South of when osiris from a routine mission to the southernmost tip of south america saw a submarine may have had communication difficulties caused by a power cut or pay more coming out fuel a stronger i have a roundup of the top stories in twenty five minutes time thats after the listening post which starts now. Let me ask i mr saad hariri i know if i got it right yes i have it and why it really bothers me. So saudi arabia which printer. On. Hello im Richard Ginsberg and youre watching the listening post here are some of the media stories were tracking this week a case of bad off ticks the lebanese Prime Minister resigns while in saudi arabia and sends that message home via a saudi owned news channel the Australian Government is doing its best to keep the menace island refugees story under the radar but its being leaked out by the refugees themselves via their mobile phones this involved in military hijacks the state owned channel to tell viewers that what theyre watching is not a coup and Julian Assange ambassador in waiting toys with Donald Trump Jr on twitter we begin with saudi arabia where seismic political changes are taking place with media angles galore earlier this month under the pretext of fighting corruption Saudi Crown Prince mohammed bin solomon ordered the arrest of dozens of people including royal family members ministers and businessmen among them two of the arab worlds biggest media moguls days later been solomon summoned lebanons Prime Minister saad hariri to the saudi capital upon his arrival in riyadh hariri was reportedly handed a speech a resignation speech that he would later read out on a saudi owned t. V. Station out of a channel own by one of the media barons just taken into custody the surprise announcement and the manner in which it. Was delivered fueled speculation that the saudis were holding her against his will hariri later appeared in a live interview this time on eleven on base networks that he all future t. V. He tried unconvincingly to argue he was a free man what to make of it all this is what a saudi confrontation with iran via a third party proxy looks like played out in lebanon and across the regional airwaves our starting point this week is riyadh. As unprecedented assad hariri first televised appearance from riyadh was the Prime Minister of one country announcing his resignation from the capital of another on a saudi news channel his second was somehow more compelling a ninety minute interview on lebanons future t. V. Channel hariri happens to the interviewer was the only one of the channels employees allowed into saudi arabia the crew and the equipment were generously provided by the host country. And hariri was clear. Of a man lingering in the background. This is kind of like the peak of this media spectacle within this entire drama the only evidence that we have of our Prime Minister not being held captive is an interview with a journalist who him on a t. V. Station that he own money how to. Help so is there a conflict of interest there we dont know whats said before the interview and we didnt really hear a lot of questions about the confiscation of how to raise funds that we heard and some of the Mainstream Media reports we didnt really hear a lot of questions about saudi policy. He didnt want to talk about that and kind of tried to move the question away from that my favorite bond of the interview with heidi is when he was asked on the. And under duress by this lebanese journalist whether this nation who wrote it for him had the combativeness to quote. I looked up to me and i will know that. You never write his own speeches because he cannot id want. Anybody who would have heard that part of the speech knew that he was lying to me under duress and i had a little but a little just a lot of. History even on account of this i mean it appeared to be a broken man a man stripped of his dignity a man who was totally prophetic arousing pity not at all a symbol of a Government Office often country but rather the symbol of a man who has been threatened he was nervous he was out to tainted he was drawn to tears. And i thought him and. And he looked like a frightened very much and that is how about interview has been read not only by the lebanese public but more importantly by the lebanese government and by lebanese politicians. Lebanon is a politically complex factionalized country with a media landscape that reflects what makes this story even more complicated though is the iran and. Saudi arabias Regional Power struggle with the wrong is playing out in the devastating war on us as well ask in lebanon where the saudis want to curtail the influence of hezbollah the Political Party and armed group backed by iran and its no coincidence that Prime Minister hariri hosted an advisor to irans Supreme Leader last week and meeting the iranians described as positive and constructive later that day i really found himself on a plane to rio its important point out that this flare up this cold war between saudi arabia iran hezbollah has taken place and tiredly on the media saudi own channels you know being has again. Eleven its own channels. At that house. As well and hopefully it will stay that way because we dont want to see an actual conflict in the streets in lebanon there is a rule of irony of messages and a pushback and a critique a subversive critique of the Mainstream Media messages which is that harry is actually not free he could be in prison and we demand his return so its a very contested media environment unlike what you find in a lot of western countries and a lot of gulf countries where there is really one message of Prime Minister hariri landed in riyadh just as the saudi government launched what it called an Anti Corruption drive under the new crown prince mohamed bin solemn on hundreds have been arrested including more than a dozen royals and ministers of the state billionaires just arent suited to prison cells among those reportedly being held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in riyadh prince will lead been the majority owner of the rotund a Media Company and a Business Partner of Rupert Murdoch through both twenty First Century fox and news corp as well as well lead ibraheem who is related to the royal family by marriage and owns n. B. C. And. A pan arab news channel based in dubai the two media barons find themselves in their ritzy gilded cage is reportedly for resisting the crown princes repeated attempts over the past year to buy their companies he didnt want to pay full price for the chairs and they were not interested in selling to begin with after ten months of negotiations went nowhere he then gave up he was fed up with the process hes very impatient and impulsive and as a result he forced them in he want them to send it and i think that having already on that in custody he wants all media not only to sing to the tune of the saudi regime but to sink his own personal cue that was why. One of the reasons that they tried to block it again scuttle it was because of aljazeera is prominence in the media they are very media minded and they think in a very old fashion way the media can be bought thats the classic arab state way of thinking about the major they dont think the arab world and they said so is ready for free speech and they want to control it i can see no other reason for their arrest other than a consolidation of power we are talking about the wealth of billions of dollars held captive at the ritz carlton in saudi arabia and the consolidation of financial power the consolidation of media power now if it were really for corruption charges why have they been arrested and placed in a hotel rather than arrested and had an open trial with clear evidence presented as to the alleged corruption charges. By this past thursday the Financial Times was reporting that the hotel detainees could buy their way to freedom by surrendering up to seventy percent of their accumulated wealth this saudi corruption crackdown now has the look of a shakedown but a narrative had already been formed including in the western news media which have been the focus of the bog of saudi arabias p. R. And lobbying efforts arab journalists say mohamed bin soundman seldom pays attention to them or their news outlets that they would have far better access to the crown prince if they worked for a bloomberg or a newsweek the saudi government especially this crown prince is relying heavily on favorable or western Media Coverage just this morning i read an article by ben hubbard the New York Times correspondent in beirut who mainly cover saudi arabia he said when southern honeybee fled to saudi arabia i mean there was no fleeing the man was summoned and then he was put under house arrest but thats the terminology they used the Guardian Correspondent martin sure he was referred to this as a revolution. When what we are talking about is brutal oppression by power hungry generated the narrative that the man was maybe young maybe aggressive but basically reformer who would shake this old kingdom by the scruff of its neck push back the clergy and become a modern state by privatization as well that narrative is now being challenged by in solomons own behavior i do not have the patience to listen to the overt propaganda. So i am not a follower of a lot more of it which is the cut that he based on of but what struck me more and what upset me more was the propaganda coming from western media that i found to be quite surprising and quite. Truly yellow journalism consider the new crown princes track record he has spearheaded the war in yemen the one the un calls the Worlds Largest humanitarian crisis seven million on the verge of starvation there was the blockade of the demand to take aljazeera off the air which has yet to produce his desired result now in the midst of a domestic Anti Corruption drive that smells of a power grab lebanon finds itself in a state of political crisis largely of his making it is hard to see who is benefiting from what mohamed bin soundman brings apart from the global media newsmakers are valuable commodities perhaps that explains his a few. Other media stories that are on our radar this week its an easy enough thing to say on a state owned Television Channel this is not a coup however the sound bite does carry a bit more weight if the person delivering it from the actual chair isnt wearing a military uniform this is not a military or Army Spokesperson symbol you see so more you went on said p. C. Saying the military just wanted to pacify a degenerating social and economic. Situation in the ensuing confusion over the status of president Robert Mugabe many Foreign News Outlets including the b. B. C. C. B. S. And voice of america made the mistake of quoting a fake twitter account purporting to be that of mugabes new p. F. Party domestically the state owned a daily newspaper the herald which has spent decades as a mugabe mouthpiece clearly did not know who it was taking orders from initially suggesting it was business as usual in harare despite the tanks in the streets zimbabweans looking for a more realistic take had to rely on Foreign News Outlets as well as social media whereas zimbabwe coup became the hash tag of choice the Ongoing Investigation into alleged russian interference in last years us president ial elections has taken an odd twist of freshly appears to show there was direct communication between Donald Trump Jr and wiki leaks just prior to election day this past monday the american magazine the atlantic published a story saying that in two thousand and sixteen trump jr was in touch with wiki leaks over twitter he was trying to get access to material that wiki leaks was reporting on leaked emails from the Democratic National committee relating to the Hillary Clinton campaign Julian Assange and had some fun with the tweets suggesting that trump jr should release his fathers tax returns and convince him to help the sanj get appointed as a straight as ambassador to the u. S. Legal representatives for trump during your say he has answered questions on the allegations in the quote appropriate forum unquote assigned has since criticized the atlantics reporting for being selective and misleading he continues to troll trump the younger deer trump jr he said our offer of being ambassador to the us still stands the public will get a turbo charged flow of intel about the latest cia plots to undermine democracy direct message me. In venezuela a new law has been passed the media watchers called another step toward stifling dissent and increasing censorship of the media there both mainstream and social. On november eighth the Constitutional Assembly in caracas passed a statute that prohibits the dissemination of messages of hate or violence through broadcasts and social media the law proposes prison sentences of up to twenty years. The last passage follows a wave of antigovernment protests earlier this year and gives the government the power to revoke licenses or block web pages of outlets it deems to have breached the new rules Prime Minister Nicolas Maduro his government says the law is designed to discipline public and private media into broadcasting messages of quote peace tolerance equality and respect unquote however according to the caracas based n. G. O. S public the wording of the legislation leaves that open to broad interpretation and potential abuse. When the verdict came down last year human rights advocates were happy the Australian Government was not a court in Papua New Guinea ordered the closure of a Refugee Detention Center on man a silent and a tory s offshore facility set up by the government in canberra to keep Asylum Seekers from reaching this trail in shores eighteen months later the authorities have shut down the camp theyve turned out the lights but the refugees refused to leave saying the new facility theyve been offered is unsafe and that they fear coming under attack by locals here at the listening post weve looked at the coverage the lack of it of two offshore prisons established by the Australian Government one on mannus the other on the island nation of now route journalists trying to report on conditions at the prison said been shut out bounced around endlessly by the governments involved the story has moved on but the pattern of locking reporters out has not listening posts johannah whos now in the stories coming out of madison island and now rue despite the. Staffords of the authorities involved. I think the Israeli Government has tried very hard to shape the narrative with pine for you to go to the new house were going to provide you with meals about what is happening on medicine or and its done so very effectively because its so hard for journalists to be able to go there. And to tell the stories. What have we done know youre not going to just be putting these Detention Centers offshore really was about putting them out of sight and out of mind of the strike public and this just shows how effective that strategy has been this stuff is all you know tour theres no water here in the United Nations has called what is happening im on this island a humanitarian emergency since the Australian Government closed the man is Detention Camp on october thirty first over four hundred men are refusing to leave they have gone nearly three weeks without water food electricity and medical supplies they claim that the facilities they are being forced to move to lack Adequate Security to protect them from attacks by the local community yet this hasnt become the media spectacle one might expect only two reporters have been there to cover the story media access to man is the no room has been tightly controlled since the camp opened in two thousand and twelve and the a strain in government is playing a blame game with the ruine authorities as to who is responsible but journalists say they have no doubt a strain is pulling the strings. Photojournalist Matthew Abbott tried to go to minus island last week but was refused entry a year earlier he published a story a man is locos brutally attacking two refugees not the kind of story the Australian Government wants out there i was told that theres a very little chance that ill be allowed back in a second time after my work but you know i try to anyway because its in a very important story i just whited like any other person you know injuries are going to get me in a vase on arrival and upon reaching the immigration desk or into the office i just passed her my passport and she said are. You involved with like publishing destructive material from. You that there is now you know. There are reasons to believe that there is a black least for a strong journalist astray in leigh has a long history of stifling reporting on the immigration Detention Centers there are some reporters on the ground who are doing a great job but theres just not enough voices and not enough reporters there bearing witness to whats happening in this critical time shes really done showers and journalists have come to rely on reports from refugees and whistleblowers to find out what is going on inside for years phones have been refugees lifelines the only way to inform the world about their plight they have shared stories of physical abuse lack of medical facilities and mental stress and one case even murder at the hands of the security guards. We spoke to were worries but charney audio messages on whatsapp hes one of the refugees still inside the camp. On past. Independent journalists could not have access to this place they always prevent independent women. Doing there was stories enough fade away to compromise but. They never. Sending the formation on the women so. One of the remarkable developments in the last few years has been the way that technology has given a voice to the man on man a silent. Weve seen a solemn sea on twitter weve seen telegram groups weve seen whatsapp groups being set up and all of these provide a way for unfiltered unmoderated accounts of whats happening there on the ground but the real challenge is still how strongly and reporters can verify and gain access to that information firsthand. Spoke to. One of the few who made it out of minus just a few weeks ago private sponsors paid for his transfer to canada during his four years in the prison he set up manas alerts a public channel in the cloud based app telegram to which he and his fellow refugees upload footage and their stories it quickly became one of journalists main sources of information if i didnt. Smuggle that phone inside the center and i couldnt get internet on that small old smartphone i would mean here i did everything with that small form so i said. All right lets create a channel on telegram and i would call it menace inert but would keep sending pictures and videos and statements and letters i think id know around six hundred people are on that channel and mentor eighty of them are australians and giornale so. Yes despite sources such as manis alerts journalists are increasingly steering away from this story not least because its trading audiences have grown increasingly up at that age reporting among us and no rule no longer gets to clicks the likes that too often drives the media suggesting that i think its appalling that there is so little coverage of whats happening on menace and never particularly if you look at the big commercial networks in australia and i think amongst the struggling people this now a lot of pity about these issues thats also there because they dont really know and they dont really understand what is happening i think its trillions would be horrified to know what is happening on man its an outrage but the reality is they dont have those images to see in front of their face. Typically the images the strains are seeing are like these distant and limited taken from a far they like the faces and personal stories that tend to affect audiences they feel to capture up close whats happening to Current Affairs precedented access and the few outlets the other words in canberra have allowed into the can the australian newspaper and sky both owned by Rupert Murdochs news corp and channel nine are known for sticking to the governments mine some air conditioning at my place and the t. V. They gave it to me i think Privileged Access is given to certain media and certain outlets that portray a strain policies in a certain light weve been told the situation could get published also weve been off this day and on top of the reporting that theyve done its been very sick. Its barely scratched the surface its focused a lot on things like the physical facilities that the refugees and Asylum Seekers living in the physical senator the accommodation and saying that well you know theyre living in nice houses or being hateful easterling government so therefore you know isnt life or good on now theres also a playground a gym and a food that provides three meals a day youre straining government was putting everything on table to stop the media from coming to man a silent but news corp was one of the media that got on the island and tried to represent people in an untrue way they tried whatever they could however they could to demonize refugees they were allowed into places where no other media was a lot how can this happen. Because thats what the Australian Authorities want us aided by news organizations that either toe the governments line or have simply given up trying to get access the mana center cant operate mostly in the dark its as though the only way out for the story and for the lucky few is through a smartphone. The rest of the refugees remain out of sight out of mind and a long way from the heart. Finally when the lebanese Prime Minister gave that interview to his own t. V. Channel last week he was making the case that he was not being held in saudi arabia against his will but saad hariri is nine hundred Minute Exchange with the anchor woman paula and left viewers with more questions than answers his performance also set off a twitter frenzy and gave birth to a new hash tag under pressure weve delved into the output of the social media commentary out and pulled together some of the tweets that are making the rounds well see you next time here at the listening post. News has never been more available but the messages a simplistic and misinformation is rife the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging Mainstream Media narrative at this time on aljazeera. Oh is it a listen whether online we were in hurricane winds full almost like thirty six hours these are the things that you u. K. Has to address or if you join us on sat a member of a complex plane which broke up a relationship this is a dialogue tweet us with hostile a. J. Stream and one of your pitches might make the next show join the global conversation at this time on aljazeera
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