noticed what is happening there and the vacuum left by t. V. Is being filled by lust that i dont understand the last sixteen. Is a privately owned center left channel that launched just over a decade ago and has seen its audience share explode from six percent to twenty five percent compared to t. V. And t. V. Three its approach to this story has been much more balanced. They have tried to be one they can see there to be a new trial or by lance and theyve got attacks by. Independent perspective im a little bit. But also why the most conservative sectors of our society of particular interest is the position of five very powerful large t. V. Press and there and then youve got the senate but i mean some recent and im a fan of a lot of a lot older than just in accordance to. What i will do he doesnt share the position of the independent these nor of. Government of my dream and hes been accused by both sides of being a precise new trial. One final point on t. V. For the second straight week we contacted spains publicly funded broadcaster to give it a chance to respond to its critics once again it declined for all intents and purposes t. V. Is same of its coverage no comment the way a politician. In front of the video the future of journalism at least in spain is coming to an end weve reached the stage where journalists are soldiers fighting in the trenches working for a particular course when reporting the news journalists should be stateless they shouldnt raise any specific crime they should actually raise all of them and be at the service of all of them not just one seven beat up old us national or. Other media stories that are on our radar this week stop us if youve heard this one before from facebook were working to fix this issue and deeply regret the confusion this caused or this from google will continue to make algorithmic in. Movements to prevent this from happening both companies had some explaining to do after torrents of misinformation on that mass shooting in las vegas ricocheted across the web the fake news included details of the shooters identity his political leanings and even what news channels he supposedly favored facebook users were sharing material from sites that any facebook editor in the us would know are bogus including the notorious gateway pundit as well as the ultra right anonymous image board for a chat and for chance output was also turning up in google searches facebook and google are under increasing scrutiny in the u. S. Over their handling of political advertisements and bogus news during last years president ial Election Campaign one of turkeys leading journalists now living in exile has had an interesting couple of weeks one development could see him extradited back to turkey where hes wanted by the authorities the other could land him a Nobel Peace Prize on september twenty eighth turkish prosecutors urged the government in an korea to issue an arrest warrant through interpol for jan doing the former editor in chief of the newspaper jim hood who was now living in germany prosecutors accused of spreading propaganda for the outlawed p k k the Kurdistan Workers Party in a speech he made last year doing darr said progovernment journalists were colluding with the state by supporting military operations in kurdish areas in Southern Turkey the story of a possible extradition came one day after doing daryn the newspaper who worked for were shortlisted for this years Nobel Peace Prize in india at least a half dozen journalists say they are at risk after being subjected to Death Threats delivered to them on the Whatsapp Messaging ServiceDeeksha Sharma a reporter for the quint news website says she received multiple messages threatening her with rape and murder after she had written an article in which she urged you tube to take down a rap video that had gone viral one that normalizes raped five others journalists at the hindu newspaper and the t. V. He and first post all say they received similar messages from unidentified senders one threat written in hindi referred specifically to a journalist murdered last month after she wrote extensively on the rise of hindu nationalism under the government of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi why was gordie lang cash killed the message asked because she was a journalist she was anti nationalist and anti hindu if anyone dares to write anything against modi or his party they will not be spared they will be eliminated according to a recently published book the ruling b j p party has created an online army of trolls known as yod has warriors who target critical reporting against the Modi Government many of those troll accounts are followed by modi himself for which the Prime Minister has been roundly criticized. Southeast asia is a regional rich for media watchers this week were looking at vietnam ever since the reunification of north and south back in one thousand nine hundred eighty five the ruling communists about a one party state and control over the media is near absolute but vietnams bloggers have been putting that control to the test challenging Mainstream Media outlets pushing them to cover topics and issues the party has declared off limits blogs messaging apps and facebook all carry stories that would otherwise have gone untold and with seventy percent of the population now online the bloggers are finding a ready made audience theyve also attracted the attention and the ire of the authorities facing a mix of old laws and new ones intimidation and close trials many have been disciplined silenced or put away last year alone eighteen bloggers and activists were jailed for listening posts mean actually ravi now in the supine state of vietnams mainstream news media and the governments attempts to silence the countrys block. Cuba china north korea vietnam the four surviving one Party Communist states in the world the vietnamese media landscape is both similar to and distinct from those of its coming is contemporary on one hand there are numerous privately owned Media Outlets in vietnam on the other hand however the constitution mandates that all media be strictly controlled by the state regardless of ownership to quote meet the peoples demand for information serving the course of construction and defense of the fatherland. So how does the state control the media actually there is no prepublication censorship rather we have a model of selfcensorship the editors in chief of all Media Outlets are members of the communist party and are appointed by the state governing body they are responsible for content control and. History of information and communications does give directions on what new should be delivered and how but these are not rigid directions and sometimes media agencies going to go shared with the states a bit. Because Mainstream Media in vietnam is monopolized by the state independent bloggers play a very Important Role they have in recent years push the boundaries of pressure freedom and ways that would just not be allowed by the state has in the longer term actually pushed the Mainstream Media to at least look into directions that they hadnt looked before. One such news story broke just over a year ago in april two thousand and sixteen a toxic waste spill that polluted a long stretch of the accounts for. The story was particularly problematic for the government in hanoi the spill had been caused by a taiwanese steel plant that had been set up as part of a Rapid Industrial Development which one that many had warned was coming at huge environmental and human cost it took a month of bloggers covering fish deaths and protests in the region before Mainstream Media picked up the news. Digest got no dooryard probably got the job on it back over the past decade vietnam has seen a dramatic increase in numbers of Internet Users more than half of the countrys ninety Million People are online many are accessing the web through their phones and one in three vietnamese is on facebook political blogging however is a dangerous activity. And one high was among the first bloggers in vietnam he taught under the name and soon after he began posting political content he came under official scrutiny after threats intimidation a show trial and six years in jail he was eventually expelled and now lives in exile in the united states. I started blogging around two thousand and six posting photos of my trips across vietnam. During my travels i thought of poverty corruption and how local officials abuse the power so on my blog i shared some of my political views with my friends we discussed topics relevant to our countrys problems we also started discussing the idea of using blogs for journalism as one of how to break the centralization of power in the state press. And energized a growing legion of bloggers in vietnam we spoke with one of them via whatsapp we have not used her name here out of concern for her safety she spoke to us about the impact we end had on her and other bloggers. And was very brave. And. He was first arrested on trumped up tax evasion charges in two thousand and eight and held for four years and right when he was going to be released they threw new charges and the state charges at him and while in prison he suffered extraordinary abuses now that hes been released has been able to relate just exactly how Political Prisoners are treated in vietnam and its its among the most abysmal in the region. The latest figures for bloggers behind bars comes from a two thousand and fifteen study produced by the washington based National Endowment for democracy it lists eighteen bloggers and online activists in jail they include human rights blogger. Took sentenced to sixteen years on charges of conducting propaganda against the state also on the list and human whose blog by some was one of the most popular in the country with seven million followers he has been in prison since two thousand and thirteen without trial since that two thousand and fifteen study. The bloggers have been imprisoned or not you call in vote on social issues and was among those to write about last years toxic waste spill she was arrested eight months ago accused of propagandizing against the state and now awaits a trial the authorities are yet to set a date for and just two months ago another two bloggers hongbin and tuna were also arrested. Laws governing online media are numerous and the control of the internet is tight with access to many webs