Matter what you see aljazeera will bring you the needs and Current Affairs that matter to you. Aljazeera. Number of fire is case in russia has been soaring overnight and thats the. Last time. I said for sure and. I think by a spring break. Hello im Richard Geres britain youre at the listening post working from home the media stories were looking at this week will take us from moscow to minsk via manila we examine russias fake news problem with covert 19 the official numbers just dont add up bellow ruses state of denial on the coronavirus and the bloggers to change the narrative and freedom of the press in the philippines hits a new low with the conviction of rattlers maria ressa and the subtle ways in which socalled non racists let racism thrive its crew thought nothing russia is currently in 3rd place on the list of countries with the most confirmed coronavirus case the official figure there exceeds half a 1000000 but that is in dispute as is the countrys fatality rate which last month was 7 times below the global average according to journalists and scientists who have studied the way russia tabulates cases those rates should be significantly higher truth is a casualty of the coronavirus war and the kremlin itself is trying to get a grip on a glut of conspiracy theories and fake news about covert 19 that get shared online and then seek into mainstream reporting on the 1st of april the government equipped itself for the job president Vladimir Putin hastily signed off on legal changes that enable the authorities to go after those they accuse of spreading fake news which when you examine some of the sketchy covert related data being produced by the russian government is a little rich our starting point this week is. On patrol with russias Misinformation Police and their job getting those accused of breaking the new fake news law to sign confessions. That explain schools of peace in the middle east that are just might slow. The woman he posted about a covert 1000 deaths in a region where officials report there are no cases innocently enough crimes proceeding about. The man who shared a story of a friend who was fined for not wearing a mask and she says its less strenuous kind of yours but the look of contact with the faces are blurred but the message is clear deal in fake news and you will be fined or jailed under the terms of the new law and once those confessions are signed the videos end up online on the interior ministrys own you tube check. This law was fully drafted at phenomenal speed and signed off by the president in less than a week its a monstrosity why are they passing these loans and will they be applied to this information only about corona virus or other matters to there is an astonishing almost unbelievable number of cases brought against bloggers and social media users who have shared accurate or even legitimate information that should be eating with them since april of this year we have been running a project im betting big brother lives to monitor all of the restrictions on citizens right using water and because of knowledge of criminal cases and average will take more than 100 cases since last year for distribution of fake information a lie and. Their grief of the increase has a cure since the beginning protagonist pandemic. Most fake news prosecutions in russia target ordinary citizens sharing information over social media accounts and more and more journalists have been affected. Reporters questioned over articles on shortages of medical supplies established newspapers like no via gives yet even this moscow based medical platform either questioned under the law or forced to delete articles the Authorities Say could cause public harm. Meanwhile the program and voice is free to go on a state funded Television Channel and spout conspiracy theories blaming americans for the pandemic and the authorities dont do with things going to the so make love to someone like nikita. You have 3 days to talk about him. Because of the cocoa hes a celebrity in the Russian Federation having his own media shows on state funding Television Channels hes close to russian need to go i can no make financial cultural Needs Company thats true that he talked about the role of us corporations and the way they connected to cope which was a case of a Conspiracy Theory would lead us there to feel untrue you must know what in microsoft design. Would cost much the program like any other ones was not based on research but rather cold voices we hear again and again on social media just another fantastic example to show how they were confusion about what ethical jonathan was about and what actually truthful reporting really means. It was in response to. All those. Now in person. No conditions. In space in ways that may help. And this would include. Our grants west and also mention. Just on her. Person. So next week not its not surprising that barry. 19 would appear. The russian lawyers very selective and if they were found primo scrambling blogger or joran others from the federal channels theyve never been prosecuted and when it comes to just local activity or journalists from the top of that media they face these problems. Administrative and criminal prosecution in them. The biggest source of covert 19 misinformation in russia may in fact be russian the way it compiles its statistics of Health Officials like to boast that the countrys coronavirus fatality rate is 7 times lower than the global average but i sense to me the best of them fancy what i see as they also i do miss some of these give me to the journalists call those numbers a cause for investigation not celebration methodology is key here and russias has been to you because if a patient the cops to a preexisting condition then that is listed as the cause of death even if their passing is precipitated by the virus. There are some other telling numbers the state simply cannot explain the deaths above average figures for both moscow and St Petersburg month to month comparisons against previous years have shot up significantly in the midst of a pandemic yet the authorities insist the virus is not the costs. Western Media Outlets have examined the official russian story and picked it apart program and media have the right at their work as politically motivated to do a year outside of New York Times the just not the New York Times the. Largest showed up when the new book but much of the vast number crunching reporting on this story has come from russians like all of us working for medusa a new site safely based next door in latvia. There was a moment in mid april when journalists started noticing that official state they dont feel tallies wasnt matching the data from doctors but i see someone. Who did this its. Like youve only if there was a. My research has shown that the federal statistics are constructed in such a way that entire cities have been admitted at some point they just stopped adding the number of infected and dead people from certain locations in one place 25 fatalities were found but werent counted. One mosco Government Official in charge of medical affairs told me in april that the bureaucracy was too noble like he said he was absolutely misinformed simply because his subordinates didnt want him to despair but eventually he was forced to face the facts even though parliament and the ministry of health are trying to conceal the truth. Anyone studying this pandemic and the 4 countries with the most infections will see a pattern. The leaders of those contracts in different ways and to differing extents have told their citizens to trust them and not journalists where has this manufactured mistrust of the media got them how many locks as a caucus. And all those numbers are just the official critics and the official casualties the ones theyre admitting to what we can see through get them to make is a kind of after effect of it besides all the problems that those countries head become more visible because of the content me and therefore we are really looking at the situation of mistrust in brazil where people out in the streets protesting with the Russian Federation the kind of ongoing problem is mistrust in the date that is being released by the officials and fake news something that has been boiling up for some time now kind of a Natural Development of those processes. That there are lots of questions raised about. So its not. A question number but in reality the most important thing when people. Write. Them and thats not applied. To date signs ever been to the west but the power of those weapons to be. Inconsistent thats the game im now in russia where he risking their own personal gains do you think and were also seeing more generally these long term trends of interest in the future and to me yet. Were discussing other media stories that are on our radar now with one of our producers and an auction rocky. After years of legal hounding by the filipino government the journalist maria ressa the editor of the news site rappler now faces 6 years in prison how has it come to this because richard it would seem president were to go to take he is obsessed with vesa and weve tracked multiple years of verbal abuse numerous investigations even evoking of after his license back in 2018 reza herself has called this death by a 1000 cuts now she and a former colleague of hers have been convicted of cyber libel but an article published back in 2012 but heres the kicker the cyber crime we know under which this libel has been identified did not even exist when the arctic peoples 1st published it was an active 4 months after publication but wrapper then updated that article and that created a technicality that prosecutors jumped on correct yes but the other big consisted of correcting a spelling mistake these are dark days for the filipino media to change just last month we to put it on a. B. S. E. B. M. The countrys biggest t. V. Network been taken off the air and now medea this is sentencing is it in development another story that youve been following those border clashes between chinese and indian troops in the himalayas how was that story been covered on both sides of that border. Scuffles in the contested areas of the Sino Indian Border do break out from time to time which are but very do they get this violent at least 20 indian soldiers were killed in a battle with chinese troops in an area called the gul one value now the reason be even normal of these indian casualty figures is because the Indian Government eventually made these details public on the chinese side information is really sparse and it would seem that the significantly underpinning the study for instance soon after the incident the state broadcaster c. C. T. V. Ran a brief military statement there had been some tweets for example this one from the editor of the nationalist global times but domestically at least Chinese Media seem to have buried the story india coverage has been characteristically on a spectrum on one side you have newspapers and respected online outlets probing the story and the government spin then you have predicted to audience like this one from the times of india pushing for an i phone and i in effect on most t. V. Channels there has been a lot of jingoism and some misreporting see your bank paranoia dance very go. Read. In this bulletin for instance to prime time anchors on the times now channel simply read out a forwarded Whatsapp Message supposedly listing out the names of 30 chinese soldiers killed by the indian army it was a fit there are 2 Nuclear Armed powers which are and both of them are regional heavyweights and this is a story we will be watching carefully ok thanks man. What do you do if youre from bella ruse and want to learn about the viral pandemic to protect yourself you have a president Alexander Lukashenko who long refused to accept the existence of covert dive teams let alone the idea that it was killing people saying things to reporters like there are no viruses here did you see any flying around your mainstream news outlets are of no use to you the president brought them to heel long ago and theyre telling people to get on with life as normal so you go online you tube telegraph where bloggers are doing the job of journalists in gauging Young Audiences giving them the data they need right now and making president lucas shimko nervous since he has an election coming up the listening posts johannah whos now on bella russas bloggers the kind of work they do and the impact of they are having in a country where political change has been a long time in coming. Meets the fund special low or as better russians know him next time hes better who says most prominent blogger. And hes just 21 years old. His you tube videos and telegram post routinely generate more than a 1000000 viewers but given the entire population of belarus is 9000000 the most. To get my next the telegram and you tube channels are very important for the russians as they reveal what is actually happening in the country for good if you start the book as a better push your new book. For us to belarus is one of the most sens of countries in europe if not the most sense that looks on the location because government is afraid of independent media as they show what is really going on in the press corps and the just the print out in the 1st on the way to craft i call crimes committed by officials in Civil Service i try to publish what isnt being printed by the state newspapers or aired by the state broadcasts but it makes me think that we present information that appeals to our younger audience direct information using simple language thats honest and reasonably objective people discuss these channels with their friends and this is how they become so popular obviously the authorities do not like it but they cannot do anything about it as a buns supplicate which. Has been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko since 994 this august he is running for a 6th term in office infamously dubbed europes gnostic tator the question does not go easy on its critics political opposition is virtually nonexistent independent journalism was squashed in years ago thats why next step currently lives in poland beyond the reach of a president known to side. Journalist and their sources oh thats interesting. What youre in the new question post 26 years in power we have only had t. V. Channels that broadcast the fischel state ideology bloggers are thriving as a result. Tossed out yourself up like you know what is a pretty cute but talks a very exclusive name for months firstly because in london with. A government inside this state officials who have inclination that they can all discuss publicly are much more willing to pass information to bloggers than to traditional journalists or shall i studiously new discovered genius rushing out by the merest operatives after what can i do assure you to when you see a lot of 2nd look this feel more free than traditional john lewis because the authorities cant touch telegram channels they can block theyre cowards and they have no way to stop the flow of information thats why the authorities consider them so dangerous that its an Economic Analysis almost next has become popular because it publishes previously undisclosed information on his you tube and telegram challoners this information usually comes from leaks and isnt covered by Mainstream Media but there are pros and cons to this sometimes force information be sent under the pretense of legitimate means so you have to be very careful you cant always trust what these bloggers published because the information is not always verified and citizen reporters bloggers dont adhere to the same standards or ethics as traditional journalists regardless of whether there is censorship in the country or not flying in full throttle thank you so its not that acceptable to focus on sort of. Fake news is a problem sometimes it is even sent by the authorities themselves in order to discredit our channels however we do check all our information fairly using our Large Network of sources in various institutions and ministries thanks to this information on our. Channels more than 90 percent of it is confirmed and verified but this diet but its. The recently nextel has focused on the belarusian governments handling of covert 19 and it hasnt come out well theres going to cover a woman or at least i did maybe an article next year for egypts key bodies and it. Means graphic of our. Fellow whos currently has more than 55000. 00 confirmed cases but only a few 100 officially reported deaths thats a death rate of about 0. 5 percent suspiciously low when compared to other countries around the world downplaying the risks of the virus in question goes ignored calls for lockdown measures to just or sauna treatments instead they need to know the you know the little i know we know all the little of the feel more than the good cheer here and when you while theres another little sonia like you but as infection rates keep rising so too does to describe them and of the president s approach in the deteriorating economy their party arent always to go out of here. Were caused by god by use them for strike. By the almost year for her list of gods now is a plus weve got to pull some gaza where korea always did. Dr and with. Syria gates he has been crossing the country for his you tube channel a country for life and you know various mike tube ordinary belarusian but you wont ever get that pressure on the lotto but im not crazy that out granny with the election coming under skis videos are attracting viewers on the web and supporters on the street was more. Critical for whats the problem for your government or for what all of your brother might just what are your what or. I think the oppositional one will finally be tired of looking. So they are joining prove this movements at the moment the most vibrant active movement is around city. Though still subscribers of people who used to be a political some are even supporters of the current government but as their feelings of powerlessness have increased they have started moving to the opposite count this blog is videos have galvanized people inspiring