The Listening Post

For the first time since 2014, the world's most wanted man, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, surfaced last week when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group released a video of him vowing to seek revenge for the loss of territory. The last time the world saw him, al-Baghdadi was triumphant, crowing about the territory ISIL had captured in Syria and Iraq. His forces have since been routed and thousands of fighters are either locked up, on the run, or dead. ISIL's media output has always been central to the movement; however, as times have changed for ISIL, its output and media messaging have changed too. "The contrast with his last appearance in 2014 is really remarkable," explains Lydia Wilson, a research fellow at the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, Oxford University. "Then, he's mounting a pulpit to deliver a sermon. He's strong. He's performing to a real congregation, as well as the virtual. So it's very rhetorically strong." "In great contrast, he's seated. Doesn't move so much. He's clearly aged, it's not clear if he's wounded. But he isn't as vigorous ... He is going into the virtual space only this has turned into an insurgency, not a territorial movement." The al-Baghdadi video first appeared on one of ISIL's media platforms, Al Furqan, and travelled from there. Spreading across global news sites, many of which had reported between 2015 and 2017 that al-Baghdadi had been killed. Al-Baghdadi's message to the converted was much more complicated, a harder sell - that ISIL was in transition not retreat - from its lost caliphate, turning back into a rebel group, a borderless one, with branches prepared to launch attacks like the ones in Sri Lanka, in multiple countries. "He's conveying the point that, number one, he is still alive ... and two, there are always going to be people who will be truly faithful and will fight for the cause of the Islamic State, despite the loss of territory," says Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a researcher on ISIL and founder of Islamicstatearchives.com. Having had its forces defeated in city after city, province after province, ISIL still manages to get its post-territorial message out. But Al Furqan is one of the few platforms remaining in its information arsenal. At its height in 2014, ISIL had dozens of media offices stretching beyond Syria and Iraq, into Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Libya. And ISIL's media machine was prolific, producing up to 40 or 50 pieces of propaganda a day, in many languages. What most international media audiences remember are the graphic and gory terror videos. But far more messaging was aimed internally, through videos that were central to ISIL's recruiting strategy. "Before 2014, ISIL's media output was produced by a single outlet," explains Hassan Abu Haniyeh, a researcher on Islamic groups. "When ISIL expanded, we saw the emergence of several new media outlets in multiple languages." One clear indication of the way ISIL sees its media operations came from al-Baghdadi himself. It's on the tape. He rhymed off a list of names, media specialists who have been among the countless ISIL members killed in battle. This fits in with "the Islamic State's own messaging about the importance of media", points out al-Tamimi. Al-Baghdadi's change of course, his plan to build a global borderless caliphate, comes with a caveat: ISIL did not choose this path. Its fighters have been conquered and expelled from the lands they held. Its leader has gone from a public figure to a fugitive. Al-Baghdadi can spin the story of ISIL's post-territorial re-brand however he likes. And he will. Because he knows that these days, the message is one of the very few things ISIL still can control. Contributors Lydia Wilson - research fellow, Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, Oxford University Mia Bloom - professor of communications, Georgia University Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi - researcher on ISIL and founder, Islamicstatearchives.com Hassan Abu Haniyeh - researcher on Islamic groups - 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: The video that sparked a thousand headlines - ISIL leader al-Baghdadi on tape for only the second time ever. Plus, journalism gets the reality TV treatment. Video evidence: The return of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi It was a long time between on-camera appearances. The world's most wanted man, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has surfaced for the first time since 2014. The last time the world saw him, al-Baghdadi was triumphant, crowing over the territory the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group had captured in Syria and Iraq. His forces have since been routed and thousands of fighters are either locked up, on the run, or dead. ISIL's media output has always been central to the movement, however, as times have changed for ISIL, its output and its media messaging have changed. Contributors Lydia Wilson - research fellow, Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, Oxford University Mia Bloom - professor of communications, Georgia University Aymenn Jawad Al Tamimi - researcher on ISIL and founder, Islamicstatearchives.com Hassan Abu Haniyeh - researcher on Islamic groups On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Flo Phillips about the Maduro government's attempt to control the narrative on Venezuela, both online and on the air. An unlikely mix: Journalism & reality TV Reality TV has a format - a proven formula - that works for aspiring singers, dancers or chefs. Then someone came up with an idea: Why not try it with young, would-be journalists? Take students from various journalism courses and have them compete, see who can do the best investigative reporting. We have a winner. Journalism reality TV shows are currently airing in three countries - Armenia, Kenya, and Bolivia. They offer young reporters the practical training their studies may lack and they remind viewers - at a time when trust in the media is at an all-time low - of the importance of investigative journalism to any democracy. The Listening Post's Johanna Hoes reports. Contributors Joseph Warungu - creator, Top Story Karen Andreasyan - creator, Journalistic Battles Lisa Essex - European Journalism Center and judge on Top Story and Journalistic Battles Janet Mbugua Ndichu - journalist and judge and mentor on Top Story 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/

Karaoke. Chemistry. Killing. This is the story of a brazen chemical attack at daytime in a busy airport. It claimed the life of the North Korean leader’s eldest brother within two hours. The men who planned and executed the attack escaped, leaving two young women to face the consequences. The man suspected of cooking up the chemical concoction that killed Kim Jong Nam got away after two weeks under arrest. Despite the evidence, Al Jazeera finds he is free and happy. Meet the Karaoke Chemist believed to be behind the most high-profile assassinations of recent times.

On The Listening Post this week: After the Easter Sunday bombings, social media was blocked in Sri Lanka. Was it needed? Did it work? Plus, yellow vest protesters tussle with French media. To block or not? Debating Sri Lanka's social media clampdown The multiple church and hotel bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, which killed an estimated 253 people, represented the worst violence the country has seen since the end of the civil war a decade ago. In the immediate aftermath, the government shut off access to social media - Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Viber. The rationale? To stem the spread of hate speech and misinformation. There's a complex debate to be had, however, on the benefits of a social media shutdown versus the costs. Millions of Sri Lankans couldn't contact friends and family, while evidence suggests that shutting off social media does little to monitor the spread of false rumours. And, in a country where politicians and the mainstream media often deal in misinformation themselves, an internet shutdown makes it harder to separate truth from fiction. Lead contributors: Nalaka Gunawardene - author and media analyst Sanjana Hattotuwa - founder, Groundviews Yudhanjaya Wijeratne - author and researcher Dharsha Jegatheeswaran - research director, Adayaalam Centre On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pre-election interview by a Bollywood star, and US President Donald Trump's tete-a-tete with Twitter's CEO. Yellow fever: The 'gilets jaunes' and the mainstream media This past week, President Emmanuel Macron announced a tax cut of $5.6bn. It was one of several policy changes that amount to a victory of sorts for "les gilets jaunes", or the yellow vest protesters, who first hit the streets almost six months ago over the price of fuel, the cost of living and tax inequality. The media are more than a sub-plot in this story. Protesters complain about the under-reporting of police violence and sensationalising of the demonstrations. Reporters have, for their part, been restricted, manhandled by both demonstrators and police, and subjected to arrest. And in their suspicion of the mainstream media, the yellow vests have taken to producing their own coverage - live-streaming across social networks. The Listening Post's Marcela Pizarro reports on the tussle between the media, the state, and the yellow vest protestors. Feature contributors: Edwy Plenel - editor-in-chief, Mediapart Anne Saurat Dubois - political correspondent, BFM TV Fabrice Epelboin - media scholar, Sciences Po Paris Xenia Fedorova - editor-in-chief, RT France Jean-Jerome Bertolus - political editor, France Info 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/

This week on The Listening Post: Julian Assange - is journalism at risk or is it personal? Plus, the priest whose mini media empire packs a political punch. Assange: Within Washington's grasp? When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was forced out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London last week, the debates that appeared on the airwaves, online and in print went to the core of what constitutes journalism. Assange's supporters denounced his arrest as an assault on freedom of information; a potential threat for journalists around the world who expose secrets in the public interest. Others maintain that WikiLeaks traffics in raw data, not news stories - that Assange does not deserve the legal protection that real journalists get. Look beyond the law, however, and you will find there is no escaping the politics of this story - and the mainstream media's own role in it. Contributors: Jennifer Robinson - lawyer for Julian Assange Evgeny Morozov - author, The Net Delusion Dan Froomkin - journalist, WhiteHouseWatch.com Bradley P Moss - National security lawyer On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Johanna Hoes about the publication, in redacted form, of the long-awaited US Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report. Radio Maryja and the media empire of Poland's polarising priest A story of a Catholic priest and his radio station that lie at the heart of Poland's politics. For nearly 30 years, Tadeusz Rydzyk has been preaching and broadcasting from the pulpit. His station, Radio Maryja, doesn't attract particularly large audiences. However, politically, Radio Maryja punches far above its weight. Anyone running for office in Poland knows that; the current populist government included. Tadeusz Rydzyk is such a divisive figure, his mini-media empire so polarising, that one journalist has written a stage play about this story. It opened a few weeks back, and - much like Rydzyk himself - it's getting mixed reviews. The Listening Post's Flo Phillips reports from Poland on the tangled web of politics, power, the priesthood and the press that Rydzyk embodies. Contributors: Magdalena Chrzczonowicz - managing editor, OKO.press Piotr Głuchowski - author, Emperor Marcin Kącki - reporter, Gazeta Wyborcza and playwright, Enemy is Born Ireneusz Krzeminski - author, What Does Radio Maryja Teach Us? and Professor of Sociology, Warsaw 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/

On The Listening Post this week: Journalism on trial - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces extradition after arrest in London. Plus, the journalists who exposed Malaysia's 1MDB scandal. Under arrest: The future of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks Six years, nine months, three weeks, two days after taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, the impasse was broken when Julian Assange was dragged out of the building by British police in response to an extradition request from the United States. When it comes to media personalities and stories about the news and journalism, there are few that come bigger than Assange and WikiLeaks. Assange stands charged with "a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion," and his extradition could have wider implications for journalists in the digital age. The Listening Post sits down with WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson to discuss what's at stake for the media and Assange's chances of getting a fair trial. Contributor: Kristinn Hrafnsson - WikiLeaks editor The media backstory behind Malaysia's 1MDB corruption case Last week, Malaysia's former prime minister, Najib Razak, went on trial over one of the biggest corruption scandals the world has ever seen. The media shorthand for the case is 1MDB - since it involves a sovereign wealth fund by the same name that Najib set up. The fund lost billions of dollars - almost $700m of which is alleged to have ended up in his own bank account. The Malaysian media are all over the story, but it wasn't always that way. Under Najib's government there were red lines that reporters - and the news outlets they work for - feared to cross. And if not for a British journalist running a website out of London, one business newspaper in Kuala Lumpur, and a secret meeting that took place in Singapore, Malaysians might not know about any of this. The Listening Post's Flo Phillips reports on the media backstory behind the 1MDB scandal. Contributors: Clare Rewcastle Brown - Editor, The Sarawak Report Ho Kay Tat - Publisher, The Edge Media Group Zaini Hassan - Former Deputy Assistant Editor, Utusan Malaysia (1989-2018) & Editorial advisor, bebasnews.my Gayathry S. Venkiteswaran - Assistant professor, School of Media, Languages and Cultures, University of Nottingham, Malaysia 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 The Listening Post this week: A special on migration and the media's role in framing this era-defining story. ICE watch: Turning the lens on US immigration agencies Before US President Donald Trump took office, most media junkies in the United States would not have known that ICE stands for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. But the Trump administration's hard line immigration policies have changed all that. And with the US president's ceaseless talking and tweeting about alleged threats from across the Mexican border, stories about ICE and its sister agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), are right up there on the mainstream media's agenda. But the role the media is playing in this particular narrative is going well beyond merely covering the story. The Listening Post's Flo Phillips reports from the US on some of the media collaborations that are turning the lens on the immigration authorities to track enforcement abuse. Contributors: Palika Makam - programme coordinator, WITNESS Ryan Devereaux - immigration reporter, The Intercept Muzaffar Chishti - director, Migration Policy Institute Dara Lind - immigration reporter, Vox On Our Radar Barbara Serra talks to the journalist and filmmaker Matthew Cassel about his experience covering the migration story - including the coverage of Europe's so-called migrant "crisis" and his latest series, The Missing. Border security TV: Crossing the line? They are images seen on screen more and more often - border control officials searching for illegal goods, interrogating unwanted newcomers, deporting those deemed undesirable - all in the name of protecting the homeland. And those pictures don't just end up on newscasts; border security shows have become a sub-genre of reality TV. Producers say the programmes provide an insight into the essential work of customs and immigration agencies. But in the post-9/11 climate, and in the context of a global refugee surge, the format smacks of tabloid TV at its worst - often exaggerating and sensationalising the threats posed by those crossing the border. Contributors Harsha Walia - founder, No One Is Illegal and author, Undoing Border Imperialism Nevin Thompson - Japan editor, Global Voices Benjamin Doherty - immigration correspondent, Guardian Australia Stewart Morris - executive producer, Border Force: America's Gatekeepers 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

It's been one year since East Africa's most populous country - Ethiopia - experienced a political transformation; a change in leadership, after years of social unrest and demonstrations. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn unexpectedly resigned, leading to the appointment of Abiy Ahmed, a representative of the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos. The reforms came swiftly. Abiy packed his cabinet with a record number of women, he promised to address the social tensions among Ethiopia's multiple ethnic groups, and he forged an historic agreement to end the 20-year standoff with neighbouring Eritrea. Changes came quickly in the media realm as well. Dozens of new news websites appeared, more than 20 new media publications are now in business, and numerous journalists, jailed and stifled under Hailemariam and his predecessor, have been freed. But there's still a long way to go. "We are dealing with a country that is in its own twilight zone. The transition is in many ways very fragile," says Tsedale Lemma, editor in chief, Addis Standard. "If you wanted to have a request for an interview with the prime minister, you don't get that opportunity. We see more and more government officials using the social media which makes them directly accessible to people ... However, I'm very disappointed that the distribution of this information is highly choreographed ... So it's very frustrating that we're limited into the kind of information, government authorities want us to hear." Ethiopian media have years of control and censorship to break free of, and outlets there are still working on forming professional bonds to strengthen their industry. "Media houses need to come together, discuss what should be, how can we help the transition without compromising our journalistic principles. If we do that, we can help but, but expecting the media to not take sides, not to advance certain interest is just not realistic," says Jawar Mohammed, founder of Oromia Media Network. He says that one year into the Abiy era, "there is still doubt whether the country could make it to democracy or whether it will fall back to dictatorship, or whether it actually will get worse and go into war." Tamrat Giorgis is the managing editor of the Addis Fortune newspaper, a media mainstay that reported throughout the 2018 revolution and transition. But according to him, it's a very, delicate, sensitive, highly emotional kind of contestation awaiting this country. "The media has continued to be an instrument of power, the instrumentalisation of the media continues. When so many things are on the balance ... What do people want from the media? They want the media to be a force of verification. A force, a place, a platform for rational discourse," says Giorgis. Last year, we spoke with four journalists of different media backgrounds about the role social media played in the political transition. Now, about nine months later, we've gone back to those voices to see how the news space is developing in Abiy Ahmed's Ethiopia. - 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: After all the collusion hysteria, mainstream media in the United States reflect on their role in promoting the conspiracy theory. Plus, revisiting Ethiopia's media scene, one year on. The collapse of the Russiagate collusion narrative It read like a spy movie - and had people gripped. Russiagate, the theory that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin to hijack the 2016 US presidential elections, was a story that was too big to fail. But that's what happened, and certain US news outlets now have some questions to answer because the Mueller report has found no smoking gun. Having sold Americans the seductive and conspiratorial notion that the man in the oval office was a compromised foreign agent, now comes a moment of reckoning for the US media. As for Trump himself, after two years of accusing the media of a witch-hunt - calling them the enemy of the people - this story has handed him a 2020 election gift like no other. Contributors: Aaron Mate, Contributor, The Nation David Cay Johnston, Founder and editor, DCReport.org Marcy Wheeler, Writer, Emptywheel Jackson Lears, Professor of History, Rutgers University Matt Taibbi, Contributing editor, Rolling Stone On Our Radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about the latest on Julian Assange. He's been living in London's Ecuadorian embassy for seven years now, but ever since Ecuador elected a new president, things have been getting progressively worse for the WikiLeaks founder. Promises promises: Ethiopia's presidential press pledge one year on A year ago, after years of social unrest, East Africa's most populous country - Ethiopia - ushered in a new political dawn with the appointment of Abiy Ahmed, a representative of the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos. The reforms came thick and fast - and that included the media: dozens of news websites appeared, more than 20 new media publications, numerous journalists, jailed and stifled under Abiy's predecessors freed. Last year, we spoke with four journalists of different media backgrounds about a year marked out in Ethiopia's history as one of those rare celebratory stories. But what happens when the honeymoon period fades? Flo Phillips revisited the story nine months later to see if Abiy's promises have been kept. Contributors: Jawar Mohammed - Founder and executive director, Oromia Media Network Tsedale Lemma - Editor in chief, Addis Standard Tamrat Giorgis - Managing editor, Addis Fortune Eskinder Nega - Journalist and human rights activist 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/

It has been over a week now since 50 Muslim worshippers were killed in Christchurch, New Zealand. The attacker livestreamed his killing spree on Facebook and the video - all 17 minutes of it - spread from there. In Australia, where the killer came from, a lot of people are blaming the media - especially news outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch - for sowing the seeds of the hate unleashed in Christchurch. A study conducted by OnePath Network, an Islamic media outlet based in Sydney, tallied up the number of negative stories that five Australian newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp produced in the year 2017. It found almost 3,000 such stories referring to Islam or Muslims, alongside words like "violence", "terrorism" or "radical". "Once every second day in 2017 there was a front page that demonised and spoke negatively about Muslims. This is bound to have an impact on the way that Australians and mainstream perceive Islam or Muslims ... His (Murdoch's) newspapers are quite disproportionate in their coverage when it comes to Muslims. They exaggerate certain aspects. They are quite divisive and dangerous. And sometimes, they are completely wrong," said Malaz Majanni, founder and CEO of OnePath Network. "If Islam was a person, then Islam would have a very good defamation case against the Murdoch press." While the Murdoch media empire is headquartered in New York and entrenched in London, it got its start - and remains hugely influential - in Australia, the country where the Christchurch killer was born, raised, and possibly radicalised. It was social media where he went to spread his ideology, but Priyamvada Gopal, an academic and writer, says, "we should recognise that white supremacy and other ideologies of hate pre-existed the internet. So while we pay due attention to the sheer speed and global reach of the internet we need to talk about how hateful ideologies come into being, what allows them to flourish. And I have to say that although internet platforms have a reach and spread that other media don't have, print media and broadcast media are not without their share of responsibility." When the story broke across the mainstream news media, the New Zealand government quickly banned domestic outlets from showing the video, deeming the material "objectionable". The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, went further when she vowed to never say the gunman's name. Many global news outlets followed that same approach, voluntarily choosing not to show the video, images of the perpetrator or identify him by name. "These people need to be accountable for their actions. And although some of them have come out with words of condolences and some messages of support, please, thanks but no thanks. Cheap messages of support are not something that we need," said Majanni. "We need radical change. We need new laws to protect Muslims from Islamophobia. Because the reality is you [the media] have contributed to the Islamophobic climate in Australia and New Zealand and around the world. Your words, your actions are complicit." - 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/

Those who followed the campaigns leading up to Senegal's presidential election late last month would have been struck by one of the defining features of Senegalese politics - hip-hop artists and the pivotal roles they can play in elections. A major reason for that: demographics. The average age of citizens there is exceptionally low - just 19. Rappers were among the founders of the country's largest social movement, credited with swaying the previous election back in 2012. This year, all the leading candidates hit the campaign trail with at least one rapper in their corner. "Many young people turn to hip-hop artists as being kind of the voice of the streets and providing them [with] a way to think about politics. Especially in the most recent presidential election, the use of rappers was a remarkably cynical attempt by these politicians to gain popularity with youth," says Zachariah Mampilly, professor of Political Science at Vassar College. But the power of hip-hop as a gateway to Senegal's youth goes beyond politics. Journal Rappe is a newscast rapped to a beat. Its founders Xuman and Keyti rhyme their take on the news in French and Wolof. They even host debates. Journal Rappe started out on Youtube, but its success in attracting Senegal's digital natives soon caught the attention of mainstream media. "Traditional media, like television and radio, have had to adapt and catch up with changing times. It's no longer like before when we had a monopoly on the news," says Maimouna Ndour Faye, journalist and presenter at 7STV. "Journal Rappe is a way of simplifying political news, and making it accessible to citizens who might not want to watch news broadcasts. They do not report the news, they do not produce information, they take news already pre-processed by television channels to present it to citizens with a taste of music and it's lovely. It is quite an artistic creation." The social media boom under way in Africa, driven by young populations and cheap Chinese smartphones, has enabled Journal Rappe to go international and its rappers have kickstarted similar projects across the region. Rap duo Keur Gui, one of Senegal's most political and most popular groups, are also taking conscious rap beyond Senegal's borders - with more traditional means, and more radical ends. Back in 2011, they helped found the social movement Y'en a Marre - French for "Fed up". "For example, we went to Burkina Faso and together with rappers and civil society activists there we created the Balai Citoyen movement, which helped overthrow the president in 2014. We went to the Republic of Congo, to Equatorial Guinea, to Mali, to Gambia, Madagascar, to meet young activists and musicians from various movements, and last year we hosted a gathering with all of them here in Dakar," says Thiat, Keur Gui rapper and cofounder of Y'en a Marre. "We think hip-hop can serve as an agent of change in Africa, in developing the youth of the future." The Listening Post's Daniel Turi reports on how hip-hop has become the language of politics for Senegal's youth. - 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: Nothing comes from nothing: we trace the history of Islamophobia in the western media. Plus, politically conscious rap in Senegal. Christchurch mosque attacks and the media It's been just over a week now since 50 people - Muslim worshippers - were killed in Christchurch, New Zealand. The gunman live-streamed his killing-spree on Facebook, and the video - all 17 minutes of it - spread from there. There's a depressing pattern to the coverage of stories like this. The big tech platforms scramble to take down the offending video and then face questions over whether they did enough, quickly enough. Mainstream news outlets enter a state of inner conflict. Playing that video on a loop is wrong, but they've got clicks and ratings to consider. In this case they found a face to put on the story too - but not the murderer's, since he's a white supremacist. They went for New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a white politician getting more coverage than the victims. Contributors: Jeremy Littau - Media scholar, Lehigh University Nasya Bahfen - Senior lecturer, La Trobe University Malaz Majanni - Founder and CEO, OnePath Network Priyamvada Gopal - Academic and writer On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about CNN's current #BadassWomenDC series, and the backlash the channel faced when it profiled Kellyanne Conway - one of the most prolific liars in the Trump administration. Beats, rhymes and elections: Rap and politics in Senegal Those who followed the campaigns leading up to Senegal's presidential election late last month, would have been struck by one of the defining features of Senegalese politics - hip hop artists and the pivotal roles they can play in elections. A major reason for that: demographics. The average age of citizens there is exceptionally low - just 19. Rappers were among the founders of the country's largest social movement, credited with swaying the previous election, back in 2012. Since then, a social media boom has boosted rap's reach even further. And Senegalese politicians have taken note. This year, all the leading candidates hit the campaign trail with at least one rapper in their corner. The Listening Post's Daniel Turi reports on how hip hop has become the language of politics for Senegal's youth. Contributors: Thiat - Rapper, Keur Gui & co-founder, Y'en a Marre Xuman - Rapper and co-founder, Journal Rappe Maimouna Ndour Faye - Journalist and presenter, 7STV Zachariah Mampilly - Professor of political science & Africana Studies, Vassar College - 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: Following weeks of mass protests in Algeria, cracks in the official media narrative start to show. Plus, profiting from purpose in the world of advertising. The media battle of Algiers State-controlled media often fill their airtime with images of their leader to remind citizens who is in power. But in Algeria, those images are few and far between. This past week, when the country's President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, withdrew his bid for a fifth term in office after three weeks of mass protests, the announcement did not come from Bouteflika himself because the 82-year old has been all but absent in national news since a stroke six years ago left him paralysed. For news about the political uprising in the country's capital, Algiers, and beyond, Algerians have gone to social media where protesters have provided their own coverage. Citizens have learned not to count on media aligned with the government, especially broadcasters, which have long been controlled by the state, and where criticism of the ailing ruler had been scarce. But things are changing. Reporters at state-backed outlets have been criticising the journalism of their own channels. Marginalised voices, many of them banned from the airwaves, are being heard once again. Contributors Nasser Weddady - Author, Arab Spring Dreams Dalia Ghanem - Resident scholar, Carnegie Middle East Center James McDougall - Author, A History of Algeria Mourad Dhina - Member of Secretariat, Rachad Movement Merouane Lounnas - Former host, Radio Algerie Internationale On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Marcela Pizarro about the livestreamed mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand; and how a doctored video out of Venezuela tricked much of the US media. Purpose advertising: The best an ad can be? In January 2019, a Gillette ad landed the company in some hot water. Jumping on the #MeToo bandwagon, and subsequent movement to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace, Gillette tweaked its sales slogan "the best a man can get" to "the best men can be", leading to an online backlash - accusing Gillette of appropriating a social movement for the sake of profit. The ad formed part of a trend known in the industry as "purpose marketing". With product-focused campaigns no longer attracting the clicks, the likes and shares that advertisers crave, more and more of them are latching onto causes. Gillette is not the only brand to have such an ad backfire. The Listening Post's Johanna Hoes looks at the challenge of striking a balance between purpose and profit. Contributors Seth Godin - Author, This is Marketing Lauren Coulman - CEO, Noisy Cricket Ltd and contributing writer, Forbes Daniel Brindis - Forest campaign director, Greenpeace Kit Yarrow - Consumer psychologist, Golden Gate University and author, Decoding the Consumer Mind - 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: Benjamin Netanyahu's murky dealings with media outlets are at the heart of the case to indict him. Plus, colonial era media laws in use across sub-Saharan Africa. Netanyahu's media manipulations There's a corruption case in Israel that centres on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to control the media, a story that also exposes the degree to which certain Israeli news outlets are willing to sell out their coverage. Elections are just weeks away and Netanyahu is looking at charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The Prime Minister is using the fake news defence, calling the case a witch-hunt cooked up by political rivals and their friends in the media. It's a line Netanyahu has used before but the victim narrative is starting to sound a little unconvincing. Contributors Oren Persico - Writer, The Seventh Eye Shimon Riklin - Political correspondent, Channel 20 Gali Ginatt - Former reporter, Walla! & Investigative reporter, Channel 13 Nomi Levitzki - Former senior journalist, Yedioth Ahronoth Tal Schneider - Correspondent, Globes On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Flo Phillips about the release of Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, after five years in prison; and in Croatia, hundreds of journalists took to the streets of Zagreb to protest against the more than one thousand lawsuits being filed against them. The colonial-era laws that still govern African journalism A media story whose roots date back to the late 19th century. European powers were setting sail for Africa, sweeping across the continent, colonising country after country. Once they took power, they wrote laws designed to ensure that the colonised would not rise up against the colonisers. Laws that could also be used to silence, censor, jail or intimidate journalists who refused to toe the line. Come the late 1950s, Africans began revolting and over the next decade or two, most countries would win their independence. However, much of the colonial legislation remained in place and there is now a growing list of journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa falling afoul of those laws. The Listening Post's Nic Muirhead explores the colonial-era laws that still determine what can and cannot be reported in Sub-Saharan Africa. 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 Contributors Outsa Mokone - Editor, Sunday Standard Sethunya Tshepho Mosime - Lecturer, University of Botswana Angela Quintal - Africa Programme coordinator, CPJ Vuyisile Hlatshwayo - Director, Media Institute of Southern Africa - 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/

How Rutger Bregman put tax reform back on the news agenda Tax rates are one of those stories that TV producers would probably rather leave to print journalists or authors. It's not visual, it's complicated; in short, it's not a sexy topic. Until, a Dutch academic, Rutger Bregman, spoke at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos and made news by telling a room full of billionaires: 'Want to fix the global economy? Then dig deeper. Pay up. Tax the rich.' Fox News' Tucker Carlson invited Bregman onto his programme but he probably didn't expect him to go after him, the channel that he works for, and the media in general, for its complicity in almost never covering tax reform. The interview did not go to air but the entire exchange, recorded on a phone camera, has since gone viral. The Listening Post looks at how one interview - that was never even broadcast - put tax reform back on the news agenda. Contributors: Will Fitzgibbon - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Naomi Fowler - Tax Justice Network Matthew Guardino - Author of Framing Inequality Andrew Wilson - Broadcast journalist On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Tariq Nafi about the Univision crew that got kicked out of Venezuela after a confrontational interview with President Nicolas Maduro; and the Israeli news anchor who learned the hard way what can, or cannot, be said about Israeli soldiers. Family ties: The story of the Chamorro dynasty Last month, one of Nicaragua's most outspoken journalists, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, fled the country saying he faced "extreme threats" from the government. When civil unrest erupted last year against the government of President Daniel Ortega, Chamorro's news outlets reported on those demonstrations and the bloody crackdown that followed. Chamorro comes from an influential family. The Chamorros own media outlets, his mother is a former president, and his late father paid for his journalism with his life. With one foot in journalism and the other in politics, the Chamorros don't just speak truth to power - they've held power. Marcela Pizarro reports on a family that lives - and works - at the intersection of journalism and politics in Nicaragua. Contributors: Carlos Fernando Chamorro - Investigative Journalist Arturo Wallace-Salinas - Author of The Media in Nicaragua Patricia Orozco - Journalist, Onda Local Moises Absalon - Presenter, Detalles del Momento - 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/