The Listening Post

In this special episode of The Listening Post to mark the end of 2019, we highlight four cases of reporting that have made a significant effect on the world of journalism. The stories we have chosen get across geographies, different topics, and various forms of media. Picking just four was hard but we settled on West Africa and a documentary film Sex for Grades produced by Africa Eye, the investigative arm of BBC Africa. It follows a radio presenter and investigative journalist, Kiki Mordi, as she exposes the extent of sexual harassment in West African universities. Speaking from personal experience, she told The Listening Post: "People like to make excuses for abusers and people like making excuses for harassers. But right there, visualising it, seeing it and putting your own daughter in that room, I think you would have a rethink about the excuses you were going to make for abusers or lecturers who harassed their students." Next, we took a look at some of the work happening on the front line of the Hong Kong protests. Stand News and its new generation of digital journalists have led the way with innovative coverage of the demonstrations, often live-streaming them - capturing the police violence, putting it out there unedited - well before the police and the politicians had a chance to spin the story. We spoke with one of their reporters, YP Lam, who has not only been caught in the crossfire but who has been targeted despite wearing some of the tools of the trade. "The challenges of working on the front line mainly come from the police. At the beginning of the protests, they might have yelled, chased you, or blinded our camera lenses with a torch. Recently, they have started using pepper spray, and many in the industry, like my colleagues, have suffered from rubber bullets or tear gas - everyone has been exposed to this. And now they have started arresting reporters saying they are obstructing police work." On the other side of the world, in South America, Brazil has seen the biggest anti-corruption investigation in the history of the country - Lava Jato, or Operation Car Wash. It is an investigation that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of politicians and business figures, the fall of one president, and the imprisonment of another. But this past June, online news outlet The Intercept Brasil published another investigation, a series of exposes - largely based on leaked phone text messages - exposing corruption at the core of the anti-corruption investigation. We asked Leandro Demori, the executive editor at The Intercept Brasil, why he felt it was important to expose the information? "We immediately realised the obvious public interest that this material had because it revealed several illegalities and the unethical actions from the Lava Jato prosecutors and the judge Sergio Moro. So we decided to publish this material for its authenticity and value for the public," he said. Our last example of impact journalism is a deep, investigative dive into the Jeffrey Epstein story, the American financier who sexually trafficked and abused underage girls. Perversion of Justice was published by the Miami Herald as a three-part interactive web series produced by a team led by reporter Julie K Brown. Executive Editor Aminda Marques Gonzalez explained to us why it was that their piece of reporting had such an effect. "There was a point in the investigation where Julie Brown came into my office and she said, I have a key law enforcement source who doesn't want to talk to us because he says we're going to be cowered into not publishing the story as other publications have been. And I said absolutely not. We have never backed down from an investigation and we're not going to do it now." Journalists take a lot of heat. Some of them deserve it and we will be back on that case next week. But for now - four examples of the 4th estate making news, for the right reasons. Contributors: Kiki Mordi - investigative journalist, BBC Africa Eye YP Lam - reporter, Stand News Leandro Demori - executive editor, The Intercept Brasil Aminda Marques Gonzalez - executive editor, Miami Herald Media Company - 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/

Imagine what an internet blackout would mean to you: shut out of messaging sites, forced off social media, deprived of news, information and the means to contact loved ones. Now imagine you are Kashmiri, and the Indian government has left you in the dark for four months now. Or you are Iranian, and you have just experienced your most serious internet shutdown ever. Both shutdowns were imposed by governments that said they were trying to prevent "security threats". Critics say it is about silencing dissent and deliberately severing connections between people as a form of collective punishment. Blackouts are now a standard feature in the government internet playbook and an increasingly common response. In Kashmir and Iran, the blackouts have been criticised as a means of trying to control the narrative and flow of information about what was happening inside the country. "These are two very extended internet shutdowns that happen around a political crisis in a country," says Adrian Shahbaz, Research Director for Technology and Democracy at Freedom House. "What's marked these two shutdowns was just how long that they have lasted and sort of the humanitarian and economic cost that they have wrought on the population." Srinagar, Kashmir is the unofficial internet shutdown capital of the world. According to a Delhi-based non-profit, the Software Freedom Law Centre, Narendra Modi's government has cut off mobile and internet services to the region 55 times this year alone. The latest blackout has lasted so long that Kashmiris have become unintended casualties of protocols policed by the messaging app WhatsApp, according to which any account that has been inactive for 120 days is automatically deactivated by the company. "What has been unprecedented is the scale of it," says Akriti Bopanna from The Centre for Internet & Society. "I mean, these measures were not even taken during the wars." The impact of the shutdown has cut across many layers of society, says Bopanna. "An array of activities that have been affected, from education to medicine to just communication within family members," she adds. Iran may shut down internet access far less often than India, but when the shutdowns do take place, they are comprehensive. When fuel price hikes led to flash demonstrations in November - and the security forces' response cost the lives of 130 protesters - it took only 24 hours for internet connectivity to plummet to 5 percent of normal levels. Mahsa Alimardani, researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, says this is not simply a matter of flicking a "kill switch". "This was basically coordination across all the internet service providers in Iran," says Alimardani. "It wasn't a kill switch. It didn't happen immediately." Forcing ISPs to take orders is one way to control the internet. Another way is to create your own. China and North Korea are among a number of countries to have their own national intranets in place, and Iran is following suit. Intranets allow a government to unilaterally cut off its citizens from content that the rest of the world sees. UN experts consider this a breach of basic human rights, events in Kashmir "a form of collective punishment", and Iranians as having been deprived "not only of a fundamental freedom but also basic access to essential services". "I think in this day and age, given the ways in which the internet is utilised for everything from banking and economic services to personal communication and everything in between, we do have to consider access to the internet as a human right," says Jillian C York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We should not allow governments like Iran's to restrict access for its citizens. People need to be able to communicate, they need to be able to access services and so shutting down the entire internet should absolutely be off-limits." Produced by Tariq Nafi Contributors: Adrian Shahbaz - research director for Technology and Democracy, Freedom House Akriti Bopanna - The Centre for Internet & Society Mahsa Alimardani - researcher, Oxford Internet Institute and Iran Researcher, Article 19 Jillian C York - Electronic Frontier Foundation - 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/

Deepfakes are videos produced through the use of artificial intelligence. Melding images and sound, using things like face grafts, body transfers or voice imitations, they make people appear to say things they never said and do things they never did. They appear so real it is often difficult to tell if they are fake. For now, the vast majority of deepfakes, 96 percent to be more precise, target women, mostly celebrities, where one woman's face is placed to appear on another's body, many times in the making of fake pornographic videos. Bill Posters, digital artist and researcher, explained to The Listening Post's Tariq Nafi that: "It's women's bodies, identities and rights that are being transgressed and oppressed basically by quite a small but quite a prolific body of actors that are taking famous celebrity female actor's faces and transplanting those into pornography scenes, and there are huge websites that profit millions of dollars from displaying and sharing and streaming these kinds of deep fake pieces of pornography." The bigger concern is this: Deepfakes could be used to spread misinformation, mess with politics, and manipulate electorates by fooling journalists and voters. And there are real-life examples already playing out across the world. Take Gabon, where there were suspicions that all was not OK with President Ali Bongo. Having been abroad for medical treatment he had not been seen in public for months. Reports of his good health did nothing to convince the public so the government released a video. But something about the video did not add up. Bongo's eyes barely moved or blinked. He stared off camera, his body and hands seemed rigid and unnatural. The video looked fake, fake enough for Gabon's military to attempt a coup - that is how easily a deepfake can be used to destabilise an entire nation. In this new era of democratised access to video synthesis, deepfakes are not all that hard to produce. So what happens when those with serious technical know-how get in on the act? Posters has done exactly that, harvesting the biometric data of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn. Creating a synthesised video of both men endorsing each other for prime minister. The frighteningly real results are a statement on some of the most pressing issues of our time: Data, our right to privacy, and, as British voters went to the polls, the integrity of the democratic process. Henry Ajder, head of Communications and Research Analysis at Deeptrace explained that: "The mere idea of deepfakes alone is enough to, kind of destabilise political processes and poison the collective water that is media. We rely on audio visual media every day to inform us about what's going on in the world. If deepfakes become commonplace, as we anticipate they will, you know, that will lead to, I believe, quite a significant level of disruption'" Feature contributors: Henry Ajder - head of Communications and Research Analysis, Deeptrace Britt Paris - assistant professor of Library and Information Science, Rutgers University Bill Posters - digital artist and Researcher - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this week's The Listening Post: From Kashmir to Iran, governments are increasingly turning off the internet as a tactic to stop dissent. Plus, politics, porn and the sordid world of deepfakes. How internet blackouts are going global Imagine, as you read this, what an internet blackout would mean for you: being shut out of messaging sites, forced off social media, deprived of news and the means to contact loved ones. Imagine you're Kashmiri and the Indian government has left you in the dark for the past four months. Imagine you're Iranian, and you've just experienced your most serious internet shutdown to date. Both of those blackouts were imposed by governments which said they were trying to prevent "security threats". However, human rights groups say it has more to do with governments trying to silence dissent. We explore what is becoming an increasingly common tactic for authoritarian leaders, and the risks it poses to freedom of information and expression. Contributors: Mahsa Alimardani - Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute Iran Researcher, Article 19 Adrian Shahbaz - Research director for Technology and Democracy, Freedom House Jillian C York - Electronic Frontier Foundation Akriti Bopanna - The Centre for Internet & Society On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Johanna Hoes about the interview Italy's state broadcaster recorded with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which never made it onto Italian television. Politics, porn and the toxic world of deepfakes Famous people will say just about anything these days. Did you hear Kim Kardashian owning up to manipulating public data for money? Or Mark Zuckerberg admitting to abusing the private information of Facebook users? If you did, were you convinced? You shouldn't be. Those words were placed in the mouths of those celebrities in so-called "deepfakes" - videos produced through the use of artificial intelligence, melding images and sound, which appear so real it's difficult to tell if they're fake. The vast majority of deepfakes currently online involve putting the heads of celebrities onto pornstars' bodies. That's where the money is. The bigger concern, however, is that deepfakes could be used to spread misinformation, mess with politics, manipulate electorates by fooling journalists and voters. The Listening Post's Tariq Nafi takes a look at the murky world of deepfakes - and a future where we won't be able to trust our own eyes. Contributors: Henry Ajder - Head of Communications and Research Analysis, Deeptrace Britt Paris - Professor of information science, Rutgers University Bill Posters - Artist and researcher - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this week's The Listening Post: From political manipulation to complaints of bias, all eyes are on the media ahead of the UK's election. Plus, profiting from purpose in the advertising world. Inside the UK election The United Kingdom is about to vote in what has come to be known as its Brexit election - the one Prime Minister Boris Johnson called after failing to get parliament to agree to his deal to leave the EU. It's the UK's third election in five years and that doesn't include the Brexit referendum in 2016. Boris Johnson's Conservatives are doing what frontrunners tend to do; keeping exposure to a minimum, and shunning interviewers and channels that might give them a rough ride. They're also leading the way in spreading misinformation, even blatantly misrepresenting themselves online. Both Boris Johnson and his main rival, Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour party, know that most of the country's newspapers are conservative. That is a given in any British election, but it goes further than that; the perception of bias is no longer limited to the papers, and has bled into the broadcast sector, including the publicly-owned national broadcaster, the BBC. Contributors: Ronan Burtenshaw - Editor, Tribune Magazine Isabel Oakeshott - Former political editor, The Sunday Times Peter Oborne - Author, The Rise of Political Lying & former columnist, The Daily Mail On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Tariq Nafi about the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened the country's largest media network; and about Bloomberg News, who declared it will not investigate its owner, billionaire presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, or his rivals. Purpose advertising: 'The best an ad can be?' Earlier this year a Gillette ad landed the company in some hot water. Jumping on the #MeToo hashtag, and the subsequent movement to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace, Gillette tweaked its sales slogan, "the best a man can get", into 'the best men can be'. Cue 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's 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 of 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 of 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/

Xinjiang leaks: Reporting on China's detention camps Classified documents, reportedly leaked from within China's Communist Party, reveal the extent of camps in Xinjiang. 01 Dec 2019 23:23 GMT Media, Uighur, Xinjiang, China, Human Rights It is one of the biggest human rights stories on the planet: China - specifically the province of Xinjiang - and the estimated one million Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities currently held in massive internment camps there. Previously, most of what the world knew about Xinjiang came through satellite imagery, carefully controlled official tours of the camps plus the accounts of some of those imprisoned there. Now, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the New York Times say they have troves of classified documents to work with - reportedly leaked from within China's Communist Party. Both organisations say the documents prove the camps are not about "re-educating extremists" or fighting violence, as Beijing would have the world believe - but to indiscriminately imprison and brainwash Xinjiang's Muslim population. In response, China has borrowed a phrase or two from offshore, calling the leaks "fabrications and fake news". But as new evidence emerges, Beijing's narrative is proving increasingly difficult to defend. The leaks represent a quantum leap in our understanding of what is unfolding in Xinjiang - human rights violations on an historic scale. "What's most important about these documents is that they are evidence," says Sophie Richardson, China director, Human Rights Watch. "You know this shows a clear intent by the second most powerful government in the world to politically re-engineer people's thinking. What they should be taught, what they're not allowed to say, what they can't think any more. You know it's one thing to read patently dishonest propaganda that talks about religious freedom being guaranteed to everyone in Xinjiang. When you sit down and read a 'how-to' manual by a government that's a permanent member of the UN Security Council, it's terrifying." Contributors: Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Adrian Zenz - Senior fellow, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Nury Turkel - Chairman and founder, Uyghur Human Rights Project Sophie Richardson - China director, Human Rights Watch - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this episode of The Listening Post: An unprecedented leak of Chinese documents reveals the extent of the camps in Xinjiang. Plus, the spyware that is hacking journalists around the world. The China Cables and the disruption of Beijing's Xinjiang narrative It's one of the biggest human rights stories on the planet: China - specifically the province of Xinjiang - and the estimated one million Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities currently held in massive internment camps there. Previously, most of what the world knew about Xinjiang came through satellite imagery, carefully controlled official tours of the camps plus the accounts of some of those imprisoned there. Now, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the New York Times say they have troves of classified documents to work with - reportedly leaked from within China's Communist Party. Contributors: Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Adrian Zenz - Senior Fellow, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Nury Turkel - Chairman & Founder, Uyghur Human Rights Project Sophie Richardson - China Director, Human Rights Watch On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Flo Phillips about the recent raid on one of Egypt's last independent news outlets, Mada Masr, and the conflict of interest at Bloomberg News. Pegasus: Surveilling journalists from inside their phones Here's an offer many governments can't refuse: do you want to hack into the phones of journalists, gather every bit of data and trace every call, message and keystroke? Those governments are in luck, as there's some malware - malicious software - designed specifically for that purpose. The product is Pegasus, a programme so sophisticated that it can embed into your mobile phone through just a phone call. The governments that use Pegasus - from Saudi Arabia to Mexico to India - say they're out to stop "security threats", but it's also used against civil society, including human rights activists. The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at the growing surveillance threat against journalists and the malware of choice for the governments involved. Contributors: Ron Deibert - Director, The Citizen Lab Yahya Assiri - Director, ALQST & Diwan Shubhranshu Choudhary - Founder, Bultoo Radio Silkie Carlo - Director, Big Brother Watch - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched air attacks on the Gaza Strip, what his government called "a targeted killing" of an Islamic Jihad commander. Eight members of one Gaza Palestinian family were among the scores of Palestinians killed. However, in political terms, those missiles were not aimed at the Islamic Jihad. "The timing of the attacks is a bit curious considering that Netanyahu is doing his best now to form a government and at the same time he's facing potential indictments on various corruption-related scandals," Edo Konrad, editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine, tells Al Jazeera. "One needs to ask oneself whether or not these things are related. Netanyahu has a history of initiating or exacerbating violent conflict with Palestinians, whenever his legal or political predicaments get a little too sticky." Yara Hawari, Palestine policy fellow at Al Shabaka think-tank, explains that attacks on Palestinians are often used by Israeli politicians to boost support in the electorate. "This is quite a common practice, by Israeli politicians and especially by Netanyahu, to bomb Gaza or to attack Palestinians, to gain political points with the electorate, which, in Israel, unfortunately, is increasingly right-wing and increasingly violent towards the Palestinians," Hawari says. The real target was Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's political rival. Gantz was manoeuvring to push Netanyahu out of office and piece together a coalition government. Gantz's efforts to convince Israeli Arab parties to support his would-be coalition might have given Netanyahu yet another reason to play the national security card. "He was using that conflict to try to delegitimise any option for a minority coalition set by Benny Gantz with the support of the Arab parties within Israel to incite against those who are 20 percent of Israel population: the Palestinian citizens of Israel. He was trying to delegitimise their leaders as supporters of terror," media scholar Anat Balint says. Netanyahu can also count on those in the media who tend to go along with the dominant narrative that Palestinians pose an "existential threat" to Israel. Any kind of military assault on Gazans is seen as a form of strength, according to Tareq Baconi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. He argues these forms of attacks are "seen as a form of defending the national security of the state of Israel". "Therefore, the dehumanisation of Palestinians has become so effective that this is only seen in one dimension, which is one that gives political capital." Contributors: Yara Hawari - Palestine policy fellow, Al Shabaka Anat Balint - media scholar Tareq Baconi - analyst, International Crisis Group Edo Konrad - editor-in-chief, +972 Magazine - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this episode of The Listening Post: Caught in a political tangle, Israeli politicians are demonising Palestinians and using Gaza to score points. Plus, Algeria's viral stars. Israel: War as a political weapon In Israel, war, usually waged on Gaza, can be a means of distraction; a political weapon. And that context is often missing in the news coverage. Last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched air raids on the Gaza Strip, what his government called "a targeted killing" of an Islamic Jihad commander. However, in political terms, those missiles weren't even aimed at Islamic Jihad. The real target was Benny Gantz, Netanyahu's political rival. Netanyahu is fighting for more than his job. He's just become the first sitting Israeli prime minister charged with a crime: indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. So Netanyahu could use the distraction and he knows that conflict with Palestinians - military and political - can pay off. He can also count on those in the media, who tend to shorthand the political context - and go long on the dominant narrative - that Palestinians somehow pose an "existential threat" to Israel. Lead contributors: Yara Hawari - Palestine policy fellow, Al Shabaka Anat Balint - Media scholar Tareq Baconi - Analyst, International Crisis Group Edo Konrad - Editor-in-chief, +972 Magazine On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about the internet shut-down in Iran; and election tactics in the UK. Algeria: The revolution will be YouTubed For months now, Algerians have been hitting the streets demanding political change. Back in April they succeeded in toppling the country's long-time president - Abdelaziz Bouteflika - but they aren't done. They have rejected the government's proposed presidential elections in December, persisting with their demand that - "They must all go". And long before this year's demonstrations began, a generation of YouTubers - people like Raja Meziane and Anes Tina emerged as unofficial spokespeople for Algeria's youth. We spoke with the two of them about the grievances they articulate, the political and social change they advocate in the videos they've produced - videos that have become part of the soundtrack of the Algerian revolution. Feature contributors: Anes Tina - Comedian Raja Meziane - Musician - 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/

A court case unfolding in California reveals just how far the Saudi government is willing to go to watch its critics and silence them. Two former Twitter employees have been charged with acting as Saudi agents back in 2015 and working with the authorities in Riyadh. Given Saudi Arabia's treatment of dissidents, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi being a notorious case in point, those Twitter agents may well have exposed other Saudi activists to real danger. Unlike China and Iran, Saudi Arabia allows Twitter to operate on its territory, partly because Twitter is a surveillance tool, a hunting ground that the authorities use to find, suppress and prosecute voices they disapprove of. "Mohammed bin Salman is trying to show that Saudi Arabia is a modern country. If he bans Twitter, he will appear as a dictator. And remember, the outside world is extremely important for his Vision 2030. Because part of that vision is to attract global investors," Madawi al-Rasheed, visiting professor at the London School of Economics, tells Al Jazeera. Marc Owen Jones, assistant professor at the Hamad bin Khalifa University, argues: "They would not allow Twitter to exist in Saudi Arabia if they could not control it. What this allows the Saudi government to do, rather than censor, is to co-opt and influence the information space. The Saudi government have somehow been able to weaponise Twitter as a platform that allows them to spread their influence, hegemony. Yes, these tools allow for freedom of speech and criticism. But if you want, you can use those tools equally as a method of surveillance and propaganda." However, this story is not just about Saudi Arabia. It raises serious issues about Twitter working with questionable political actors, sacrificing its stated principles, for the sake of its bottom line. Two of the company's employees - Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen, and an American, Ahmad Abouammo - are charged with acting as agents for a foreign power, Saudi Arabia, while inside the United States. The accused were well-positioned to get access to Twitter's internal systems, allowing them to see the email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses of Twitter users critical of the Saudi government. By allegedly furnishing the Saudi authorities with that information, they exposed those account holders, ending their anonymity and according to the charges, putting thousands, including Saudis and Americans, at serious risk. "Twitter suspended my account permanently in 2017 without any cause or warning. And I was told not to try to create another account. And I believe that was part of that operation," Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, says. He adds: "I think that spying operation which is larger than what the United States has revealed. It's not only two people. We're talking about a greater, a larger operation." Contributors: Ali al-Ahmed - director, The Institute for Gulf Affairs Madawi al-Rasheed - visiting professor, LSE Middle East Centre Marc Owen Jones - assistant professor, Hamad bin Khalifa 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/

The global media have been all over the Hong Kong story. But not too far away, in Taiwan, people are also out to stop China's growing influence over their island - especially their news media. In June this year, tens of thousands of protesters turned to the streets to demonstrate against what they call "red media" - news outlets that are said to take their editorial orders from Beijing. Michael Cole, senior fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute explains, "This is in many ways a continuation of protests that we saw back in 2011-2012 to counter what Taiwanese see as undue influence in their media. The term 'red media' though, is relatively new. Obviously, the colour red is associated with the Chinese Communist Party and it is a reference to both traditional and social media that are deemed to be influenced by, or if not controlled by, the government in Beijing." Huang Jaw-nian, author of, The Political Economy of Press Freedom: The Paradox of Taiwan versus China, adds, "China's efforts to influence Taiwan's media have been ongoing for quite some time now. Certain Taiwanese media outlets have come under the financial control of Beijing and have turned into local tools for the Chinese government to achieve certain political objectives, by pushing Chinese propaganda and downplaying or ignoring stories China deems sensitive." China's tug of war over Taiwan goes back to 1949. That was the year the Chinese Communist Party overthrew China's government, led by the Kuomintang Party, forcing it to flee to Taiwan. The island has enjoyed de facto independence from the mainland ever since, but Beijing has never minced its words when it comes to its ambitions to take the territory back, if necessary by force. For the past 70 years, China has been making inroads into Taiwan, forging close economic relations, deploying missiles along the Taiwan Strait, and involving itself in the island's political affairs, not least through its sway over Taiwan's media. When Taiwanese protested against "red media" earlier this year, they had one primary target, the Want Want group. Want Want's media outlets, including the prominent China Times newspaper and broadcaster CTiTV, stand accused of serving as a media mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, pushing blatant pro-Beijing propaganda. With a presidential election coming up in January next year, many in Taiwan fear China is using Want Want to influence the vote, and gets its preferred, China-friendly candidate, Han Kuo-yu, elected into office. Huang Kuo-chang, one of the "red media" protest organisers, told The Listening Post's Johanna Hoes: "Theoretically, any media company that infiltrates our democracy is on our radar. But the Want Want Group was definitely our main target. The way in which Want Want's media outlets push Chinese propaganda is infamous. Ever since the group's chairman - Tsai Eng-meng - took control of the China Times and CTiTV in 2008, their editorial line began to change dramatically as it aligned itself with Beijing and its goal of reunification." The Want Want group has always denied that its media outlets serve as China's proxies in Taiwan. But those on the inside, tell a slightly different story. Liao Chao-hsiang is a former journalist at the China Times. He resigned earlier this year over what he says is his Want Want's overt pro-Beijing editorial line. "I started working in journalism in the hope of being able to change Taiwanese society. However, since Tsai Eng-meng took control of the China Times, I started to notice a big change in the way the newspaper was run and the distortions and misinformation in their content really started to go against my basic journalistic ethics. For example, I noticed that the paper had removed any trace of information on the Tiananmen Square massacre from their database. I don't think any manager at the Want Want Group would ever admit it, but I do believe that there is guidance coming from China. As a single journalist, I didn't have the power to change the company's inner system, so I just left." Contributors: Huang Kuo-chang - Legislator, "red media" protest organiser Liao Chao-hsiang - Former journalist, China Times Huang Jaw-nian - Author, The Political Economy of Press Freedom J Michael Cole - Senior fellow, Global Taiwan Institute - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this episode of The Listening Post: From a Saudi spy scandal to suspicious closures of accounts, is Twitter in the Arab world really promoting free speech? Plus a report on "red media" in Taiwan. Twitter in the Middle East A court case unfolding in California reveals just how far the Saudi government is willing to go to watch its critics and silence them. Two former Twitter employees have been charged with acting as Saudi agents back in 2015 and working with the authorities in Riyadh. However, this story is not just about Saudi Arabia. It raises serious issues about Twitter working with questionable political actors and sacrificing its stated principles, for the sake of its bottom line. Contributors: Ali al-Ahmed - Director, The Institute for Gulf Affairs Madawi al-Rasheed - Visiting professor, LSE Middle East Centre Marc Owen Jones - Assistant professor, Hamad bin Khalifa University On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about the imprisonment of journalists in Nigeria. Taiwan's push against 'red media' In Taiwan, the media have taken centre stage in a debate over Chinese influence in the island nation. Earlier this year, tens of thousands of Taiwanese protested against what they call "red media" that is, news outlets taken over by pro-Beijing owners and then suspected of getting editorial orders directly from the Chinese Communist Party. With a key presidential election coming up in January 2020, many Taiwanese fear Beijing is using selected media outlets to influence the vote, and push Taiwan's current pro-independence president, out of office. Contributors: Huang Kuo-chang - Legislator, Red Media Protest Organiser Liao Chao-hsiang - Former journalist, China Times Huang Jaw-nian - Author, The Political Economy of Press Freedom J Michael Cole - Senior fellow, Global Taiwan Institute - 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/

A Listening Post special on the environment beat, from the reporters being attacked on the job to an extended interview with climate columnist George Monbiot. The hostile environment beat When journalists talk about the most dangerous beats in the news business, they typically talk about war zones or trying to cover drug cartels in Mexico. However, environmental reporting is not far behind. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 13 reporters doing environmentally related work have been killed in the past decade. Another 16 deaths during the same period are under investigation. The environment beat is perilous because it often involves exposing the abuses taking place as lucrative minerals are extracted. When there's enough money involved, there will be those who are willing to kill for their share of it. The Listening Post's Nic Muirhead reports on the perils of the environment beat and a new media collaboration designed to protect reporters and get their stories published. Contributors: Sandhya Ravishankar - Editor, The Lede Carlos Choc - Journalist, Presna Comunitaria Juliette Garside - Reporter, The Guardian Laurent Richard - Executive director, Forbidden Stories Bruno Takahashi - Research director, Knight Center for Journalism An interview with The Guardian's George Monbiot British journalist and campaigner George Monbiot is one of environmental journalism's best-known figures. His weekly column in the British daily The Guardian, which he has been filing since 1996, tends to have a polarising effect on audiences. It has always been widely read, shared and praised, but has also seen Monbiot branded an alarmist. As the years have passed, however - and as temperatures and sea levels have risen - many in the political and media mainstream have come around to what he has argued all along: that humanity is facing an unprecedented threat that only rapid decarbonisation can prevent. In his interview with The Listening Post, Monbiot discusses his career and delivers a coruscating critique of the mainstream media's record on the climate crisis. Contributor: George Monbiot - Columnist, The Guardian - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On this episode of The Listening Post: Protesters in Chile turn against an unrepresentative elite - and that includes the media. Plus, in US prisons, inmates are getting the word on the inside, out. Chileans rail against an unequal system & unrepresentative media Chile is currently experiencing its largest demonstrations since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship almost 30 years ago. The unrest was set off by a new tax on public transport. The larger, contextual issues include rising inequality and an unrepresentative political class, news outlets included. There is a deep, lingering resentment of the media which goes back to the Pinochet era. Chileans remember that the fourth estate failed them utterly back then - and they are saying that journalists still aren't listening to them today. Lead contributors: Jorge Saavedra - Lecturer in Media, Culture and Society, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge Consuelo Saavedra - Former anchor, TVN & Host, Radio Duna Raul Rodriguez - Community radio host Valerio Fuenzalida Fernandez - Professor, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Johanna Hoes about social media platforms and their right to post political campaigns. America's jailhouse journalists More than two million people live within the American prison system, but the stories of what really goes on inside are seldom heard. For journalists who have tried, access is the issue - with prison authorities usually controlling who gets in and what stories get out. But some prisoners are determined to make this a beat of their own. The Listening Post's Flo Phillips on the ultimate inside story - prison journalism in the United States. Feature contributors: John J. Lennon - Prison journalist, Sing Sing Correctional Facility & Contributing Editor, Esquire Magazine Troy Williams - Founder, San Quentin Prison Report & Founder, Restorative Media Project Kerry Myers - Former editor, The Angolite & Deputy Executive Director, Louisiana Parole Project Sam Robinson - Public Information Officer, San Quentin State Prison Yukari Iwatani Kane - Advisor, San Quentin News & Co-founder, Prison Journalism Project - 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: An instant messaging app becomes a symbol in Lebanon's protests against taxes, austerity and corruption. Plus, sub-Saharan Africa's colonial-era media laws. Spinning, downplaying, ignoring: Lebanon protests and the media For a week and a half now, the streets of Lebanon have been jammed with protesters - the biggest anti-government demonstrations in 15 years. The protests were triggered by talk of a new tax on WhatsApp and other internet call services - like Facebook Messenger and FaceTime. The protesters are a non-sectarian coalition. Not that you would know that, watching some of the television channels coming out of Beirut. Some of the more independent outlets have jumped on this story, but those controlled by politicians have been spinning, downplaying, or just ignoring the unrest. Lead contributors: Habib Battah - Fellow, Reuters Institute Oxford Rania Masri - Writer and academic Lara Bitar - Media worker and organiser Salim Haddad - Head, Media Advisory Board, Free Patriotic Movement On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Tariq Nafi about the relationship between Ethiopia’s prime minister and one of the country’s most famous media owners that may have gone sour. The colonial-era laws that still govern African journalism Back in 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, and 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. Feature 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/