The Listening Post

On The Listening Post this week: As Brazilians go to the polls, social media drives the campaign of the far-right frontrunner. Plus, the abuse faced by female journalists online. Social media: The new battleground in Brazil's election Brazil is Facebook's third largest market and more than half of the population uses Whatsapp. That is where Brazil's far-right presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, described by some as Donald Trump meets Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, has taken his political campaign. And like them, he has turned the mainstream media into his useful enemies. The Listening Post looks at one of the primary battlegrounds in this election - the social media space in Brazil. Lead contributors Cesar Jimenez Martinez - media scholar, Loughborough University Gisele Federicce - editor, Brasil 247 Ygor Salles - social media editor, Folha de Sao Paulo Douglas Garcia - founder, Direita Sao Paulo On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Tariq Nafi about the disappearance of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, following a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul; and US President Donald Trump's accusation that China is printing "propaganda ads" in American newspapers. Trolls and threats: Online harassment of female journalists Female media professionals deal with the kind of online hate messages men will never see, such as comments about their gender, appearance and sexuality. The language can be ugly and violent, as threats of sexual assaults and rape have grown disturbingly common. Because for trolls, hiding behind an online profile is not difficult and the anonymity of social media has made the dissemination of abuse and hate as easy as a simple click. The Listening Post spoke to two journalists about their experience with online harassment, and the effect it has on their work and wellbeing. Feature contributors Maria Ressa - CEO, Rappler Sagarika Ghose - consulting editor, The Times of India Hannah Storm - director, International News Safety Institute More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Journalists are used to having to defend their work in the traditional sense, but the online harassment and trolling of reporters is now a professional hazard that has become something of a norm. The advent of social media has meant that the dissemination of hate has become as easy as a simple click, and the language is getting increasingly ugly and violent. "I've been attacked as a communist operative, a CIA, every kind of word that you can think of for ugly, for animals, I mean you name it, it's been thrown at me. As a journalist; I'm used to defending the work I do … but how do you respond when someone threatens you with rape? When someone wants you dead?" Maria Ressa told The Listening Post. Ressa is the CEO of Rappler, a news website in the Philippines known for its critical coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte's government. While both men and women face harassment online, many female media professionals have to deal with the kind of hate comments men will never have to stomach, messages about their appearance, gender, and sexuality. As Hannah Storm, director of the International News Safety Institute explains, women are three times more likely to receive online harassment than their male colleagues. "You're inundated with a barrage of hate, of vitriol. Words calling you thing like 'prostitute', or 'whore', or 'hooker', or somebody else's sex slave; that they were gonna do things to you that are really sexually explicit. People are trying to shame female reporters into silence by calling them names, by undermining their reputation, and by trying to violate their role as journalists." A recent study by Trollbusters and the International Women's Media Foundation found that around 40 percent of the female journalists they interviewed had stopped writing about stories they knew would be lightning rods for attacks. Around 30 percent indicated they had considered leaving the journalistic profession altogether as a result of the effect online abuse had had on them. But the effects are not just psychological or emotional. Sagarika Ghose, consulting editor at The Times of India, told us that harassment on the web has the potential to seep offline as well. "There are women who are attacked on social media, who are then attacked off social media. The threats can be online and then go offline. My colleague and good friend, Gauri Lankesh, was actually shot in September 2017. Now, the reason why I take these Facebook and Twitter threats seriously is because, you know, this is exactly what happened to Gauri. She faced social media threats, and she never used to take it seriously. But the fact is, she was killed." Feature contributors Maria Ressa - CEO, Rappler Sagarika Ghose - Consulting editor, The Times of India Hannah Storm - Director, International News Safety Institute More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Britain is more than two years into the painful process of negotiating its departure from the European Union. And the media angle to this story is no mere sideshow. When the EU's Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said this past week that the news media can "sow divisions, spread disinformation and encourage exclusion" she said that the Brexit debate is the "best example." Many of Britain's papers, especially tabloids like The Sun and The Daily Mail, are playing an outsized role by stoking the political flames and pushing their pro-Leave agendas. The day after the EU rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit proposal, The Sun's frontpage proved this point and was another reminder of the role tabloids played in the 2016 referendum that landed Britain where it is today. "The sort of language that talks about 'two-bit mobsters' of the European Union reflects a discourse that's been going on around coverage of the EU for the last two decades," explains Natalie Fenton, professor of media and communications at Goldsmiths University. "It fits a discourse around this idea of the EU being a very bullying and nannying construct that is taking away powers from the UK." For pro-Brexit political commentator Isabel Oakeshott, this is exactly what passionate readers want. "Yes, this language is emotive, but this is a tabloid paper, it is a red-blooded tabloid designed for red-blooded readers who have strong views on where we are going with the Brexit negotiation... Sun readers look for that full throttle coverage." Journalist Annalisa Piras, who campaigns for a more reasoned debate on issues pertaining to the EU, says the British media's attack on the EU is "a consequence of the transformation of the media, because there is no incentive, especially, in a landscape which is extremely competitive, in being the ones who foster dialogue and harmony. Dialogue and harmony doesn't pile up clicks on the net, but that's a fact." The pro-Brexit press in the UK does not limit its antagonism to the EU. Two years ago when a British court ruled that parliament had the constitutional right to have the last say on Brexit, The Daily Mail declared the judges who made that ruling 'enemies of the people', and reported that one of them was openly gay. The Daily Mail is one of the country's biggest selling papers. It's a good deal more popular than it is trustworthy, which is not as contradictory as it may appear. "Trust in all news organisations is dropping," says Fenton. "It's dropping most for the tabloid press, that's true. People no longer know who to trust. And it's largely to do with media elites and political elites. And the entanglement of power between media elites and political elites makes them even more distrusted, because people know that they work together and that that's where power resides." Contributors Rasmus Kleis Nielsen - director of research, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Isabel Oakeshott - political journalist & commentator Natalie Fenton - professor of media and communications, Goldsmiths University Annalisa Piras - journalist, filmmaker & director, Wake Up Europe More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Malaysia's new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad isn't a new face for journalists in the country. Many of them would have covered him during the 22 years that he was previously prime minister, from 1981 to 2003 - and it wasn't easy for them. In his first stint as prime minister, Mahathir shut down newspapers, passed repressive media laws and called up editors to advise them on their coverage. By the end of his time in power, he had been branded an "enemy of the press" by the Committee to Protect Journalists. With his return to office, however, at age 93, he appears to have changed his tune. For many, Mahathir's return to politics looked like a u-turn. He left his own party to join the opposition, partnering with former enemies, in order to run against Najib Razak, who was actually Mahathir's protege back in the day. You have to understand that Mahathir is a dictator. And we don't change dictators and dictators don't change. Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, cartoonist known as Zunar Mahathir ran his election campaign on a sort of mea culpa, releasing a video in which he admits to a young girl that he was returning to politics to rebuild the country "perhaps because of mistakes I myself made in the past and because of the current situation." Latheefa Koya, executive director of Lawyers for Liberty, is cautiously optimistic about Mahathir's new direction. "He'd got hit himself directly by police, by the media or the lack of having access to the media or not being able to express himself without being threatened," said Koya. "So of course Mahathir had to openly say that 'I regret and yes I made mistakes and he's always started off by saying, my biggest mistake is in putting Najib as prime minister or making Najib prime minister.'" In the lead up to the election in May, Najib was extremely unpopular because in 2015, he was found to have been at the centre of a global corruption scandal involving the state development fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad - known as 1MDB. Under Najib's watch, the fund lost $4.5bn through shell companies and opaque transactions that spread across 10 countries. Last week, after months of investigation, Najib was arrested and charged in connection with a deposit of more than $600m that was traced back to 1MDB. The 1MDB scandal made Najib paranoid about the media. He passed the Anti-Fake News Act in a bid to control social media commentary and he used the Sedition Act to prosecute five times more frequently than during the first 50 years of the law's existence. Cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, known as Zunar, was at the receiving end of this paranoia. We visited him in his small office in east Kuala Lumpur. His walls are still lined with sketches of the corrupt Najib and his wife Rosmah. Previously, when Najib was prime minister, Zunar would frequently need to change his office location to avoid raids but he says he doesn't need to worry any more. Since taking office, Mahathir has taken steps to undo some of Najib's media wrongs. The new government has abolished the Anti-Fake News Act, unblocked news sites and Zunar's nine sedition charges have been dropped for which he says, "thank you very much for that but I think this is still not enough ... You have to understand that Mahathir is a dictator. And we don't change dictators and dictators don't change." Contributors Kee Thuan Chye - author and former New Straits Times journalist Zunar (Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque) - cartoonist Steven Gan - editor in chief, Malaysiakini Abdul Kadir Jasin - special adviser to Mahathir Mohamad Latheefa Koya - executive director, Lawyers For Liberty More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this episode of The Listening Post: As Brexit talks drag on, UK right-wing media ratchet up negative coverage. Plus, Malaysia's former "enemy of the press" returns to power promising change. British tabloids on Brexit Britain is more than two years into the painful process of negotiating its departure from the European Union. When the EU's Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said this past week that the news media can "sow divisions, spread disinformation and encourage exclusion" she said that the Brexit debate is the "best example". The day after the EU rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit proposal, The Sun's front page proved this point and was another reminder of the role the British tabloids played in the 2016 referendum that landed Britain where it is today. Lead contributors Rasmus Kleis Nielsen - Director of Research, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Isabel Oakeshott - Political Journalist & Commentator Natalie Fenton - Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths University Annalisa Piras - Journalist, Filmmaker & Director, Wake Up Europe On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Johanna Hoes about the takeover of Hungary's largest independent news outlet by a businessman close to Viktor Orban's government; and the Panama Papers revelations that have led to a lawsuit against a newspaper in Namibia. The new Mahathir and Malaysia's media revamp A muzzled media, corruption in government and a silenced opposition. Many Malaysians hope those things are now behind them, with the ousting of Najib Razak from the prime minister's office four months ago. But the new leader, Mahathir Mohamad, is known for his heavy handed approach to the media. Mahathir has already spent 22 years as prime minister, during which he locked up political opponents, shut down newspapers and remoulded media legislation. The new Mahathir has allegedly pulled a u-turn. He has unblocked news sites and repealed the contentious Anti-Fake News Act. But many onlookers are still wondering how far Mahathir will go in changing his ways and transforming the Malaysian media. Feature contributors Kee Thuan Chye - Author and former New Straits Times journalist Zunar (Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque) - Cartoonist Steven Gan - Editor in Chief, Malaysiakini Abdul Kadir Jasin - Special Adviser to Mahathir Mohamad Latheefa Koya - Executive Director, Lawyers For Liberty More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

China has been accused of allegedly detaining up to one million Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minorities in its Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region under what UN experts have called the "pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism". Beijing, however, denies allegations of mass detention and discrimination, saying the strict security measures in Xinjiang are aimed at preventing what it calls the "three forces - separatism, extremism and terrorism". Einar Tangen, economic adviser to the Chinese government, explains that authorities "believe that there are radical elements who have infiltrated the population and convinced people that they should have an independent homeland." Chinese officials want to limit information and imagery coming out of the region and controlling access is central to their strategy. However, there are some cameras they can't control; the ones in space. Satellite photos of the detention centres that featured in international media won't be seen on Chinese television because domestic media is tightly controlled. There's no charges, no trial, people just sort of disappear into these places for many months at a time and even longer. Megha Rajagopalan, journalist Uighur journalist Alim Seytoff reports on the story from Washington. He is the director of the US-funded Radio Free Asia's Uighur service. It's nearly impossible for Uighur reporters to practise their craft there and those that have "spoken out against China's repressive policies have been detained in these camps," says Seytoff. Because Chinese journalists are forced to toe the government line, "they cannot independently report on what is happening to the Uighur people. "There's no charges, no trial, people just sort of disappear into these places for many months at a time and even longer," explains journalist Megha Rajagopalan, who has her own story to tell. She is one of the very few foreign reporters who managed to get into Xinjiang to report on the situation there, but weeks after her piece was published by Buzzfeed, she was expelled from the country. Chinese journalists reporting on it have it worse: they could face threats, violence and in some cases prison sentences. President Xi Jinping has had no qualms in telling Chinese journalists and the news outlets they work for that the media's ultimate loyalty must be to the state, not the story. Xi has been president for six years now. His burgeoning power and influence have been compared to Mao Zedong's, who once said: "The role and power of newspapers consist in their ability to present the party's line, its specific policies, goals and work methods to the masses." Half a century later in Xinjiang, for the government in Beijing and the media outlets that spread the word, the same rules still apply. More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

Nearly 25 years ago, it was a charmed time for news reporters and consumers in China. "A prime example of that golden age was the Southern Media Group," according to Maria Repnikova, assistant professor at Georgia State University. "This particular media group has done really well in attracting wide readership, attracting advertising revenues, and becoming one of the prime examples of high-quality reporting that is also capable of making money in China." But China's golden age of journalism was not to last. As the country approached a political milestone, the 2012 transition from President Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, the censors aggressively swung back into action. For the Southern Weekly, New Year's Day 2013 marked an unprecedented moment in China's media history. That year, in its New Year's editorial, the paper called on the country's leaders to adhere to the principles in China's constitution. As it went to print, however, the editorial was pulled by state censors and replaced with a version that praised the Communist Party and its newly anointed leader. Journalists at the Weekly staged a walkout, the first of its kind in Communist China. Hundreds of ordinary citizens would later join the protests in solidarity against the censors. Fang Kecheng, a former political reporter with Southern Weekly, was in the newsroom that day. "The censors really stepped over the line ... Foreign media covered this incident and it really showed that this newspaper, because of its reputation during last more than 20 years, it got a lot of supporters in the society - both on social media and offline," recalls Feng. Through 2013 and after, the censorship of the Southern Media Group was taken to another level. Reporters were harassed, online content was ordered to be taken down, and publishing licences were revoked. The end of 2015 marked a low point: senior editor and former chairman of multiple Southern Media Group publications, Shen Hao, was sentenced to four years in prison on what many observers said were trumped-up extortion charges. Chang Ping, a deputy editor and news director at the Southern Media Group, was forced to leave China just before Xi's ascension to power. He has watched from the outside as the state's grip on media has tightened. "Pressure is not necessarily always placed on individuals, but on the industry as a whole ... it's a systematic process to control the media," he says. The Southern Media Group's case isn't an isolated one, it's just one of the most prominent. Given the sheer number of voices in China's vast journalistic sphere, absolute government control has never been completely possible. What is undeniable, however, is that under Xi Jinping, the Chinese state's command of the media space has been consolidated and reinforced, with dramatic repercussions for investigative work across the country. Contributors Maria Repnikova - Assistant professor, Georgia State University Chang Ping - Former news director, Southern Weekly Fang Kecheng - Former political reporter, Southern Weekly Steve Tsang - Director, SOAS China Institute More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Exactly a decade ago, the world was hit by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in the United States. Trillions of dollars were sucked out of the global economy, tens of millions of people lost their jobs, and austerity economics was imposed across numerous countries. For governments, regulators, financial institutions and the journalists who reported on them, 2008 was a year of reckoning. The financial press were cheerleaders for a bubble that eventually burst, showed a lack of scepticism about Wall Street claims and failed to expose what was in effect mass fraud on their own beat, namely the selling mortgages to millions of Americans who should not have been eligible. "Most of the coverage leading up to the crash ignored the really central problem which was that fraud and predatory tactics were rife and they were really what drove the crash," according to Michael Hudson, global investigations editor at AP. In the aftermath, some outlets apologised for the shortcomings in their reporting. Ten years on, how much has changed? "The media are still very obsessed with the issues that created the last crisis," says Gillian Tett, US managing editor at the Financial Times. "The one thing we can count on is that the next crisis won't come from exactly the same area, it will be something else...there are other areas of our life where you have once again geeks in control of a technology that no one else understands." Probing the culture of the financial press is central to any critical examination of its performance. In the years after the crash, critics on the outside and voices from inside the newsrooms pointed out some of the most problematic aspects of how the financial media operates. Since then, there's been a lot of introspection by the media. "I think there is a strategic mismatch between much of journalism and the kind of world that we live in," explains Paul Mason, a former economics editor at Channel 4. "Business journalism cannot be like sports journalism. It has to ask the question, should this match even be being played to the rules it's being played? Sports journalism cannot ask that of a football match. We must ask that of a banking system. Are the rules right? Are the players all crooks? Is the game futile? Is it destroying the society we live in?" Contributors Gillian Tett - US managing editor, Financial Times Margaret Popper - Former reporter, Bloomberg TV Michael Hudson - Global Investigations editor, AP Paul Mason - Former economics editor, Channel 4 More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Last month, Google, Facebook and Twitter announced the shutdown of pages and accounts they say were linked to Iran. While the effectiveness of Iran's online disinformation networks is far from established, the Islamic Republic has now joined Russia in the popular consciousness as another government using the internet to destabilise its adversaries. Meanwhile, a widespread campaign of social media manipulation by actors who are opposed to the government in Tehran has had many analysts eyeing Iran's enemies for clues to who might be behind the project. "The turning point was really Trump's election," says journalist and New America fellow, Azadeh Moaveni. "Once it became clear that there would be heightened hostility with Iran, there was a profusion of new accounts, anonymous accounts who were single-mindedly and purposefully going after people who wrote about, talked about Iran with nuance." While Twitter did not respond directly to questions about the methodology it used to detect organised manipulation of its platform, lecturer in Middle East history at Exeter University, Marc Owen Jones, shared with us how he uses freely available Twitter metadata to detect the presence of bots. "If you want to use bots to be effective you need a lot of accounts, which means you might create a lot of accounts on a specific day or week or month," explains Jones. "The majority of the accounts tweeting on the #FreeIran and #Iran_Regime_Change hashtag from late December up to May, were created within about a four-month window. What that would suggest is that a lot of the activity on those hashtags, came from bots." Most of the accounts identified had only a few dozen or a few hundred followers and used generic profile pictures. The vast majority tweet almost exclusively in opposition to the Islamic Republic with many exhibiting sympathies with an exiled Iranian dissident group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The MEK were instrumental in Iran's 1979 revolution but turned to terrorism after being sidelined by Ayatollah Khomeini. A violent backlash forced the group into Iraq where they allied with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. In 2013, the MEK moved to Albania at the behest of the United States. The group has long lobbied for policies to overthrow Iran's government. The MEK declined our request for an interview citing, "terrorist threats of Iranian regime and mobilising the agents of Iranian Ministry of Intelligence under the guise of journalist". However, former MEK members still stranded in the Albanian capital, Tirana, having left the group, described how the MEK uses thousands of fake Twitter accounts to both promote their organisation and to boost online calls for regime change. "Overall I would say that several thousand accounts are managed by about 1000-1500 MEK members," former MEK member, Hassan Heyrani, told The Listening Post. "It was all very well organised and there were clear instructions about what needed to be done." The MEK online unit was especially active during several weeks of protests beginning in December 2017. Members were ordered to emphasize the anti-regime character of the demonstrations. "Our orders would tell us the hashtags to use in our tweets in order to make them more active," says Hassan Shahbaz, another former MEK member. "It was our job to provide coverage of these protests by seeking out, tweeting and re-tweeting videos while adding our own comments." MEK keyboard warriors would also target journalists, academics and activists who favour dialogue rather than confrontation with Iran. "Because of my platform, I have received a significant amount of Twitter attacks of this kind, but I am nowhere near being alone," Trita Parsi, author of 'Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy' said. "This is actually a very pervasive phenomena, the big victim of this is that we don't have a rational conversation about policy towards Iran." Since access to Iran for journalists is restricted, social media can become a proxy for where the debate is going, leaving open the possibility that both state and non-state actors can use platforms like Twitter to create and manipulate trends in ways that suit their agenda. "It's not like what happens on social media stays there anymore," Marc Owen Jones said. "It filters its way into mainstream media. There is so much propaganda, so much fake news that it would take very little to create a wave of what looks like popular Iranian opinion against the Government that's not necessarily real." Contributors Trita Parsi - Author, 'Losing an Enemy – Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy' Azadeh Moaveni - Fellow, New America Marc Owen Jones - Lecturer in Middle East History, Exeter University Hassan Heyrani - Former MEK memb - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On The Listening Post this week: A decade on from the financial crisis, how well do business journalists understand their beat? Plus, Twitter bots manipulate online debates on Iran. Lessons from the crash: Media and the 2008 crisis Exactly a decade ago, the world was hit by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Trillions of dollars were sucked out of the global economy, tens of millions of people lost their jobs and austerity economics was imposed across numerous countries. Here at the Listening Post, we reported back then on the failings of the financial coverage - failings that meant the crash came as a huge surprise to many around the world. The financial press cheered on a bubble that eventually burst, showed a lack of scepticism about Wall Street claims and failed to expose what was in effect mass fraud on their own beat, namely the mis-selling of mortgages to millions of Americans. In the aftermath, some outlets apologised for the shortcomings in their reporting. Ten years on, how much has changed? The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at the lessons of 2008 and the new challenges facing reporters on the business and economy beats today. Contributors Gillian Tett - US managing editor, Financial Times Margaret Popper - Former reporter, Bloomberg TV Michael Hudson - Global Investigations editor, AP Paul Mason - Former economics editor, Channel 4 On our radar Barbara Serra speaks to producer Flo Phillips about another powerful media man taken down by the #MeToo movement, CBS CEO Les Moonves; and YouTube's removal of several accounts linked to the Syrian government. "Faking the online debate on Iran" For a country that has been on the wrong end of United States foreign policy for nearly four decades, it is no surprise the debate over Iran has been polarising. The US's decision to withdrawal from the nuclear deal this year has boosted those calling for the hardest stance against the Islamic Republic. Those pushing back against what many say is an agenda for regime change in Iran are reporting an online backlash the likes of which they have not seen before. However, the Twitter accounts doing the trolling may not be the organic opposition voices they are made out to be. For all the accusations of disinformation and fake news from both sides, it is rare that we can point to facts, a location, and actual personnel explaining the modus operandi of an organised troll factory. The Listening Post's Will Yong investigated this story and the trail has led him, surprisingly, to Tirana, Albania. Contributors Trita Parsi - Author, Losing an Enemy – Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy Azadeh Moaveni - Fellow, New America Marc Owen Jones - Lecturer in Middle East history, Exeter University Hassan Heyrani - Former MEK member Hassan Shahbaz - Former MEK member More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

2018 has been a big year in a momentous decade for the British royal family. The wedding in May between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was the latest in a string of celebrations that included Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee the following year, and three royal births. Together, these events have helped Buckingham Palace revolutionise its image for the 21st century. But how far have Britain’s media and their coverage of such spectacles facilitated the royal rebrand? While the House of Windsor represents little more than a celebrity fairy tale for most international journalists, for Britain’s fourth estate, the monarchy is a very real public institution with continuing political privileges. In short, one worthy of scrutiny. Yet, scrutiny isn’t a term commonly associated with royal reporting in Britain. Speaking about this year’s royal wedding with The Listening Post’s Daniel Turi, Dawn Foster, a columnist for The Guardian newspaper, said, “We had a lot of the very traditional style coverage which is extraordinarily deferential, and you don't get questions asked in a way that you do with other events. You don't get people querying exactly how much the wedding cost and why we're still funding it.” While the royal family says it paid for the private aspects of the wedding, it isn’t clear whether any of the funds were drawn from the annual Sovereign Grant they receive from the government. The cost of security, however - estimated at $30-40 million – was born by taxpayers. Discussions of such topics were conspicuous, in their absence, amongst the rolling hours of coverage. While it’s true that the British monarchy has lost many of its formal powers over the centuries, the Sovereign and the heir to the throne, still inherit certain unique – not to mention unusual – privileges. For instance, the Queen and Prince Charles receive all memoranda from the Cabinet, among them policy proposals and classified material. Relatedly, they also retain the right to veto new laws that affect them. Far from a redundant relic, this veto has been exercised on several occasions: notably when, in 1999, the Queen blocked a private member’s bill proposing that another royal privilege – the right to authorise military action – be transferred to parliament. This power to veto bills only came to light thanks to a request freedom of information request. However, in 2010 the government amended the Freedom of Information Act to include an absolute exemption for the monarch and the heir to the throne. And, with the barriers to public interest reporting on the monarchy considerable, the kind of reporting that audiences tend to get, focuses on the fluffier side of royalty. It’s a side Katie Nicholl, in her role as Royal Correspondent for the Mail on Sunday, is familiar with: “I think probably we can get a little preoccupied with the flippant. For example, if you're on a royal engagement – it may well be a visit to the teenage cancer trust or an AIDS related charity for Prince Harry's work – and you're often finding that your top line in the story is, wow, Meghan's stepped out in bespoke Givenchy again.” The tendency towards deference over scrutiny in much British reporting on the royal family likely suits the Palace as it consolidates its rejuvenated public image. But it’s one that sits uneasily for many, not least Tim Ewart. “There is an issue here about taking members of the royal family, holding them directly to account as you might with a politician or a business person or whatever. Should I be shouting a question? Of course, as a journalist the answer is yes I should. Tradition, protocol, our DNA with the royal family determines that by and large we don't. We're a timid feeble lot, no doubt about that. We ought to be bolder.” Contributors: Tim Ewart - former royal editor, ITV Katie Nicholl - royal correspondent, Mail on Sunday; author, Harry: Life, Loss and Love Dawn Foster - columnist, The Guardian Laura Clancy - lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, Lancaster University More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

On The Listening Post this week: The sentencing of two Reuters reporters and the failed promise of media reform in Myanmar. Plus, the British media and their monarchy. Myanmar: Journalists Paying the Price for Reporting Genocide Earlier this week two Burmese journalists working for Reuters, Wa Lone and Chaw Soe Oo, were sentenced by a judge in Myanmar to seven years in jail for obtaining state secrets as they researched the killing of ten Rohingya men in 2017. If the sentences appeared harsh, add to that the testimony by a police witness alleging that the journalists were in fact victims of a police set up. The story of the ethnic violence against minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has been in the headlines for more than a year now, during which international media have had access to the country severely restricted and much of the local media have taken the government and military's side over the treatment of the Rohingya. The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi reports on the case of Wa Lone and Chaw Soe Oo, and the very high price journalists in Myanmar pay if they report unfavourably on the military. Contributors Kevin Krolicki – Asia editor, Reuters Anna Roberts - executive director, Burma Campaign UK Kyaw Win - executive director, Burma Human Rights Network Toe Zaw Latt - Myanmar bureau chief, Democratic Voice of Burma On our radar Barbara Serra speaks to producer Tariq Nafi about the new social media law approved by President Sisi in Egypt, with additional analysis from journalist Amr Khalifa and the New York Times' publication of an explosive op-ed by an anonymous White House official. Deference over scrutiny? Media and Monarchy in the United Kingdom The royal wedding that took place in Windsor four months ago played like a scene from a fairytale. And the media lapped it up. Events like these play a part in the British royal family's ongoing effort to re-brand itself. Like Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton back in 2011, the televised nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have helped Buckingham Palace repair its public image, which was badly damaged following the death of Princess Diana in 1997. But what about the role played by the intermediaries - journalists - in this royal re-brand? The pomp and pageantry might mean little more than ratings and clicks for international media, but Britain's fourth estate is supposed to hold the country's elite to account. And they don't come much more elite or privileged than the House of Windsor, funded by the taxpayer. But is the royal reporting British audiences usually get long on deference and short on scrutiny? The Listening Post's Daniel Turi reports on the relationship between media and monarchy in the United Kingdom. Contributors Tim Ewart - former royal editor, ITV Katie Nicholl - royal correspondent, Mail on Sunday; author, 'Harry: Life, Loss and Love' Dawn Foster - columnist, The Guardian Laura Clancy - lecturer in media and cultural studies, Lancaster University - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Press freedom in Myanmar took a hard hit last week with the sentencing of two Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been investigating a massacre of Rohingya. "We had been prepared, intellectually prepared, we knew it was possible that the judge would rule as he did, but nothing can prepare you for confronting injustice as it happens. Very hard, heartbreaking for the families of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. They both have young families," says Kevin Krolicki, Reuters Asia editor. The Burmese journalists were arrested in December last year. A Burmese policeman admitted in court that the men had been entrapped. They had been researching a story about the mass killing and burial of 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state. The police offered them key secret state documents that would corroborate their findings. The documents were in fact not secret, the situation was a setup and the reporters were arrested and charged under the Official Secrets Act, a law that has been on the books since 1923 when Myanmar was called Burma and was a colony of Great Britain. "These two journalists risked their freedom and their lives to expose a genocide. They exposed the highest crime, the worst crime committed by the Burmese military, and this is the biggest threat for the military - so they will never tolerate this," contends Kyaw Win, executive director of Burma Human Rights Network. Myanmar's government has a unique structure, unlike any government anywhere else, with 25 percent of the parliamentary seats are reserved for the Burmese military and, as mandated by the constitution, three key ministries: Home Affairs, Defence, and Border Affairs are headed by serving members of the military. For the former political activist turned State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, being in government has effectively meant working alongside and often in subservience to her former captors. According to Anna Roberts, executive director of Burma Campaign UK, "Aung San Suu Kyi's government cannot stop the police arresting journalists or other human rights activists. However, they do have the power to stop prosecutions going forward, and also under presidential amnesties they can release political prisoners. But more importantly, they have the power to repeal these repressive laws that are being used. But we've seen none of those actions by the government." When the Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi came to power, many had hoped that democracy, including media freedoms, would prevail. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, according to Toe Zaw Latt, Myanmar Bureau Chief, Democratic Voice of Burma: "In terms of NLD in 2015, there is an election manifesto that isa particular promise about media. None of them yet fulfilled and we are very disappointed about it. So media freedom is not priority in this country." Reporting in local Burmese outlets on the violence against the Rohingya people has been poor. It isn't just intimidation, censorship or lack of access that has affected the coverage. Many Burmese have grown up hearing political and social rhetoric against the Rohingya - calling them vermin, illegals and a threat to the Buddhist majority. A lot of this language has been reproduced in the country's media over the years. And yet, when it has come to the case of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, journalists in Myanmar have largely shown solidarity. This case has set a worrying precedent and they can see the danger that faces them all. With a media landscape already intimidated and controlled by the state, there's now a chill more intense than it has been in the past few years. Contributors Kevin Krolicki - Asia editor, Reuters Anna Roberts - executive director, Burma Campaign UK Kyaw Win - executive director, Burma Human Rights Network Toe Zaw Latt - Myanmar bureau chief, Democratic Voice of Burma - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

After seeing both his lawyer, Michael Cohen and then a central figure in his business empire both agree to cooperate with federal prosecutors in exchange for immunity, US President Donald Trump then learned that David Pecker, a long-time friend and a key media player has done the same. Pecker is chairman of American Media Inc, which owns the National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid not known for stellar journalistic standards. Federal investigators have provided ample evidence that Trump was involved in deals to pay two women to keep them from speaking publicly before the 2016 election about affairs that they said they had with him. The Enquirer is part of the Trump story, not just because of the stories it published but because of the ones it didn't. The practise is known as "catch and kill". If someone had a potentially damaging story about Donald Trump for sale, the Enquirer would buy it and bury it so that news would never see the light of day. "The National Enquirer is a trashy, a trashy tabloid. It's not even political," says Elisabeth Anker, Associate Professor of American Studies and Political Sciences at George Washington University. "...it does have a prominent place in US culture, both for the kind of just pleasure of reading the salacious gossip that it propounds, and also because physically, in all supermarkets across the nation, the National Enquirer is found right at the checkout line." During the 2016 presidential election campaign, the Enquirer's support for Donald Trump was flagrant. It lauded the candidate, went after his Republican rivals with dubious allegations, then did the same with Hillary Clinton. "It was very obvious the National Enquirer through Donald Trump's friendship with David Pecker was an arm of the Trump campaign. In fact they were doing things that a campaign wouldn't dream of trying to get away with," according to John Ziegler, radio host and columnist for Mediaite. The National Enquirer is also where stories go to die, when those stories are potentially damaging to Donald Trump. "What David Pecker does is he buys the rights to those stories but then he never publishes those stories," explains Amanda Terkel, Washington Bureau Chief at the HuffPost. "Those stories never see the light of day. He keeps them in a safe. But in return, David Pecker gets other things from Trump, other stories, other bits of gossip, and he trades on that with Donald Trump." According to the New York Times, Trump has a lot to worry about. It reported this past week that Trump tried to buy those stories from AMI just prior to the 2016 election, but that an agreement between him and David Pecker was never reached. And Trump isn't the only American concerned by the fact that the Enquirer is under investigation and the potential legal precedent this case could set. Newspapers, even ones like the Enquirer are constitutionally protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press. These days the Times is among the outlets Trump accuses of peddling in fake news and labels the enemy of the American people. Now, as the prosecutors appear to be closing in, the biggest threat posed to the president comes not from the Times, CNN or the Washington Post. It comes from a tabloid, and all the news the National Enquirer did not consider fit to print. Contributors John Nichols - writer, The Nation Amanda Terkel - Washington bureau chief, HuffPost Elizabeth Anker - associate professor of American Studies and Political Sciences, George Washington University John Ziegler - radio host and columnist, Mediaite

It's been more than 15 years since the conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur began, but there is no end in sight to the violence. The Sudanese government continues its attacks on local rebel groups, who accuse President Omar Al-Bashir's administration of oppressing non-Arab communities and Darfur's civilian population. But Khartoum's ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing, mass killings and sexual violence is no longer in the international spotlight - there is a media blackout, by design. As Sudanese journalist Shammal Al-Nur explains, "Today, the government claims categorically that there's no longer a crisis in Darfur and they want to control what news sees the light from this conflict zone. Journalists are not allowed to go there and Sudanese reporters are prohibited from discussing the security situation. For the media in Sudan, the crisis in Darfur is the pivotal issue that our news outlets refrain from tackling." But for Darfuri, accurate, unbiased information on what's happening around them can mean the difference between life and death. Which is why one news outlet has become of critical importance - Radio Dabanga. Beaming into Sudan from 1000's of miles away in Amsterdam, Dabanga says that more than 3 million listeners tune into their programming on a daily basis. They rely on a significant network of citizen journalists and civilians on the ground in Darfur to produce their reports. Kamal Elsadig is the editor in chief of the station. In Dabanga's studio in Holland, he explains that "Dabanga has become the lungs with which Sudanese people breathe, reporting on issues that are fundamental to the survival of the population. For example, when the war was raging in Darfur, we were informing people where the fighting was taking place, so they had the information on how to get to safety". Eric Reeves is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University. He has been studying Sudan for more than 20 years and says that Dabanga is the most important news source when it comes to establishing what's happening on the ground in Darfur. "There is no human rights reporting presence so the extraordinary network of civilians on the ground speaking directly to Radio Dabanga in Amsterdam is the base on which we know a wide range of topics in Darfur". Hassan Berkia of the Sudanese Journalist Network ads that "while other media outlets in Sudan are censored, Dabanga's location in Amsterdam allows its journalists to report freely. The government, and its state media outlets, claim the Darfur crisis is over but Dabanga tells a different story. They report on the absence of security, the poor conditions in the camps, the number of victims. The government doesn't want that side of the crisis to come out". Despite the critically important role that Radio Dabanga has come to play for Sudanese audiences, the station now finds its future under threat. The station relies on funding from a consortium of EU states and NGOs. But European governments and the Sudanese authorities are now working together to fight terrorism and migration, which is having an effect on the station's funding - it's drying up. This could mean that Dabanga's days are numbered. The Listening Post's Johanna Hoes reports from Dabanga's studio in Amsterdam, on the radio station that sheds light on a region that the Sudanese government prefers to keep in the dark. Contributors Kamal Elsadig - Editor-in-Chief, Radio Dabanga Hassan Berkia - Sudanese Journalists Network Abdul Azim Awad - Secretary General, National Council for Press and Publications Eric Reeves - Senior Fellow, Harvard University & Author: 'Compromising with Evil' Shammal Al-Nur - Journalist, Al-Tayaar Newspaper