The Listening Post

There's a war of words being waged through the South African news media; a war of buzzwords. One of those terms is "state capture", which describes something South Africans say happens all too often - when businesses close to the ANC government of President Jacob Zuma exercise undue political influence and benefit unfairly from government tenders - ending up with taxpayers' money in their pockets. At the heart of the accusations is a powerful business family, the Guptas, who have close ties with the Zuma family and whose business empire spans computer equipment, mining and media. The Guptas have been fighting back against accusations of state capture with a public relations offensive and a buzzword of their own. A trove of leaked emails originating from the Guptas and their associates have revealed that, with the help of Bell Pottinger, a public-relations firm based in London, the Guptas were behind the term - "white monopoly capital" - the idea that white-owned businesses control the South African economy. 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

We begin this week with a look at ourselves - the Al Jazeera media network - which is at the heart of the current diplomatic showdown in the Gulf. A Saudi-led coalition of countries backed by US president Donald Trump, is demanding Qatar's government shuts down its prized Al Jazeera Media Network. Qatar refuses and says the future of Al Jazeera is non-negotiable. Ever since Qatar launched the first pan Arab news channel, Al Jazeera Arabic, in 1996, the network has infuriated many Arab rulers by providing the kind of news coverage that viewers in those countries - raised on a strict diet of state-controlled TV - had not seen before, at least not in Arabic. Over those two decades, some of Qatar's neighbours launched their own state-funded TV pan-Arab news channels to present an alternative, more controlled narrative. The idea was to counter voices on Al Jazeera Arabic, some of which those governments say should never be offered an on-air platform, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood being one example of that. There are as many angles to this story as there are governments involved and with the Trump White House also in the mix, the implications now extend well beyond the Middle East. 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

On The Listening Post this week: What does the Al Jazeera Media Network symbolise in the GCC political crisis? Plus, a politically engineered war of buzzwords in South Africa's media. Gulf Crisis: Al Jazeera in the Crosshairs A coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia is demanding that, along with making significant changes to its regional and international policies, the government of Qatar must shut the Al Jazeera Media Network, which it funds. Qatar refuses and says the future of Al Jazeera is non-negotiable. Contributors: Marwan Kraidy, media scholar, Annenberg School Gregg Carlstrom, former Al Jazeera English journalist Joseph Kechichian, Middle East analyst, Gulf News Rami Khouri, professor of journalism, American University of Beirut On our radar •A Vietnamese blogger has been stripped of his citizenship and deported to France. •Three CNN journalists have resigned over a story that has since been retracted, linking one of Donald Trump's senior advisers to a Russian investment fund. •In Mexico, Salvador Adame has become the seventh journalist killed this year, reaffirming the country's status as one of the most dangerous places on Earth for reporters. A war of buzzwords in South Africa's Media There is a war of words being waged through the South African news media, a war of buzzwords. What's the story behind "white monopoly capital" and "state capture", the words dominating South African airwaves? The Listening Post's Nic Muirhead reports on the Gupta Leaks and the competing narratives and buzzwords echoing across South African media. Contributors: Ferial Haffajee, editor, Huffington Post South Africa Andile Mngxitama, founder, Black First Land First Thanduxolo Jika, investigative journalist, Sunday Times Sam Cole, cofounder, amaBhungane 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

Since the reunification of North and South in 1975, the Communist Party has ruled Vietnam – and state’s control over the media is near-absolute. However Vietnam’s bloggers are putting that control to the test. They’ve been challenging mainstream media outlets, pushing them to cover topics and issues the Communist Party has declared off limits. Blogs, messaging apps and Facebook carry stories that would otherwise have gone untold. And the bloggers are finding a ready-made audience. There are more people online in Vietnam than any other country in Southeast Asia. Bloggers have also attracted the attention, and ire, of the authorities. Facing a mix of old laws and new ones, intimidation and closed trials, many have been disciplined, silenced and put away. Last year alone, 18 bloggers and activists were jailed. Contributors: Tran Le Thuy, director, Centre for Media Education & Consultancy Shawn Crispin, senior southeast asia representative, Committee to Protect Journalists Nguyen Van Hai, exiled Vietnamese blogger 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 ten days now since the Grenfell tower block in London was consumed by flames. The fire has had serious repercussions for Prime Minister Theresa May's government, which was barely clinging to power after very close election and now has its housing and social policy under serious scrutiny, as the blame game unfolds. Journalists arriving at the scene got an earful from residents who say the media ignored them when they tried to raise their safety concerns, until the fire - the tragedy - suddenly made them newsworthy. Those reports of unheeded safety warnings, that cosmetic renovation that used a flammable material, because it was a little cheaper, in one of the richest areas in Europe, have turned the charred remains of Grenfell Tower into a symbol of entrenched inequality; Exhibit A in the case against a government accused of failing to take care of its most vulnerable. Are the mainstream news media in the UK any better at dealing with marginalised communities than governments are? On stories where complex issues - like housing, inequality, austerity, race and class, intersect - the answer would appear to be: no. 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

On The Listening Post this week: Distrust in Britain's media grows following the fatal blaze at Grenfell Tower. Plus: the persecution - and resistance - of Vietnam's bloggers. Covering the Grenfell fire: UK media in the spotlight A tower block fire in London that left dozens dead has channeled rage over class, race, economic and social divisions not only at Prime Minister Theresa May but also at the British media. When reporters arrived to cover the blaze, local residents expressed anger that the media had not heeded warnings about safety or engaged more closely with issues affecting their communities during years of government austerity. Voices from a neighbourhood in grief demanded to know if only the spectacle of tragedy could make their lives newsworthy. Contributors: Akwugo Emejulu, professor of Sociology at University of Warwick Dawn Foster, contributing editor for The Guardian on housing Anna Minton, author, "Big Capital: Who Is London For?" Maya Goodfellow, independent writer and researcher On our radar: Nearly a year after the failed military coup in Turkey, dozens of prominent journalists go on trial accused of conspiring against the state. Venezuela accuses Twitter of suspending 180 accounts linked to the government. Reporters in Myanmar face defamation charges under the country's controversial anti-press laws. The persecution and resistance of Vietnam's bloggers Since unification in 1975, Vietnam has been governed by a communist party that maintains tight control over the airwaves. However, bloggers pose a challenge to state-sanctioned narratives for one of the largest online audiences in Southeast Asia. Mainstream outlets are often forced to follow up on stories where bloggers have led the way, sometimes on issues usually declared off limits by government media managers. The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi reports on the supine state of Vietnam's mainstream media and the government's attempts to silence the country's bloggers. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

India's media market is often described as diverse - but is diversity synonymous with pluralism? On June 5th, India's Central Bureau of Investigations conducted a series of raids targeting NDTV, one of the country's relatively liberal-leaning TV networks that has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. The CBI says the raids were part of an investigation into the repayment of bank loans taken out by the network's owners. However, NDTV's co-founder, Prannoy Roy, calls it a thinly-disguised witch hunt orchestrated by Modi's Bharatiya Junata party, the BJP. In a country which has 900 television channels, just a handful major corporate owners dominate a market increasingly aligned to the BJP and Modi, creating what many are calling a deficit of critical voices on the airwaves and a surplus of pro-government ones. Editors and journalists around India call the NDTV raid a 'defining moment' - a political attack on the network and on press freedom in times that have proven difficult for the media across the country. Over the years, Indian news channels have grown more opinionated, more nationalistic - with some pledging to combat what they call 'anti-national' reporting with 'patriotic' journalism, as if patriotism and journalism should happily coexist. 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

The Russian state-controlled media have their usual Western targets. But occasionally, the Russian press sets its sights on its neighbour Belarus. Minsk and Moscow have been allies for years, but a recent spat over energy subsidies and Russia's campaign in Ukraine have made relations fragile. The two countries have made peace, for now, but the Kremlin's media machine has become increasingly uncomfortable for Belarus' leader, not least because of its significant influence over the Belarusian media landscape. The Listening Post's Johanna Hoes reports on the media component of the relations between Moscow and Minsk, Vladimir Putin's Russia and Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus. 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: Dzianes Melyantsou, senior analyst, Belarus Institute of Strategic Studies Amy Mackinnon, senior editor, Coda Story Michal Janczuk, former Minsk bureau chief, Belsat TV Andrei Bastunets, head, Belarusian Association of Journalists

On The Listening Post this week: Testing times as police raid India's liberal NDTV station. Plus, the media wars between Russia and Belarus. India's NDTV Raided: Politics, patriotism and the press No country has more TV news channels than India. And one of them says it's under political attack for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. When India's NDTV network was raided on June 5, government officials said it was part of a financial investigation, but the channel's directors called it a thinly disguised witch-hunt, an attack on press freedom orchestrated by Modi's BJP party. Contributors: Anuradha Dutt, lawyer, NDTV Madhu Trehan, editor, Newslaundry Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor, The Wire Mrinal Pande, chairperson, The Media Foundation R Jagannathan, editorial director, Swarajya magazine On our radar: • In Egypt, as many as 64 news websites have been blocked, including some of the country's few remaining critical outlets. • As the diplomatic rift in the Gulf deepens, the state of Qatar and the media outlets it sponsors, including Al Jazeera, continue to be targeted by GCC and other Arab countries - actions that Human Rights Watch has called "a blow to free speech". Israel also appears to be backing the GCC blockade against Qatar and Al Jazeera. • Chelsea Manning, the American soldier responsible for the biggest leak of classified documents in US history, has spoken out for the first time since leaving prison. Russia and Belarus: Media battles The Russian state-controlled media has its usual Western targets. But occasionally, it sets its sights on its neighbour Belarus. Minsk and Moscow have been allies for years, but a recent spat over energy subsidies and Russia's campaign in Ukraine have made relations fragile. The two countries have made peace for now, but the Kremlin's media machine has become increasingly uncomfortable for Belarus' leader Alexander Lukashenko, not least because of its significant influence over the Belarusian media landscape. Contributors: Dzianis Melyantsou, senior analyst, Belarus Institute of Strategic Studies Amy MacKinnon, senior editor, Coda Story Michal Janczuk, former Minsk bureau chief, Belsat TV Andrei Bastunets, head, Belarusian Association of Journalists 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

When British Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election, in search of a fresh mandate before negotiating the UK's way out of the European Union, her lead in the polls made her look unbeatable. She also knew that most of Britain's newspapers had her back since 70 percent of the papers sold in the UK are, like May, conservative. They're not shy with their opinions and they set an agenda broadcast journalists often follow. Those papers were hammering opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, an avowed leftist. May's campaign was showing signs of stumbling prior to the Manchester and London terror attacks that pushed domestic security to the top of the agenda. That's a scenario, when fear is in the air, in which conservative parties – like May's tend to do well. But, for some reason, that didn't happen this time. Instead, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party surged with him saying aloud what many believe but few western politicians dare to say - that it's time for a total rethink on the so-called "war on terror." Despite coming under constant criticism in the conservative press; despite the state-funded broadcaster, the BBC, repeating right-wing talking points from those papers, depicting Corbyn as a security risk, his party won enough seats to shock the so-called experts and deny Theresa May the majority government – and the mandate – that she wanted, one that the papers tried – and failed – to deliver. 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

In Cuba, the government has long used journalism as a tool of propaganda – and for that, until recently, it has been largely unapologetic. Following the revolution, the role of the news media was envisioned as one of education and garnering mass support for the Cuban political project. The Cuban film industry is a different story. Cuban film directors can get away with showing things that journalists cannot, sometimes providing critical reflection on the contradictions in Cuban social reality. Subjects like education, health, gender, sexuality, worker’s rights, state bureaucracy have been recurring themes - and sometimes even the Cuban news media itself. And usually, although contemporary economic realities have recently forced filmmakers to look abroad for funding, Cuban cinema is funded by the very same state that it criticises. Contributors: Eduardo del Llano, screenwriter & director of 'Brainstorm' Luis Alberto Garcia, actor, 'Brainstorm' Carlos Galiano, film historian Claudia Calvino, film producer 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

On The Listening Post this week: How acts of terror shaped the British media narrative in the run-up to the UK election. Plus, Cuban cinema as a space for journalism. Britain votes: How 'terror' shaped the election coverage When the British Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election two months ago, her lead in the polls suggested the British Conservatives would run away with a clear majority. But fast forward to election day on June 8, and that scenario vanished into thin air. Despite opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn being demonised by a majority of the right-leaning press, especially in the aftermath of "terror attacks" in Manchester and London, he and his Labour Party shocked the so-called "experts" by winning enough seats to deny the Conservatives a majority government, one that the papers tried - and failed - to deliver. Contributors: Tom Mills, author, The BBC: Myth of a Public Service Afua Hirsch, journalist and broadcaster Richard Seymour, founding editor, Salvage Mary Dejevsky, columnist, The Independent On our radar: The Al Jazeera Media Network, along with other media outlets funded by the state of Qatar, have come under attack amidst a public diplomatic rift that has spread across the Gulf and beyond. The owners of one of the most prominent news channels in India, NDTV, say they are in the BJP-led government's crosshairs for daring to challenge them on the air. American security contractor Reality Leah Winner is under arrest and facing criminal charges, amidst reports that the online news site The Intercept may have revealed her identity as the source of classified documents. The intersection of cinema and journalism in Cuba In Cuba, the government has long used journalism as a tool of propaganda - and for that, until recently, it has been largely unapologetic. Following the revolution, the role of the news media was envisioned as one of education and garnering mass support for the Cuban political project. The Cuban film industry is a different story. Cuban film directors can get away with showing things that journalists cannot, sometimes providing critical reflection on the contradictions in Cuban social reality. The Listening Post's Marcela Pizarro reports from Havana on the role that film plays in Cuban journalism and political debate. Contributors: Eduardo del Llano, screenwriter & director of Brainstorm Luis Alberto Garcia, actor, Brainstorm Carlos Galiano, film historian Claudia Calvino, film producer, Santa y Andres - 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 The Guardian broke its Facebook story this week, revealing what it called the site's rule book on sex, terrorism and violence, the picture that emerged was one of a technology company that has accidentally grown into something else, the world's biggest media platform. A company that is making up the rules as it goes along, recently almost doubling its number of content moderators. And Facebook is doing that while trying to maintain what is, and will always be, its primary mission: keeping people on the site. Boosting its number of content moderators was Facebook's response to a horrific case earlier this month, when a man in Thailand posted a video of himself murdering his young daughter before taking his own life. Like other postings of shootings, rapes and suicides, that video was deleted, but only after users complained about it. Facebook lacks the capability to scrutinise such material before it hits your news feeds. 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

Many social media users assume that content moderation is automated, that when an inappropriate image or video is uploaded to the net a computer removes it – whereas, in reality, there are reportedly more than 150,000 content moderators working today. The job description involves sifting through images, videos and text, assessing whether or not the content contravenes their platform's policies. And the work can take its toll. In December last year, two Microsoft employees sued the company, saying that years of content moderating left them with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It can be unpleasant work, but necessary, and many social media companies based in the west outsource it to places like the Philippines or India. But the question is: do they do that responsibly? Or do they just take advantage of the cheap labour with little consideration for the labourer. Contributors: Sarah Roberts, assistant professor, University of California Ben Wells, attorney Ciaran Cassidy, filmmaker Suman Howlader, CEO, Fowie Info Global Solutions 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

On The Listening Post this week: With two billion users and 1.3 million posts a minute Facebook's content moderation challenges are huge. Plus, the people monitoring and moderating the social web. Facebook's status: Tech or media company? This week, the British newspaper The Guardian revealed hundreds of internal Facebook documents that outline the site's ground rules for content moderators. From violence to racism, revenge porn to child abuse - the picture that emerges is one of a company struggling with its responsibilities as a media platform and how to cope with more 1.3 million posts per minute, in multiple languages. Contributors: Alex Hazlett, deputy managing editor, Mashable Olivia Solon, senior technology reporter, Guardian US Jennifer Pybus, senior lecturer, London College of Communication Richard Millington, founder, FeverBee Natasha Tiku, silicon valley reporter, Wired 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