The Listening Post

For the past two weeks, the story of the poisoning of retired Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK, has led news bulletins in Britain and around the world. Much of the coverage of this story has been low on facts, high on conjecture and speculation. British headline writers have had a field day. Moscow, meanwhile, has denied any involvement and has accused the British press of churning out what they call "hysterical propaganda" to whip up anti-Russian sentiment. "The rush to judgement on the part of the UK establishment press has been overwhelming. And this has obviously had the effect of making it impossible for the investigation to proceed in a way that meets all the standards of that you would require in an investigation of this magnitude," explains John Wight of Sputnik International. "At this time of speaking, there is still no concrete evidence that Russia was responsible for this. It may well have been responsible, I don't say they were not responsible, but we need evidence because it's such a serious issue." British media have both an old script and a new geopolitical climate in which to report this story. In 2006, a Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned in London with a dose of radioactive polonium. He died, and Russia-UK relations took a hit. Twelve years on, Russia has become the designated suspect when it comes to political interference and media meddling - with allegations against them in the United States through to Germany and Italy. Tensions are high, and for tabloids in Britain, the go-to Cold War narrative has been hard to resist. Reporting may be more restrained in the broadsheets and broadcasters, but the tone of that coverage has an air of establishment groupthink. "The British media, for the most part, does buy into this of its own volition, and I think it, it is suspicious of some of the motives of Russia - internationally and indeed domestically. So I don't think there is a sense among most media commentators that they are failing sufficiently to examine what they're being told by law enforcement agencies and so on," says Will Gore, deputy managing editor of The Independent. Tune in to Russian media and the same thing could be said for their coverage. From the outset, the Kremlin has issued unequivocal denials of its involvement. On the Russian airwaves, those denials have provided a segue into stories hinting at all sorts of theories - including that the British intelligence was behind the attack. "This is exactly what they do every time Russia is under scrutiny. It's this kind of mockery and scepticism. Mockery of the West and of the way that the West is dealing with the problem, and scepticism about the West," says Natalia Antelava, editor-in-chief of Coda Story. "I think the Russian media is poisoning the debate by devaluing the truth, by making facts questionable, and by saying that everything can be questioned," she adds. Speculation, spin and increasing suspicion on both sides: that's the climate in which this diplomatic standoff is being reported. And as the consensus solidifies, the space, the time for questions and alternative perspectives, get pushed to the margins. Contributors: Natalia Antelava, editor-in-chief, Coda Story John Wight, contributor, Sputnik International Will Gore, deputy managing editor, The Independent Polly Boiko, reporter, RT 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/

When Google launched almost 20 years ago, its corporate motto was "Don't be Evil". And until last year, Facebook's official mission was to "make the world more open and connected". Things have changed since the two tech giants first came online. Both companies have been accused of working behind the scenes to silence or de-emphasise certain kinds of voices. "Censorship has changed completely and dramatically because of the internet and because of particularly these big tech companies which are basically monopolies. They can end your existence online," says Robert Epstein, research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioural Research & Technology. n October 2016, an activist group The Palestinian Information Center saw accounts of 10 of its administrators suspended by Facebook. In April 2017, political analysis websites across the US began to see dramatic drops in their web traffic through Google. And in December 2017, Egyptian journalist Wael Abbas's Twitter account was deleted. He'd had 350,000 followers. These are just some of the dozens of similar cases. In each, there was no prior warning, no specific reason given, and no avenue of redress provided. "I think it's a huge danger. If anybody is interested in the free-flow of information, in people challenging their views by reading opposing views, I think you have to be concerned about three giant corporations deciding what information you can see, and what information you can't see," says Mathew Ingram, chief digital writer, Columbia Journalism Review. Google, Facebook and Twitter are all under pressure from governments to get serious about fake news and hate speech on their platforms. The companies say, collectively, that thousands of moderators are now at work and new algorithms have been designed to filter out that kind of content. "We're giving this kind of power to a group that is not responsible to the general public. We're not talking about a government agency which is required to do things in a transparent way, we're talking about a private company that does everything secretly," says Epstein. But despite how opaque online censorship can be, sometimes the reasons really aren't all that invisible. In July 2016, Facebook hired Jordana Cutler, a former adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as its head of Policy and Communications for Israel. In October of that year, executives from Facebook met Israeli government officials. Soon after, numerous Palestinian activists found their accounts suspended for "violating Facebook's Community Standards". Israel's justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, reportedly said "a year ago, Facebook removed 50 percent of content that we requested. Today, Facebook is removing 95 percent of the content we ask them to." Jillian York, Electronic Frontier Foundation, explains that "these are all for-profit corporations whose main goal is to make money, please their shareholders and their advertisers, and so when these companies are faced with pressure from powerful governments they're, of course, going to do whatever they can to ensure that they don't get blocked there." 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: In the battle of narratives between the UK and Russia, facts are few and speculation is rife. And we look into charges of censorship by the online giants. Headlines and hyberbole: Covering the Sergei Skripal story For the past two weeks, the story of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a retired Russian double agent, and his daughter in the UK - has led news bulletins in Britain and around the world. Much of the coverage has been low on facts, high on conjecture and speculation. British headline writers have had a field day. Moscow meanwhile has denied any involvement and has claimed the British press is churning out "hysterical propaganda" to whip up anti-Russian sentiment. The Listening Post's Marcela Pizarro reports on the diplomatic standoff being played out across the airwaves. Contributors: Natalia Antelava, editor-in-chief, Coda Story John Wight, contributor, Sputnik International Will Gore, deputy managing editor, The Independent Polly Boiko, reporter, RT On our radar Barbara Serra speaks to producer Johanna Hoes about two countries grappling with the spread of online hate speech - Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Deleted, suspended, demoted: Censorship, Silicon Valley-style When Google launched almost 20 years ago, its corporate motto was "Don't be Evil". Until last year, Facebook's official mission was to "make the world more open and connected." Things have changed since the two tech giants first came online. Both companies have been accused of working behind the scenes to silence or de-emphasize certain kinds of voices. The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi reports on how the tech giants are policing their platforms and whether what they are doing amounts to a new kind of censorship. Contributors: Chris Hedges, journalist & author Robert Epstein, research psychologist Jillian York, Electronic Frontier Foundation Mathew Ingram, chief digital writer, Columbia Journalism Review 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/

Sometimes it's worth waiting for a story to play out and then examining what's been reported in the aftermath. The Florida school shooting, which happened three weeks ago, is one of those cases. At least 17 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. According to police, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz confessed to carrying out the shooting. He allegedly used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Unlike some previous school shootings in the US, the survivors didn't shy away from the cameras - they went looking for them. The teenagers used the plentiful airtime they got to push for tougher gun control laws. And they found themselves taking on not just politicians, but one of the most potent lobby groups around - the National Rifle Association. Their fight and the NRA's pushback, took place online. NRATV wants more Americans to buy guns. It goes after those who stand in their way. And that, the channel would have you believe, includes the US mainstream news media. An NRA video posted seven days after the Florida shooting didn't target politicians or activists advocating gun control. It was devoted, in its entirety, to the way the news media cover the issue. "Well as a conservative who has spent much of my career condemning the liberal mainstream news media in this country, I think that philosophically the NRA is right to do it. Now do they overdo it [with their online campaign]? Probably so. Mainly because when you don't like the message you attack the messenger," says John Ziegler, a columnist for Mediaite. According to Melissa Ryan, a visiting fellow at Media Matters for America, "It's in the NRA's interest to convince their user base that the mainstream media can't be trusted. Because if their users mistrust the mainstream media they're going to be more likely to listen to NRA as a source for for their news." Unlike previous mass shootings, however, the surviving students – who through their savvy communications skills and social media accounts, drove the coverage in a way that no one at Columbine could, back in the day. "The kids nowadays have practice in performing to wider audiences," points out Alvin Chang, reporter at Vox Media. "They are on social media constantly. They know exactly how to talk to wider audiences, exactly how to, how much they have to be informed in order to talk to wider audiences." The students propelled themselves into a position of prominence – and landed on a national stage – a CNN town hall debate on the issue of gun control. "Part of the students' power is that they are young, that they experienced this first hand, it gives them a moral authority and the best way to undercut that is by undermining their credibility," says writer and journalist Emily Witt. So where does the story go from here? Probably nowhere. It does what all school shooting stories have done. With NRATV chipping away at the credibility of the liberal media conspiracy theorists, selling their wares in the right wing bubble and a little help from Fox News and a few others – the story just fades away. Their social media skills and powers of persuasion served the students well, extending the story's lifespan and likely changing the template of the coverage of such tragedies in the future. What they haven't changed is the outcome. Maybe next time. Contributors: Jaclyn Schildkraut, assistant professor of public justice, State University of New York at Oswego Alvin Chang, reporter, Vox Media Emily Witt, writer and journalist Melissa Ryan, visiting fellow, Media Matters for America John Ziegler, columnist, Mediaite 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: After yet another school shooting in the US, student survivors spar with pro-gun ownership activists on air and online. Plus, media strangled in Eritrea. #NeverAgain: Aftermath of the Florida school shooting Sometimes it's worth waiting for a story to play out and then examining what's been reported in the aftermath. The Florida school shooting, which happened three weeks ago, is one of those cases. Seventeen were killed in the attack, 14 of them students. Unlike some previous school shootings in the US, these survivors didn't shy away from the cameras - they went looking for them. The teenagers used the plentiful airtime they got to push for tougher gun control laws. And they found themselves taking on not just politicians, but one of the most potent lobby groups around - the National Rifle Association. Contributors: Jaclyn Schildkraut, assistant professor of public justice, State University of New York at Oswego Alvin Chang, reporter, Vox Media Emily Witt, writer and journalist Melissa Ryan, visiting fellow, Media Matters for America John Ziegler, columnist, Mediaite On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Flo Phillips about the killing of a Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak who had been investigating organised crime and a call by Egyptian authorities for a boycott of the BBC following a report detailing allegations of disappearances by the state. Reporting Eritrea from the outside Freedom of the press is virtually non-existent in Eritrea with state-run media the only news outlets available within its borders. As a consequence, Eritreans have come to rely on a news outlet operating in exile from France - Radio Erena. The station also offers a lifeline to the 5,000 Eritrean refugees who risk kidnapping and death fleeing the country every month. The Listening Post's Nic Muirhead reports on Radio Erena, the Eritrean news outlet on the outside, trying to make a difference. Contributors: Meron Estefanos, presenter, Radio Erena and Host, Voices of Eritrean Refugees Abraham Zere, director, Pen Eritrea Biniam Simon, editor-in-chief, Radio Erena - 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/

China's ruling Communist Party has recently proposed to abolish term limits on the presidency, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in office as long as the party is willing to keep him there. The reaction online was instant and critical, but those posts were quickly censored and none of the criticism made it into China's mainstream media. State-owned outlets, which make up the bulk of the news landscape in China, swung into propaganda mode, praising Xi and stressing the importance of his leadership to the nation. "In traditional Chinese culture, there is a need for a guiding voice, a leading will," explains Wang Yiwei, professor of International Relations at Renmin University of China. "So the official press has to convey the significance behind the amendments to the constitution." 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/

Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are among the most watched people on the planet. They're under the constant gaze of Israeli soldiers. But in the Israeli media, Palestinians aren't as visible as you might think. And when they do attract news coverage, there's a perception issue. Too often they're framed as problems - security problems for the most part. The relative absence of Palestinians in the Israeli media has an effect on Israelis, to the extent that many Israelis refuse to believe that an occupation that has lasted more than half a century even exists. The story of a young Palestinian girl - and her confrontation with an Israeli soldier two months ago - has got people talking. Ahed Tamimi was filmed slapping a soldier outside her home in Nabi Saleh, in the Occupied West Bank. The video of that confrontation triggered a media frenzy in Israel. "The first reaction of the Israeli public, they loved this clip, and everyone shared it, saying look, we are very proud of the Israeli soldier for constraining himself," says satirist and TV host Assaf Harel. "Then something interesting happened and people started to watch it from a different angle. How do we let a little girl talk like that, threatening and hitting a soldier and we do nothing?" In Israel, Tamimi's confrontation with the soldier is widely viewed as a provocation, a trap, designed to elicit a violent response that could be used to discredit Israel abroad. Which is why so much of the often hysterical media coverage of this case has focused on her appearance and how it plays to an international audience. Tamimi doesn't fit the Israeli stereotype of what Palestinians look like and a number of prominent voices in the media argued she was being used in 'Pallywood' propaganda. "They imagine Palestinian women are all oppressed, passive, veiled...always in the background. Ahed is the extreme opposite of that. She is young, has supposedly 'European' features. She reflects the image Israelis have of themselves - suddenly a Palestinian sabotages that self-image," says Honaida Ghanim, director of The Palestinian Forum of Israeli Studies. "So how do they deal with it? They say 'look at her hair, look at her eyes, she can't be Palestinian, she's just acting Palestinian and all of this is just theatre'." The one-dimensional coverage of Palestinians in the Israeli media is a problem that extends beyond Ahed Tamimi. News outlets know that Israeli audiences aren't interested in nuanced representations of Palestinian life under occupation. "On TV broadcasts, you can track ratings minute by minute. And when a feature about Arabs does not present them in an entirely negative way, and actually even if it does present them in an entirely negative way, the ratings go down" says Oren Persico, a writer with The Seventh Eye. "Commercial media outlets know that not only will you lose audience interest, you'll later receive complaints asking 'why are you even dealing with them? They're our enemies'." The Listening Post's Tariq Nafi explores the case, the coverage and the incarceration of Ahed Tamimi. Contributors: Honaida Ghanim, director, The Palestinian Forum of Israeli Studies Abir Kopty, media expert Oren Persico, staff writer, The Seventh Eye Assaf Harel, satirist and TV personality as well as Contributor, Haaretz Manal Tamimi, Nabi Saleh activist and Ahed Tamimi's aunt 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/

Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are among the most watched people on the planet. They're under the constant gaze of Israeli soldiers. But in the Israeli media, Palestinians aren't as visible as you might think. And when they do attract news coverage, there's a perception issue. Too often they're framed as problems - security problems for the most part. The relative absence of Palestinians in the Israeli media has an effect on Israelis, to the extent that many Israelis refuse to believe that an occupation that has lasted more than half a century even exists. The story of a young Palestinian girl - and her confrontation with an Israeli soldier two months ago - has got people talking. Ahed Tamimi was filmed slapping a soldier outside her home in Nabi Saleh, in the Occupied West Bank. The video of that confrontation triggered a media frenzy in Israel. "The first reaction of the Israeli public, they loved this clip, and everyone shared it, saying look, we are very proud of the Israeli soldier for constraining himself," says satirist and TV host Assaf Harel. "Then something interesting happened and people started to watch it from a different angle. How do we let a little girl talk like that, threatening and hitting a soldier and we do nothing?" In Israel, Tamimi's confrontation with the soldier is widely viewed as a provocation, a trap, designed to elicit a violent response that could be used to discredit Israel abroad. Which is why so much of the often hysterical media coverage of this case has focused on her appearance and how it plays to an international audience. Tamimi doesn't fit the Israeli stereotype of what Palestinians look like and a number of prominent voices in the media argued she was being used in 'Pallywood' propaganda. "They imagine Palestinian women are all oppressed, passive, veiled...always in the background. Ahed is the extreme opposite of that. She is young, has supposedly 'European' features. She reflects the image Israelis have of themselves - suddenly a Palestinian sabotages that self-image," says Honaida Ghanim, director of The Palestinian Forum of Israeli Studies. "So how do they deal with it? They say 'look at her hair, look at her eyes, she can't be Palestinian, she's just acting Palestinian and all of this is just theatre'." The one-dimensional coverage of Palestinians in the Israeli media is a problem that extends beyond Ahed Tamimi. News outlets know that Israeli audiences aren't interested in nuanced representations of Palestinian life under occupation. "On TV broadcasts, you can track ratings minute by minute. And when a feature about Arabs does not present them in an entirely negative way, and actually even if it does present them in an entirely negative way, the ratings go down" says Oren Persico, a writer with The Seventh Eye. "Commercial media outlets know that not only will you lose audience interest, you'll later receive complaints asking 'why are you even dealing with them? They're our enemies'." The Listening Post's Tariq Nafi explores the case, the coverage and the incarceration of Ahed Tamimi. Contributors: Honaida Ghanim, director, The Palestinian Forum of Israeli Studies Abir Kopty, media expert Oren Persico, staff writer, The Seventh Eye Assaf Harel, satirist and TV personality as well as Contributor, Haaretz Manal Tamimi, Nabi Saleh activist and Ahed Tamimi's aunt 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: China's ruling party moves to remove presidential term limits – and the media there sing in tune. Plus, the case, coverage and incarceration of Ahed Tamimi. Media in the service of Xi Jinping As soon as China's Communist Party announced its proposal to abolish term limits on the presidency - paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in office as long as the party is willing to keep him there - state-owned outlets, which make up the bulk of the news landscape in China, swung into propaganda mode and any critical reaction online was quickly censored. Five years into Xi's rule, the fourth estate are a central component in the cultivation of Xi's image and the backing of his policies, securing his - and the party's - hold on power. Lead contributors: Chang Ping, writer and journalist Deng Yuwen, political commentator Megha Rajagopalan, China Bureau Chief, Buzzfeed Dr Wang Yiwei, professor of International Relations, Renmin University of China On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Will Yong about the two biggest media companies in the world both wanting a piece of Rupert Murdoch's media empire and the case of a photojournalist from Kashmir that's prompted an unprecedented reaction from India's National Investigative Agency. Ahed Tamimi: One story, multiple narratives Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are under the constant gaze of Israeli soldiers but in the Israeli media, Palestinians aren't as visible as you might think. The story of a young Palestinian girl and her confrontation with an Israeli soldier that landed her in prison has got people talking. Part of what makes Ahed Tamimi's story different comes down to appearance, she doesn't fit the Israeli stereotype of what Palestinians look like. The Listening Post's Tariq Nafi on the case, the coverage and the incarceration, of Ahed Tamimi. Feature contributors: Honaida Ghanim, director, The Palestinian Forum of Israeli Studies Abir Kopty, media expert Oren Persico, staff writer, The Seventh Eye Assaf Harel, satirist and TV personality as well as Contributor, Haaretz Manal Tamimi, Nabi Saleh activist and Ahed Tamimi's aunt 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: With presidential elections due next month, dissent has all but disappeared in Sisi's Egypt. Plus, Viktor Orban's ever-tightening grip on Hungary's media. Arrested, Banned, Exiled: Egypt's Dissenting Voices If you're a journalist covering the upcoming election in Egypt, your contacts in the security services may prove more useful than those you have in parliament. There have been more arrests than manifestos; the candidates are dropping like flies. Take Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, for example. He decided not to run against President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, but was arrested this past week anyway, upon his return to Cairo after doing an interview in London. It's not just what he said, denouncing Egypt's crackdown on dissent, but where he said it - one of our sister channels Al Jazeera Mubasher, which is network non grata in Egypt. Istanbul is also on Cairo's radar these days, because of the opposition channels that beam out of there and into Egypt, Mekameleen and Al Sharq. They are probably the reason travel restrictions have been placed on Egyptian journalists trying to go there. The Sisi government has got its bases covered - voices of opposition, news outlets that provide them with platforms and journalists with plane tickets. Contributors: Maha Azzam, president, Egyptian Revolutionary Council Omar al-Ghazzi, assistant professor of media, LSE Hamza Zawba, talk show host, Mekameleen TV Sahar Khamis, associate professor of communication, University of Maryland Hungary: Whistleblowing on Orban's media manipulation If the polls are to be believed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban could win his third consecutive election this April. Should that happen, the media there will have played a large part. Since coming to power for the second time in 2010, the Orban government has devoted considerable energy and resources to restructuring the domestic media landscape in its favour. The closure of Hungary's most influential opposition newspaper Nepszabadsag in October 2016 made headlines, but that is just one example of many government-linked buyouts. Most of Hungary's private media is now in the hands of businessmen allied to the prime minister and his party, Fidesz. Those news outlets, alongside numerous state-owned channels, strongly support Orban's anti-immigrant policies and tend to amplify his anti-Muslim messaging. According to two whistleblowers working at state-owned media, the MTVA - that's because the government is directing their output and those news outlets dutifully fall in line. Contributors: Agnes Urban, media researcher Daniel Renyi, journalist 444.HU MTVA employees 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/

Not every picture tells a story and not every image is worth a thousand words. But the right one - in the right place, at the right political time - can pack a bigger punch than a hundred soundbites or a million tweets. An image like the one of athletes from two countries still officially at war - North and South Korea - taking the Olympic stage under one flag at the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics. "It's a great photo op. It makes for some good pictures. It does sort of bring the sense of potential and the sense of optimism at least briefly for that sports event. But it doesn't necessarily mean unification is around the corner," says Jenny Town, managing editor of 38 North. How about the sight of Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's sister shaking hands with South Korean president Moon Jae-in, right under the nose of US Vice President Mike Pence? If stealing the show was Pyongyang's intention, the media played right into its hands, offering extensive coverage of the delegation from the north. Wherever they light the Olympic flame, there are going to be geopolitics in the mix. But these games, given where they are, and the governments involved, have taken Olympic politics to another level. There is no denying the significance of Kim Yo-jong's presence at the Games, given that she is the first member of North Korea's ruling family to ever visit the south. But western news outlets should not forget that propaganda is Kim Yo-jong's day job. "As the head of North Korea's Department of Propaganda and Agitation, she does run a very important department," explains Sung Yoon Lee, professor of Korean Studies at Tufts University. "That department makes sure that North Koreans have few if any real access to outside information, that they remain in the dark. That department also does its best to restrict the flow of information out of North Korea. None of that was broached in reporting on Kim Yo-jong, only the fact that she exuded the softer image, that she smiled for the cameras, that she looked modest and sincere." In Pyeongchang, Kim Yo-jong became the temporary face of an authoritarian country that is politically dominated by men. Kim Jong-un represents the third generation in a family dynasty, a patriarchy, that has lasted for 70 years. But when North Korea ventures onto the world stage and in front of the news media, women do a disproportionate amount of the PR work. In addition to Kim Yo-jong, the government sent more than 200 cheerleaders to the games. It's not the first time they have been sent out, but journalists can't seem to resist them. "The media, again a male-dominated media, is just all over them, desperate to try to get a response from them. You see, it's sort of a game in the South Korean media. Can you get one of them to answer a question? Because they are really quite tight-lipped other than when they're cheering," says Andray Abrahamian, visiting fellow, Pacific Forum CSIS. "In a way, it's almost a propaganda failure because of how regimented and organised they appear, it can look a little bit weird sometimes, a little bit stiff," he adds. While the international news media treat North Korea as a potential geopolitical flashpoint, media in South Korea see the north differently - as an existential threat. News outlets based in Seoul are typically split along liberal and conservative lines. Liberal outlets are more open to accommodating Pyongyang, conservative ones are usually much more hard line. But on this story and the bilateral meeting between Kim Yo-jong and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, the ideological gap in the South seems to have shrunk. Because of the stakes, the arsenals and the players involved, not all of whom are Korean. "The gap between left and right is relatively narrow, I think because South Koreans generally are very worried about the United States right now," says Abrahamian. "President Trump is way too willing to risk war on the Korean Peninsula. So, there's sort of a unity of opinion across the board, left and right, looking for a way to diffuse tensions and move on." The wall to wall coverage of this story comes with significant gaps in understanding. The South Korean media know very little about what goes on in Pyongyang. The international media doesn't know its way around either country, either story. And the vast majority of journalists parachuted into the Olympics are sports reporters - unschooled in the world of geopolitics. 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/

Sometimes a date on the calendar becomes synonymous with an event, a seminal moment for a new media narrative. September 11, 2001, is the most obvious. But for Turks, it's July 15, 2016, the day when a botched coup attempt by a movement led by a reclusive Islamic leader based in the US, Fethullah Gulen - left hundreds dead and thousands injured. In the early 2000s, Gulen's followers were allies of President Erdogan's AK Party. By 2013, they fell out politically and Erdogan labelled the movement a parallel state, a shadowy threat to democracy. After July 15, 2016, the government rebranded Gulen and his followers as "terrorists". Turkey's media - increasingly intimidated by a government that has arrested hundreds of critical journalists - have played a vital role in framing July 15, 2016, as an ongoing explanation for the challenges facing the country, and as a way of crushing dissent. "The media narrative has really played an important role for the AKP government and for President Erdogan to disseminate a particular version of the events," says Bilge Yesil, assistant professor, City University of New York. From the soldiers and civilians killed and injured, to the bullet-scarred walls of government buildings; from accusations, confessions, prosecutions and recriminations - a new national narrative has emerged in which Turkey is beset by an enemy within: the Gulen movement, also referred to as Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO). "Journalists who want to defend the state also want to keep the 15th of July high on the agenda," explains columnist Nihal Bengisu Karaca. "If you consider the character, the texture, the intricate structure and the sophistication of the organisation that we fought against on the 15th of July, you will better understand why that day will not be forgotten." While the coup attempt was thwarted, their supporters are still being outed all the time - not only in the courts but in trials by media. "So when a new decree-law is announced and people raise their concerns about the implications of that decree-law, usually the first response from a pro-government pundit is 'Are you member of the FETO?'" says Yesil. "This becomes a vehicle for silencing oppositional voices and for discouraging people from asking questions, not only about FETO but in general about any government policy." Persecuted by enemies abroad, infiltrated by enemies within - most of the Turkish media have closed ranks around a state-sanctioned narrative that explains all this in terms of the failed 2016 coup attempt. Meanwhile, hundreds of journalists have been silenced by arrest, their media outlets subject to closure or taken over by supporters of the government. The result is a media landscape where the only story is the July 15 story. "The pro-government media is serving the same political narrative and the same political objectives as Erdogan and the AKP government. Obviously, their political agendas are very much aligned and because they serve to propagate the message from the party, and from the president we can see several similarities in terms of their narratives", says Yesil. The stories that a nation tells become how that nation imagines itself collectively, how it understands its victimhood, its identity and its destiny. If for Turkey, July 15 was the day everything changed, narratives around the failed coup and FETO are a new national creation myth. One that, with so much of the Turkish media behind it, is rapidly becoming a new national reality. Contributors: Nihal Bengisu Karaca, columnist Ali Saydam, columnist, Yeni Safak; honorary chairman, Bersay Communications Group Ragip Duran, columnist Arti Gercek; Broadcasting Council, Arti TV Bilge Yesil, assistant professor, City University of New York 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: How the media get caught up in North Korea's diplomatic games at the Winter Olympics. Plus, July 15, 2016 - the date Turkey got a new national narrative. Pyeongchang 2018: Sport, politics and the media games At the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics, athletes from two countries still officially at war - North and South Korea - marched into the stadium together, under one flag. Those images of a momentarily unified Korea were beamed around the world and will have registered in Washington. Wherever they light the Olympic flame, there are going to be geopolitics in the mix. But these games, given where they are, and the governments involved - have taken Olympic politics to another level. Contributors: Jung Woo Lee, lecturer in sports diplomacy, University of Edinburgh Andray Abrahamian, visiting fellow, Pacific Forum CSIS Jenny Town, managing editor, 38 North Sung Yoon Lee, professor of Korean Studies, Tufts University On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to Listening Post producer Tariq Nafi about: Unilever's threat to pull its ads from Facebook and Google the Indian journalist fired over a tweet criticising the country's media The day Turkey got a new national narrative Sometimes a date on the calendar becomes synonymous with an event, a seminal moment for a new media narrative. September 11, 2001, is the most obvious. But for Turks it's July 15, 2016, the day when a botched coup attempt left hundreds dead and thousands injured. Since then, Turkey's media - increasingly intimidated by a government that has arrested hundreds of critical journalists - have played a vital role in framing July 15, 2016, as an ongoing explanation for the challenges facing the country, and as a way of crushing dissent. Contributors: Nihal Bengisu Karaca, columnist Ali Saydam, columnist, Yeni Safak; honorary chairman, Bersay Communications Group Ragip Duran, columnist Arti Gercek; Broadcasting Council, Arti TV Bilge Yesil, assistant professor, City University of New York - 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/

When Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga held a mock inauguration last week declaring himself the 'people's president', he was out to discredit the results of an election held late last year that he eventually boycotted, saying the vote was rigged. But Uhuru Kenyatta's government wants to put the election story behind it, get on with governing, and deny Odinga the oxygen of publicity, so it ordered media outlets to ignore the alternative inauguration. When three privately-owned TV channels defied those orders and tried to broadcast the event, the authorities pulled the plug on them, setting off a debate on who gets to decide what constitutes news in Kenya, journalists or politicians. But however aggrieved they claim to be, Kenyan media have some of their own credibility issues to deal with. "It might have seemed like a good idea in the short term, as a show of force, but what it does in the long-term is it says, 'We are going to undermine the public's right to information for the sake of securing of this short-term power'. And that's a real threat to democracy," says writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola. "If they [Kenyatta government] hadn't given it [Odinga's rally] as much attention as they did, it would have just been a footnote in the political history of the country," he adds. Kenya's presidential election should have been settled five months ago when Kenyatta was declared the winner by 10 points over Odinga. Odinga challenged the result and was backed by the Supreme Court, which had ordered another vote for October. The second round played out like a farce. Odinga pulled out, saying the fix was in. A key member of the electoral commission fled the country, citing political interference and death threats. Voter turnout was less than half of what it was in round one, and the electoral commission declared Kenyatta the winner, with more than 98 percent of the vote. "In most civilised countries, when the electoral commission gives the result, that is the result and everybody accepts it and the country moves on," says Joe Ageyo, managing editor of KTN News. "In Kenya we have a very, very different society because there is suspicion, there's always a question mark, what didn't they tell us? Did they hide something? And I think the media finds itself in that space." Most notably, after the election in late 2007. The results were disputed and the violence lasted for months. In the electoral aftermath, more than 1,000 were killed and more than half a million displaced. While the causes of that violence were many and complex, the Kenyan media got much of the blame. During the campaign, television stations had aired incendiary political ads - in breach of their regulations. Small, local radio stations incited post-election violence by broadcasting hate speech. Stung by that criticism, many Kenyan news outlets toned down their content and played it safe ahead of the 2013 vote that resulted in Kenyatta's election, so "the media was then criticised in 2013, and I think rightly so, for having been too careful," says Ageyo. By year's end his government passed a new media law giving itself the power to fine news outlets - a law that the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists described as draconian. "They escalated the 'We want peace' narrative....You're not a PR agency. You're the media! Your job is to, to keep their feet to the fire, to keep them honest. That's the whole concept of a fourth estate that [it] keeps people honest. And when they decide to go in bed with the executive and become an extension of the executive, if you think about it as a table, it's a table with three legs. How is it supposed to stand?" says Nyabola. Ultimately, this story comes down to questions of legitimacy. The Kenyatta government had its legitimacy challenged by Raila Odinga in the most public of ways. The media tried to broadcast that ceremony, hoping to regain the legitimacy they squandered last year, falling short as election watchdogs and going soft on the Kenyatta government. If the Kenyan media thought that would land them in the government's good graces, what happened last week proved they made a big mistake. And going to black, the way they did, will have come 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/

During last year's presidential election campaign, Emmanuel Macron was the darling of the French media. His promises of a "new world" and a new French revolution seemed tailor-made for the times. So did Macron's image as the politician offering a cure for France's stagnant economy. He swept to power with 66 percent of the vote, demolishing his opponent of the far right. However, his romance with the media has since turned sour. "We very rarely see Macron," says RTL political editor Elizabeth Martichoux. "The Elysee Palace is quite an impregnable fortress. Macron does not host luncheons with journalists like his predecessor, Francois Hollande, used to. He stopped doing all that. There is never an 'off-the-record' moment, he is a president who is always 'on the record.'" From his earliest days in office, Macron made it clear which journalists he wanted covering his story. At the outset, Macron sometimes seemed like he was part president, part assignment editor. "Only a few days into his mandate, the president decided to travel to Mali. He then contacted certain media outlets to let them know he only wanted journalists who specialised in defence and foreign policy, not political journalists," explains Jean-Jerome Bertolus, a political writer at L'Opinion. "This caused quite a stir among media outlets, who rightly said the president should not be allowed to choose which journalists to have by his side. It was a first show of strength." It's a classic, political tactic: Court the news media on your way to power. Make time for them and smile for the cameras. Then, once you're sworn into office, develop a sudden aversion to journalists. But according to Sorbonne University professor Francois Jost, Macron does indeed talk to journalists, "but they are mainly foreign, and that annoys French journalists a lot ... It's not that he doesn't speak. It's just that he talks to others. The [French] media have no choice but to use bits of these encounters. However, none of these speeches is directly addressed to the French press." Within three months of taking office, Macron saw a sharp slide in his poll numbers. His proposed labour reforms and tax cuts were making the wrong kinds of headlines. So Macron hired Bruno Roger-Petit, a business journalist, as his new communications director. Roger-Petit made room in Macron's schedule for magazines like the glossy Paris Match and the conservative Le Point. On the TV side, he paired Macron with Cyril Hanouna, a celebrity host who is more of an actor or comedian than a journalist. "Of course, when Macron calls Cyril Hanouna live on TV, the political journalists are choking because they keep trying to reach the president and are, in fact, still waiting for a call back," says Bertolus. When Macron granted his first French TV interview after almost five months, he chose the largest privately-owned channel, TF1, instead of France's state broadcaster. When he finally spoke to state TV, Macron and journalist Laurent Delahousse strolled around the Elysee Palace. It struck French journalists and audiences as a very American style of light-touch interviewing. "I think Macron tricked Laurent Delahousse. How do you conduct a meaningful interview when you are strolling through the Elysee's corridors in dim light? You can't ask sharp questions in that kind of setting," says Martichoux. Today, Macron no longer gives French journalists the silent treatment, but the relationship is far from cordial. He has criticised previous presidents for being too close to journalists, accused the French media of narcissism, and reportedly called the state broadcaster "la honte de la Republique" - the shame of the republic. He's made it clear that state-owned media are due for an overhaul, signalling budget cuts and restructuring. Analysts say that the reform proposals could result in less public-service journalism and, ultimately, fewer people holding power to account. "The whole history of French presidents and broadcasters - whether with Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy, a bit less with Hollande - has been about keeping public TV and radio under their control," according to Daniel Schneidermann, a media analyst at Arret Sur Images. "I think Macron is really 'old world' in that he thinks he should have complete control over public broadcasting." When it comes to the media, Macron's intentions are not all that different from his predecessors', even if the tactics and the rhetoric are. If the French president gets away with it, his so-called "revolution" will be televised - his 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/