President ial election. Its a big story. Is the electorate getting the information it needs. 800 million indians live rural lives. The indian media do not consider them news worthy. Add reuters encountering difficulties in china. The art of deception and how it can confuse critics. When the president ial debate was held in abuja, a candidate was missing. Typically the incumbent chair goes empty, if you are in power a poor debate costs your job. Incumbents tend to want to limit exposure. Thats not what happened. President Goodluck Jonathan was there, its his main rival Muhammadu Buhari refusing to take part. It went out on a most watched channel. Ait, African Independent channel. And Muhammadu Buharis party accused it of partisanship being in Goodluck Jonathans corner so boycotted the debate. The election was postponed ostensibly to secure the northeast from boko haram and guarantee the voters there. That rational has been subject to debate. They have found they are trying to get around censorship and security and corruption and the dangers in covering the boko haram angle. In the run up to voting day there has been a backlog of visas, one that Goodluck Jonathan as far as they are concerned, the fewer journalist there, the better. Our starting window this week is abuja, africas most capitalous country. Five voices on the coverage of election, a spokesman for Goodluck Jonathans party, his opposite number the Communications Director for the Muhammadu Buhari campaign and the acp. Journalists turned author who worked for Muhammadu Buhari. Journalists with a nigerian news outlet based in new york beyond the reach of nigerian authorities, and managing director much ait, the channel the opposition says is siding with the government which is why the incumbents main rival refused to appear on the president ial debate that the channel broadcast. The accusations against axe it centers around coverage and this documentary in particular, called the real Muhammadu Buhari it was an hourlong matter that went beyond the tracks record. And became the first to say as a woman, death by firing squad. Ram rod stiff, never sniling. On the future should matter. And nothing about him sticks to the future. Well take any platform to sell our party. They are not ready to walk into. We saw them as costly. Incidently many agree with us. They see our leaders. They did not see that. A station like a it made it known they approve jonathan. During the election period they tried to be fair. Im not defending the opposition party, but they run image documentary. They are not a member of the party. If they dont see anything wrong that the Ruling Party Members have done. They are not fair. We are not with any party. I drive the wheel of this opposition. I do not have a mandate to support any party. Dont forget we have a handful of parties. Some are not in doubt. If pvp they probably have more money to throw around. Its a case of we saw the divide. I dont see a clarifying part. The media has given everyone here, have been on most of the media shows and i have not seen hostility. I want to disagree. No its not there has been allegations of checkbook journal. In nigeria vog not just the people at vog not just the people at the top, not just in this campaign. An everpresent mission is bribery. What nigerias call the culture of the brown envelope. Lets say i intervene, and you are the senator, and you give me a brown envelope. I probably wont want to make you look bad when the video comes out. Some say its like expressing gratitude. Still, its not ethical. Some journalists are not corrupt. Most media houses sometimes there are those that do the walk every day. Those that interview understand this. Its not very difficult to introduce the journalists. They are not the first to do that. Officials are g as good. You need to understand the situation of so many of the journalists, and you need to remember that journalism is not a profession that is well paid. International news outlets are better funded. Many journalists have been denied the visas needed. According to the chief correspondent 20 Media Outlets in the u. K. Have been left on the outside looking in waiting for paperwork to clear. No one has been refused out right. Gist the process takes a week and my application wept in two months ago, im thinking the Nigerian Government does not want me there. Having credentials in order didnt stop two journalists from al jazeera arrested in borneo. One of the States Affected by the boko haram. Ahmed idris and ali mustafa were detained for what the Nigerian Army called loitering. They were placed under house arrest. Like all journalists theyve been restricted from covering the same insurgency that the government sited in the first place. That is the story, a debate that a central figure boycotts because of a lack of trust in the channel that broadcasts it. Cultures of bribery, ethical short maul related to a shortage. Money, and a scarcity of outside voicers thanks to a government and bureaucracy to keep them out. What isnt lacking is interest. Never have nigerians been more interested in having a free and fair election. Everybody is friday. Everyone is involved. But Nigerian Media they are all owned by individuals. As the saying goes it is true on the download our reviewers on the coverage of the political story in nigeria. Theres growing evidence of bias displayed by most in nigeria . Nigerians go to leadership for unbiased information. They do more Fact Checking when it comes to their voices and seems to get more Accurate Information out that is often verifiable. Pass other media stories on the radar, the global news media turned lenses on yemen as it descends into a state of civil war with outside actress, and prior to the accusation a prominent journalist was shot to death. He was killed as he came out of his house on march 18th in sanaa. He made his name for his reporting on the fighting in the Northern Province of sadr between forces loyal to the old Ali Abdullah Saleh government and fighters that backed the houthi fighters. He was imprisoned and became a spokesperson for the houthis, who took control of sanaa and most of the country. Amnesty International Said the paris based reports without borders addedment. Added the battle over freedom of Information Online is fought in many corners of the globe. The past week saw two development. On march 20th the turkish government passed a law giving the government the right to not violate. Theres no court order. Failure to comply could result in a hefty fine. A similar bill was overturned by the constitution at court. The president has to sign the new bill into law. Recep Tayyip Erdogan called twitter a scourge. The Indian Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an ambiguous section. Law. In 2012 that section. Law was used in the arrest of two schoolgirls over a facebook posting that one put up on politics in mumbai. The second hit a like button. A judge rescinded the charms and it has been revinded called vague. A few prominent indians wan all of the act struck out. The New York Times may be blocked in china, but it is working on other ways to reach chinese audiences, it announced plans to launch a magazine in hong kong and mccaw. By may 1st it will be available in Hotels Airport loun js and news stands. 20 of pages devoted to local content. It will make inroads face challenges. In march 19th raiters was inactionable. Chinese authorities dont usually provide explanations as to why it is blocked. They think it is something to do with the coverism of the National Peoples congress. It joins they are on a list of sites blocked in Mainland China for indian news outlets they are the big four topics finding ways to sell newspapers. Politics big business celebrities, which means bollywood, and an indian obsession with critic. A mix that features about the growth of indian media, and pushed the stories of twothirds of the population to the margin. India has a population of 1. 2 billion, and 800 million live and work in rural areas. Despite that those outlets had one fulltime editor. The hindu restructured last year. According to him in the villages you dont look for stories, they kick you in the face. The problem is almost no one walking the beat. Now the curious case of the indian medias blindspot. We have breaking news coming in. Its an opportunity. Not in the market. Its what the capital. Our focus is on metropolitan india, mumbai delhi, backa lor. Theres no coverage of rural media. In the indian media, the Rural Affairs editor exists just once. I was it. This is a phenomena around the worm. The voice of the world. The voice of the nation is the voice of middle class. Why do you need it . The correct answer is because you can. Its almost as if we think viewers are not interested in rural media. Our news has little space for rural india. Reporter to under how little News Coverage rural india gets it helps to brake down the outlet. We asked for three main stream papers to be broken down. The results of a study showed across the six papers the percentage of stories relating to rural india was zero. Except for 1. 37 in hindu in 2014. On tv an analysis of the programming on six channels reveal that the rural news didnt paying it past 7 . It was as low as 0 by 19 . Thats a fifth of 1 of coverage for 70 of the population. A lack of coverage is not because of a lack of news. In the past decade a story has taken a turn for the worst. We had a crisis in which 300,000 farmers committed suicide since 1995. In the epicentre of the suicide its a region. In the state in werch india, in which mumbai is the capital. In mumbai the great event of the year was the fashion week. Day four. A whole bunch of editors. One hour away from this horrendous matter in mumbai city, the fashion week drew 500 accredited journalists who sat for a week. Now, i made a count how many journalists from outside the affected region of suicides were covering the suicide and had spent a week this that place. I counted six including myself and my collaborator. Reporter there is a segment of ippias meet indias media that gets across some news from the bored walks, cat walks and centers. The papers publishing in language other are than english. We have this report. Its the largest selling paper across the state. They have reported extensively for the paper. Racket earring and large scale displacements of villages of people cleared for industrial projects. It is the exception to the rule. This man has a theory on why papers like his are able to afterward for space for rural reporting. Translation it is a fact larger papers have little space for rural news. My own paper has a different approach, publishing a number of stories from the rural areas. The reason for this is because the reporters, the management we have roots in the villages. When we go home ke see the stories un we see the stories unfold around and yous report them. It used to be a lot better that all comfortable talk that the indian language newspapers will do a better job. That is very threatened. It stands very threatened because the same guy owns the newspapers, whether in english or hindi or bengaly. Its a giant Assembly Line sausage factory. You have english sausages or you have hindi sausages. You have sausages. In india the media market is crowded and competitive. Prioritiors are looking for prioritiors are looking for slick products, and in the case of some media influence. There are significant matters. Coverage of rural areas is near the bottom. When this person signed up as Rural Affairs, it brought an end to the only such position. The paper has not seen fit to replace him and did not see fit to comment to our request. It says something about the priorities and the 800 million indians whose stories are untold. The Business Model of television is struggling to plough back investments into the business. I would like invest. In a fulltime agriculture editor, and a greater investment in the northeast. And reporting india not just through the eyes but report india from every corner. Translation the rural beat is different to covering politics or business. A lot is done on foot. You walk between villages and interview people not used to explaining issues. Sometimes the travel takes a few days and another couple of days to piece toot the situations. Piece together the situations. It takes more time and efforts. Less investment is taking place in news gathering. They are looking for a soft option a place a kilometre from the office. Indias rural poor doesnt factor into the equation of india as a superpower or indeed indias image of itself as the largest democracy. The rural poor are seen as a problem, and its a huge mistake to view that many of the countrys citizens as something that actually impedes the countrys progress. If you want an insight into stories with rural india theres a few worth clicking on to. Keith runs a website, the peoples archive of rural india, the site covers the lifestyles languages, professions and arts of rural india. It is funded through donations, much work done by volunteers. Cj net is a Service Based on phone technologies allowing Rural Communities to record their own stories and access stories from their area. Launched with funding from the International Center for journalists it aims to democratize media space. For those that reed hindi. Dow is a rural newspaper. Indias state broadcaster commissioned a journalist to produce a tv show episodes of which you find on the gow website. Catch up on what happened overnight with a full morning brief. Get a first hand look with indepth reports and investigations. Start weekday mornings with al Jazeera America. Beginning monday, open your eyes to a world in motion. Al jazeeras Investigative Unit has tonights exclusive report. From coast to coast. People selling fresh water for fracking. Stories that have impact. We lost lives. That make a difference. Senator, we were hoping that we could ask you some questions about your legal problems. That open your world. It could be very dangerous. I hear gunshots. A bullet came right there through the window. It absolutely is a crisis. Real reporting. This is what we do. America tonight. Tuesday through friday. 10 00 eastern. Only on al Jazeera America. Finally, it was Pablo Picasso that said art is a lie enabling us to realise the truth, or as the musician known to Terence Trent dhabi put it art is what you can get away with. They apply in their own way to promote a street art collection. A dutch Production Company called life hunters took a piece of icka artwork, setting you back about 10 euros, placing it along side paintings worth millions and asked art ofish yardos. The result 2. 25 million hits on youtube is priceless. See you next time at the listening post. Impoverished setting had a major impact. But with looks. Charm. I just wanted to take care of my momma. And no remorse. She giggles every time she steps into the revolving door of justice. She became legendary. The finer the store the bigger the challenge. Al Jazeera America presents the life and crimes of doris payne. Tonight, 10 00 eastern. Its one of the toughest jobs in america now, ferguson, missouris new acting police chief speaks for the first time on National Television to this show about fixing what is broken, and of the fear his Companies Face on the streets. They are afraid. If you are sitting looking in the crowd, its in your mind who has got the gun. And theres no way to prevent it. Also a major American City that asked the department of justice to security nice its own scrutinise its own police force