on how they recruit on the stories that matter the most embarrassing a free palestine listening post on al-jazeera. hello again i'm just. a reminder of the news this hour. a woman accused of murdering the hoff brother of north korea's leader kim jong un has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison. and will be freed next month in malaysia because of time already she admitted a lesser charge of course in. algeria as president has announced a caretaker government to be headed by prime minister nouri dawi the decision comes after weeks of protests against eighty two year old abdul aziz was

a freak. israel has eased fishing restrictions and gaza which includes expanding the fishings or into fifteen north pole miles the decision as part of a cease fire deal mediated by egypt between israel and hamas. while turkey's local elections have seen the opposition make major gains at the expense of president russia and the ruling ak party the votes has been widely seen as a referendum on the two decade dominance of tech is politics the opposition has won control of the capital ankara meanwhile in istanbul it's a tight race that still considered too close to call. has more from ankara. since coming to power seventeen years ago presenter. has won every single ballots contested but sunday's vote wasn't all good news for the ruling party close the mayor ship in the capital long per hour. signed that to achieve months made by

ed john in the past no longer outweigh the misgivings some turks have about him and his party today however uncertain as to remain so over a stumble the city were aired on began his political career as its mayor with the majority of the votes in the result appears to be too close to call but both candidates have already declared victory. as you will i say it loud and clear i know we won however i cannot announced this because of my conscience my sense of ethics my political stance and my understanding of statement. now the vote counting in istanbul is completed with more than thirty one thousand ballot boxes counted according to our official results according to these results we won the election in istanbul. over although it was the fourteenth time and donahue's elyse contested a nationwide pool and. the kurdish d p that supported the opposition

candidates in the western cities preserve this position in turkey southeast going head to head with their party. turkey has a history of how you voted turnout and even though there have been seven the elections in five years participation on sunday was more than eighty percent high on the minds of many voters was the economy challenges facing the country awaken lira and a slowdown in growth the ruling party and its eline nationalist party preferred to focus on issues surrounding the country's security but it doesn't help every victory and every loss is the will of our nation and we have to accept this fact as a necessity of democracy we will admit that we want people's hearts in cities we won but we were not successful enough in cities we lost and we will act accordingly this. presence act on. interest. clear that the vote is not

it's not to be compared it's better than turkey's biggest city campus still though now this is a round i don't care how. well new zealand's prime minister is making her first official visit to china where she is expected to tackle some difficult issues just under government rejected a bid by chinese company huawei to install the country's five g. network on national security grounds she is also under pressure from rights groups to raise the issue of china's crackdown on its weak and muslim minority new zealand has major trade ties with china and is also a close ally of the united states while exit polls in ukraine show comedian the world to me is the lenski has won the fast round of the presidential election incumbent petro poroshenko is currently running in second place john hall has moved from kiev on what to expect from the run a fight next month. followed him in jail and skews a victory is not unexpected the polls have been tipping it for weeks but it is a pretty unlikely political victory this man has no political background or

experience he played the part of a president in a t.v. series but that's really all anybody knows about it they don't know what he stands for they don't know who backs him importantly they don't know who may influence him in the future and in what direction but above all of that this was a protest vote by a sizeable proportion of the population angry angry and frustrated with politics mainstream politics as they have been this has been a rejection of those politics of those leaders and the old ways in ukraine. election night at the zelinsky campaign headquarters it's a casual affair a long way from the stuffy formality of the more established parties which is little surprise a lot of is the near certain winner of the first round of ukraine's presidential election is a comedian turned actor whose only experience of politics is playing the part of president in

a popular television series he may soon be playing the part for real that's the. great. legs in the wizard and mine is it. new life begins a normal life life without the corruption without bribes without anything like this life in a new country a country have much. dylan's he will go into the second round runoff in april against incumbent president the confectionery business owner petro poroshenko who seems to have lost public trust over his broken promises to end the separatist war in the east and wipe away the stain of official corruption he says because you know thank you for not turning right into the soviet union you know to watch for him fair fight so it was for ukraine the chocolate billionaire versus the comedy king russia would be watching the second round closely as will the european union ukraine is stuck in the middle geographically divided by conflict its economy in

the doldrums and anticorruption reforms failing to take hold neither candidate has ready answers. back at h.q. and this man former finance minister alexander downer look could provide the experience the candidate lacks something like an act of blind faith though isn't it to support a man with no political background or experience whatsoever why should people do. well that's a good question right or just maybe because they trust him more than the alternatives that's it. and they. all line. bluntly actually saying that we don't want. a continuation of foreign policies you know with what we don't want people who don't trust running the country so this is the shiny new look of politics in ukraine and younger voters in particular will surely love for many hard to like the five all of them is a man's case promise to change everything even if he so far made only the vaguest

suggestions about how he plans to do that will have to change fosters voters' minds become far more focused in the second round so this man zelinsky is a political unknown his policies are unknown but he does seem to represent for many people hope but it was just five years ago that protesters were out of the square behind me in my down square the second revolution in this country in fifteen years they protested here against corruption for a different kind of ukraine a different future moving closer to european structures the e.u. nato and so on instead what do they see they have a frozen conflict in the east corruption is still right some say goes all the way to the top so we have this rejection of mainstream politics to the extent that people are prepared to embrace a sort of blind faith in volodymyr zelinsky he's not there yet of course he's got to fight and win the second round yet and those policies of his such as they exist

will come under far greater and closer and closer scrutiny in the weeks ahead. returning now to our story our new zealand prime minister visit to china there is adrian brown joins us now live from beijing adrian this is a potentially risky visit fraga. yes potentially it is but i think the fact that she has come here so soon after the mosque killings in christ church is a measure of the importance that just into our in places on new zealand's relations with china i think that economic issues are going to be really the top of her agenda she wants to try to upgrade a free trade agreement the new zealand china signed eleven years ago at the moment to a trade between these two countries stands at more than nineteen billion dollars but here is where the problem arises china is upset that its giant telecoms company

while away is being blocked from providing equipment to new zealand's five g. network and is essentially demanding that new zealand lift that ban but for the moment that doesn't look like happening although just in the arden has said that she hasn't ruled out while away participating in some way in the future and then of course there's the very sensitive issue of what's happening in shin jang where human rights groups say that more than a million ethnic muslim weekers are being held in what they call reeducation camps which china calls for cation or training centers now before leaving new zealand miss arden said that she would be raising the situation in shin jang but of course as we know from the past chinese leaders don't like to be spoken to about human rights conditions in their country it's a very sensitive issue and you know in the past china has said such criticism of

the human rights policies amounts to interference in their internal affairs so yes she has an awful lot riding on this visit a but as i say the most important thing for her is to try and get some sort of deal on upgrading that free trade agreement but as we know often with china you can't have an economic relationship unless you have a political relationship and it's the political aspect of new zealand's relationship with china which is very much under scrutiny at the moment adrian brown there speaking to us from beijing thank you roger. well japan's just announced the name of its next imperial era ray was read translates as order or auspicious means peace or harmony prime insertions or explains the name means culture is born and nurtured as the people beautifully care about each other he says it represents a commitment to a new era filled with hope it begins in a month when the new empress takes the throne while the name is chosen by the prime

minister and his cabinet it has great symbolic importance and reflecting aspirations for the is ahead current emperor akihito his reign as the hayes say era which began in one thousand nine hundred nine the name means achieving peace a clear separation from the previous era that included world war two he said to step down later this month the previous rain show was or enlightened harmony was chosen as a time of rising japanese power and influence on the global stage crown prince naruhito will take the throne on may first which will mark the beginning of this new era. well paul scully says a nonresident fellow at the institute of contemporary asian studies at temple university in japan he joins us live now from new york via skype called the choice of ray was with the mention of order appears to reflect the conservatism of this government. well yes that's exactly right we're approaching the seventy

seventh month shinzo our base tenure as prime minister and what's quite ironic is that he's been averaging about fifty percent approval rating by the japanese voters which is highly unusual on top of that one has to take him to act is conservatism and his ability to hold onto power. it's quite a contrast actually from the past thirty years which was rather a bumpy ride. for two last decades a declining stock market declining real estate prices and political uncertainty all of which seems to have turned around in the past few years at school how do they decide that your name can you talk us through the price up. well leigh the name itself was actually chosen from a japanese poem that's over a thousand years old. and it was chosen by

a number of japanese classical and chinese classical scholars this particular. gangle or era name was actually decided for the japanese classics which was a first in modern japanese history. it's since the emperor himself indicated his application. over a year ago the scholars have been rather. hush hush in keeping their cards to themselves discussing not only with the japanese parliament the diet but also the existing ave cabinet as well as various dollars getting input this takes actually several months and if any chance of a leakage were to occur history has indicated that they would not use what was leaked to the press and this is happened before in one thousand nine hundred eighty

nine and at least two occasions so it's actually quite a lengthy detail process with quite a lot of significance in the name itself the prime minister has indicated if you can give a loose translation for what radio would mean that people's hearts coming together in a beautiful way which will give rise to and nurture culture which i think after all is quite a fitting. descriptive of what is happening today in the conservative era of shinzo object and me a liberal democratic party post speaking to us from new york john resident fellow at temple university in japan thank you for being with us. well brazil is opening a new trade mission to israel in west jerusalem apparently backing away from a previous pledge to move its embassy to the city the move was announced during

a visit by the brazilian president jalal sonari praised to the u.s. when it shifted its embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem and indicated brazil may follow suit but senior officials have since talked down the idea of a fears of damaging trade with arab countries saudi arabia is accused of hacking the phone of jeff bezos the owner of the online shopping giant amazon and the washington post bezos hired private investigators after his phone messages will eat to the national enquirer a tabloid newspaper his investigators have linked to the hack to the washington post extensive coverage of the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi saudi ministers have previously denied any link to the national enquirer leak facebook's chief executive is calling for new rules to govern the internet and wants governments to share responsibility in policing what we click on in a newspaper article mark zuckerberg says it's not for companies alone to define and monitor harmful content he is pushing for a common global framework to monitor privacy and data as well as rules to stop the

spread of hate speech facebook's facing a series of scandals including its failure to stop the live streaming of the new zealand mosque attacks in which fifty people were killed earlier this month while facebook is already signed up in principle at least to a contract for the web it's the brainchild of tim berners lee the man who invented the world wide web thirty years ago with the vision of open access for all speaking to al-jazeera earlier this month berners lee said it's a global set of principles to govern the use of the internet but it needs buy in from governments companies and individuals. it's called contract because in fact part of it is companies is currently not part of the platform was very complacent but the build the belief systems need to tweak their systems a bit so that they could the discussion look instructive but also those governments as well and so companies and governments need to talk to each other but also as a third constituent we've included the person the set assesses the

consumer and old person they the feel age we discussed because their rights are really important we see through the web and if you should be more user centric. users can have more control of their data and partly because at the end of the day if governments don't do what they've committed to and or companies don't do what they should do then it ends up having to be people protesting in the streets people voted by changing the products they use or people complain or complaining to the government. and honest as it ain't i how with the headlines on al-jazeera a woman accused of matching the hof brother of north korea's leader kim jong un has been ten sentenced to three years and four months in prison twenty one will be freed next month unless and because of time already sabs she's admitted

a lesser charge of causing hat florence harry has more from kuala lumpur. the judge said in making his sentencing decision that he wanted to strike a balance between the interests of the public and the interests of the accused the wrong as you can imagine was absolutely elated when she heard of this decision she said she was very happy and she said she thought it was a fair sentence and before she was led away she said thank you to the malaysian she says you want to thank the malaysian government and the vietnamese government has always maintained her innocence and her lawyers also have been saying and have been making representation for her to be freed because they've always maintained that to keep her on trial while her other kohak used who had been in the dock with her just on to last month has been freed it would be a travesty of justice gerri as president has announced a caretaker government to be headed by prime minister nouri. the decision comes

after weeks of protests against eighty two year old abdul aziz beautifully. israel has lifted a recent ban on fishing in gaza and expanded the fishing zone to fifteen more school miles the decision as part of a cease fire deal mediated by egypt between israel and hamas this comes a day after two main border crossings into gaza were reopened. early results in turkey's local elections show the main opposition party candidate taking a lead in ankara the results are too close to call in istanbul with both sides claiming victory the municipal elections are seen as a test for president or one new zealand's prime minister is making her first official visit to china where she is expected to tackle some difficult issues just jens government rejected a bid by a chinese company while way to install the country's five g. network on national security grounds well those are the headlines join me for more news here on al-jazeera off to listening post in the meantime you can find more

news on our web site al-jazeera dot com. amnesty international an organization focused on human rights around the world now amnesty itself is facing allegations of abuse and mistreatment by its own staff has honesty fall into the lowest point in its history do you think. secretary general. talks to al-jazeera. on the way to the. testing did not establish that members of the campaign fired or the russian president having. gone too far wrong and i after arriving. maybe trepidation help or. hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post here are some of the media stories we're covering this week the aftermath of the mother report the stain it leaves on the reporting of news outlets who went all in on the story of the trump

campaign and russian collusion julian assange and the ecuadorian government at odds at the london embassy once again ethiopia one year after the arrival of a new government what has it meant for the media there and take a deep breath yoga as a collective therapy for a united kingdom divided by breck's before moving up into a. rising nationalist. russia gate the theory that donald trump colluded with lot of mere putin to hijack the two thousand and sixteen us presidential elections was a story that was too big to fail but that's what happened and certain american news outlets now have some questions to answer the official summary of the muller report about alleged collusion says there's no clear evidence of it trumps people had many questionable contacts with influential russian nationals but not directly with the government having sold americans the seductive and conspiratorial notion that the

man in the oval office might be a compromised foreign agent now comes a moment of reckoning for the u.s. media that includes the networks who gave short shrift to skep. challenged the prevailing collusion narrative the one that boosted ratings and brought on the clicks a golden goose of a story for those skeptics it's vindication as for trump himself after two years of accusing the media of a witch hunt calling them the enemy of the people this story has handed him a two thousand and twenty election gift like know what our starting point this week is washington. when it came out with the most report had found there was no trump russian special counsel by this time understandable shock throughout the political establishment we are going to get a print out feels like. the place for a tough question a conspiracy which is not there i mean when you do journalism you don't follow what

you imagine the nation wants to believe this is an international war fare against our country you follow with the facts and the facts undermine this notion of a top russian speakers. five voices on the mall or report three who were skeptical of the russia collusion narrative all along and two who argue the journalists were right to focus on the story and no network anchor invested more air time more of her own credibility on the case for collusion than m s n b season and rachel maddow as if the worst is true. if the presidency is effectively a russian op if you had to pick one person who promoted the hysteria then. she would be that person her ratings were going down until trump was elected in until russia gate became a possibility and she seized on it immediately well before trump's inauguration are about to find out if the new president of our country is going to do what russia

wants with this story she she started playing a character where she sort of became this patriotic. sort of front actor there been tons of reactions there was a very powerful element of really fear there ran through her shows that mean the most infamous broadcast was the one during a cold front earlier this year russia can just shut off the electricity they have that ability now where she suggests that the russians have the capability to turn off the heat across the united states at any moment what would happen if russia killed the power in fargo today you know that would be an act of war there was this implied subtext that the russians were this sort of reasoning with evil that was everywhere and we had to have vigilance and watch out for it everyone is going to accuse others of doing poor reporting i would point to margaret sullivan piece in the washington post where she said the solid reporting done by

a lot of people should be celebrated because it's a hard story to tell and then there's cable t.v. and we need to make a distinction between now commentary television is not nude in its commentary given all that's happened since and rachel maddow in particular she has certainly pushed the smaller matter but she's done so in a way that was supported by the facts we knew at the time so i'm not prepared to go with many of the folks who say this was hysterical this was wrong certainly was driven by the commercial interests of television in terms of what they covered. that angle commercial considerations tends to get over the focus is usually on ideology since matthaus network m s n b c leans to the left politico however since marketing itself as america's anti trump news channel m s n b c has seen record ratings at times maddow has drawn more viewers in her nine pm slot then her

competition at fox news just a few years ago that would have been unheard of the publication of them. report had an instant effect on that house numbers ratings for her first two shows after the report's release were down by more than twenty percent as telling as the voices n.b.c. puts on the air to discuss russia gate is who it does not journalists like matt tayyiba and erin mack today who have never bought into the collusion narrative the case of a missing d.c. is certainly a case of a network prioritizing profit and partisanship over actual journalism partisanship in the sense that this narrative of trump russia it was the preferred one of democratic party elites that emma said you see is the one with and profit in the sense that this story helped drive and this n.b.c. upwards in the ratings but now they have to think about what this has done to their credibility we were all ostracized none of us were invited on television other

reporters and other people in the media they saw that there were a line that sent a message to everybody else that if you stick your head up you know you're going to get the same treatment what is donald trump trying to hide m.s.n. b.c. he was not alone in investing in the russia gate story. the russians and collusion something that looks and smells a whole lot like collusion c.n.n. other networks and some of america's more prestigious papers the new york times and washington post included also found it hard to resist and they reverted to some bad journalistic habits american saw in the aftermath of nine eleven. according to u.s. intelligence senior when intelligence sources said that the bush administration's fictional stories of iraqi weapons of mass destruction point we're looking at the same kinds of problems that we saw in the run up to the iraq war and the failure to track down sources to check for actual evidence and for corroborated evidence and

a real abandonment of professional standards the embrace all to mentally in both. basis of a kind of stenographers rule rather than establishing an independent perspective some of the same intelligence officials who were involved in the initial russian best a geisha and also were involved in the iraqi the scam were put on cable news as experts former cia director john brennan he is our senior national security and intelligence analyst for m s n b c john brennan head of the cia and james clapper the director of national intelligence and for two years they took part in promoting the notion that trump was possibly compromised by russia john brennan also predicted that miller was going to hand down indictments for the trump russia conspiracy and he is going to be delivering what i think are going to be his indictments the fact that never came and the lesson we should draw from that which we should have drawn after iraq is that we do not trust intelligence officials or

anyone without concrete evidence but we got today is a summary of findings now after years of being told to expect an indictment even a possible impeachment american news audiences have to reassess the entire russia gate story and they lack the evidence they need to do that. the muller investigation a reported three hundred pages long has not been made public all the media have to go on is a four page summary from the attorney general bill barr who was appointed by the president that's a key argument and voices in the media are holding on to. we don't know what's in the mall or report that is the most important fact to keep in mind we only know what attorney general barr in a very brief letter says about the muller report russian interference is and was real people around this president did things they should not have done they knew it because they lied about it so those people who are claiming this is wild hysteria

nonsense there is lots of smoke here there are financial transactions with all of the way the world works under vladimir putin all of us are just as important if and the russian government. the bar memo says that donald trump was helped to win by a hostile foreign government and he cheered it every step of the way russia if you're listening i hope you are able to find the thirty thousand e-mails that are missing if it's not fair to criticize him for having done that whatever his criminal liability for doing so that i think we're in a bad place for democracy is that why he won no not by itself but does donald trump deserve some criticism for cheering on a hostile foreign government yes it's going to be only america

first and it's not as if there's been a shortage of domestic trump related scandals stories for reporters to change the multiple indictments of his campaign and administration officials his former lawyer the payoffs to trump's former lovers his courtship of neo nazis however those stories lack the foreign bogeyman the idea that the kremlin had somehow help decide the two thousand and sixteen u.s. election it's as though the american media along with the opposition democratic party must look overseas for someone to blame for putting donald trump in the white house when they should be looking closer to home much closer. part of the reason we have is because we have a political and media culture that is dominated by people who do not want to take responsibility for their own failures their own actions the media gave trump and listen tension billions of dollars worth of free advertising during his election

campaign and he was capitalizing on the very real anger towards the policies of the democratic party elite their neo liberal economic policies brought misery to large parts of the country instead of reckoning with their own failures in two thousand and sixteen democrats turned to a scapegoat which was there. russia has all of eyes exclusion a product of collusion and collusion and unfortunately our media enabled them every step of the way. we're discussing other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers minox you razzi nina julian assange the founder of wiki leaks has been in that ecuadorian embassy in london for seven years now over the past year the conditions of his asylum there have been tightened considerably and you've got the latest as you said richard we've seen a progressive squeeze on julian a songe and this latest story we're hearing gives us a sense of just how tense things have become at the embassy on march twenty fifth cassandra fairbanks

a reporter with an american rightwing online outfit called the gateway pundit went to meet with the sun she says that her meeting had been pre-approved by the ecuadorian embassy but when she got there the situation became hostile fairbanks says she was locked in a room with cameras and surveillance equipment and she overheard an argument between a songe his lawyer and embassy staff including the ambassador she reports a sundress told he could not enter the room unless he submitted to a body scan now the suspicion was that he was taking in a radio device with him to interfere with any surveillance recordings the argument was loud heated and prolonged and eventually a two hour long meeting was just eight minutes we're going to consider the source here though don't we i mean gateway pundit is a horrid right news outlet right alongside outfits like breitbart of course and that alone mandates some skepticism of their deporting just like we're skeptical of some of the reporting by the u.k.'s guardian now of course that newspaper has a much wider and more mainstream audience but some of the deporting on bikie leaks

in a songe has ranged from inaccurate to just outright malicious what's changed in the relationship between a sanch and the ecuadorian government that government granted him asylum back in two thousand and twelve in a sense that he feared being extradited to the u.s. is this just the result of the arrival of a new government. in quito well that's a significant factor certainly now in two thousand and twelve the president of ecuador was a file korea leftist deeply critical of the united states in two thousand and seven he was succeeded by lenin moreno who described himself as a centrist and has publicly called julian a songe his inherited problems now what seems to have triggered the crackdown on a songes internet connection and the frequency of his visitors are comments he made last year on social media about ecuador's allies including spain it is an explicit condition of a songes asylum that he won't make any comment on ecuador's foreign policy and in addition to all of this we also have reports that the u.s. state department is putting pressure on the aquarium government to lift the asylum

to lift its protection of julian a search ok thanks nick. it's now been one year since east africa's most populous country ethiopia experienced a political transformation a change in leadership after years of social unrest and demonstrations prime minister haile mariam deselect unexpectedly quit leading to the appointment of i met a representative of the country's largest ethnic group the our role models the reforms came swiftly be packed his cabinet with a record number of women he promised to address the social tensions among ethiopia's multiple ethnic groups and he forged an historic agreement to end the twenty year standoff with neighboring eritrea changes came quickly to the media realm as well dozens of new news websites have appeared more than twenty new media publications are now in business and numerous journalists jailed and stifled under deselect he and his predecessor have been freed last year we spoke with four journalists of different media backgrounds about the role that social media has

played in the political transition now about nine months later we've gone back to those voices to see how the new space is developing the listening post slow philips now on the ethiopian media one year into the. april the second twenty eight. ethiopia's new prime minister. is rushed into power on the coattails of national. one year on the bold agenda of africa's youngest leader has attracted praise from around the why well if any of your peers the prime minister has made in the job has been. taken i got you there i haven't read i think i don't think i know one of them really really exciting about going to that i managed to get some variation release political journalist behind the headlines however a much more complex tense transition is taking place we are dealing with

a country. that is in its own twilight zone the transition is in many ways very fragile. this is a dalai lama the editor in chief of addus standard a prominent newspaper that led coverage of the series of protests that have taken place in the country it's a very delicate sensitive. highly emotional kind of conversation awaiting this country. tamar says managing editor of the adice food chain newspaper a media mainstay that reported throughout the twenty eight thousand revolution and transition. to politics and the policy possibilities are complicated. the picture is for more complicated but that it was your book journalist and blogger iskander negra after years in prison he was released on a presidential pardon he set up shop again and rekindled his career there is still doubt whether the country could make it to democracy where was

a little. fall back with the ship or whether it's actually get worse i'm going to war and joel mohammed the influential and controversial head of the iranian media now when he returned from exile to a hero's welcome. for journalists all with a part to play in this new phase of their country's history this is not the first time they're speaking with a listening post in twenty eighteen we interviewed them on their media expectations of the new prime minister we've come back to them now to get their thoughts on key media aspects of abbey ahmed ethiopia. if you are ready to be held accountable he has to start talking to the media. but they have not been accessible not been as open as they promised to be so that

this new approach to the press office with the whole been partners and all of this weekly or by. only press conferences they hired just one thing and they did not do it other than he has also not meet the media so far to face our questions so that makes me worry of whether he is genuine or not but if you wanted to have. requests for interview you don't get that opportunity we see more and more government officials using the social media which makes them directly accessible to people however i'm very disappointed that the distribution of this information is highly choreographed so it's very frustrating that we're limited into. the kind of information the government authorities want to hear. social media that's where the game is that's where it's going to be even in the

future to be the medium through which the gauge of political discourse and it will be the medium through which we mobilize. i can't imagine the word without a good book at this point it's great to live in a world in which you know millions of people are going to talk to each other. the kind of vast change that we've seen over the last three years without the social media would have been impossible. the value of official media has been realized to the extent that. you can you can find every color or shade of view from the social media but the message that churned out substance of pipe on the resume which is part and parcel of the political process that is taking place you know there are more. every site they have demands political interest they are trying to assert that.

moving forward particularly media. you know when i run into myself we're going to move. one ethnic line and because he wore in two thousand close enough because we have a responsibility to do that it's quite difficult to be as aggressive. as i used to be today we are not dealing with a full blown attitude and government. was today we're dealing with this kind of leadership that has allowed the sun for the protest of the headlines some for the population so you know of course i'm an activist others move from open aggressive prism of the government to a more critical supporter of the government so my only as an activist but was a lot more responsible to the. democracy has not been realized and we're still fighting the wars and so we need actors in this transition is over there's no democracy particularly in the back to square one to have democracy it's our

obligation to fight and to be active in promoting democracy some would say we have to remain activist this democracy dawned on us and i don't have any problem with somebody standing saying i would have to continue like that but it becomes problematic when stories are being corrupt by. activists including journalists who are doubling as activists and it's very unfortunate that we are in that in that circumstance and i do hope that we would come to our sense when you are a professional journalist there are things that you need to observe and more than anything else you have to observe your own code of conduct which requires you to be factual accurate fair balanced or objective reasonable. all this other things that you need to observe that are completely alien to the world of activism. ethiopia's political transition is balanced on the edge of hope

and fear hope for political transformation and fear of slipping back into oppression. for the first time in thirteen years there are no journalists in the country's jails hundreds of websites have been on blocked and licenses have been granted to twenty three new media publications but there's still a long way to go. ethiopian media have years of control and censorship to break free from and outlets that are still working on forming professional bonds to strengthen their industry media houses need to come together discuss what should be how can we help the transition without compromise in order to go precipice if we do that we can help but expecting the media tools not to take side not to advice such an interest is just not going to stick well once you have a democratic framework if you have a democratic system for a democratic country but there were. no natural outcome or got to be personal

a good horse but a short report for him but first but but but but after the separate protected i do hope would have a press council most importantly where we come together and and and hammer out on our own court of conduct we have to the strain ourselves into professionalism. that are putting the talking and pitting one community we set another that's not helpful for journalists in the media has continued to be an instrument of power. and of the media continues a lot of so many things are in the balance what do people want from the media. they want the media to be a force of verification a force a place a platform for rational discourse. and finally back in two thousand and sixteen when britain voted to leave the european union the question on the referendum ballot seemed simple enough do you

want out of the e.u. or not but the longer this drags and story goes on the harder it is to understand the negotiations and the issues freedom of movement customs unions the irish backstop were complex enough and that was before m.p.'s got involved with their parliamentary procedures their votes amendments britain is in a state of confusion which is where sammy j. thompson he's an astray and comedian who suggests that the best way to deal with bracks and to explain it is through something he calls bricks at yoga now that may be a bit of a stretch but this video first seen on the australian broadcasting corporations comedy channel has millions of views online we'll leave you now with an excerpt and we'll see next time here at the listening post. ok let's warm up first by knotting out. and when you're ready to face the world we're going to move up into a way to repaint union. ice and high. tariffs falling

away enjoy your freedom of movement in the south the friends. and hold in this position for several decades before moving up into a. rising nationalism were also in and out of life. and from he will head slowly down into. referendum. going to bring. now some of you might want to remain in this position some of you might want to leave just listen to your body being clued. into the right. and leave it is. supposedly to strike into a way instant regret. so does feel you try to diminish as the process of coming there increases. a prominent saudi john leste committed to freedom of expression silenced in tukey by his own

government in the most horrific way. al-jazeera weld investigates the death of jamal. which resonates to the highest levels of the saudi government with startling evidence about the disposal of his body. jamal khashoggi the silencing of a journalist on al-jazeera. soon to be released a dramatic day in court for the woman accused of poisoning the hans brother of north korea's leader. hello i'm the star and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up and you can

take a government is named in algeria protesters say it still doesn't go far enough. a bad night for president at zero on his ruling party as turkey's opposition takes control of ankara but the istanbul results remain too close to call. plus a thirty day rationing plan for electricity is announced in venezuela as nationwide power outages continue. a woman accused of murdering the hoff brother of north korea's leader kim jong un will be freed next month from the malaysian jail. treated guilty to a lesser charge of causing hurt she was sentenced to three years and four months in prison but will be released soon because of the time she's already said the vietnamese woman was accused of poisoning kim jong nam to kuala lumpur airport two years ago. we.

don't believe mr y. you mr. exploited become the source and many believe to. perform. under the. funny reviews and review right. florence rejoins us now live from kuala lumpur florence given that the other accused woman city ayesha had charges dropped against her was this an expected outcome for. well i mean this was one of the scenarios that had been considered many people who've been following the trial that she would be offered some sort of a plea deal it's unlikely that prosecutors would have withdrawn the charges against one considering that her lawyers had asked for that last month and the prosecutors had said no her case it's widely believed was treated slightly differently from indonesian kohak used city eyeshot mainly because prosecutors felt they had

c.c.t.v. footage that they said showed her coming up from behind kim jong un at kuala lumpur international airport and smearing her hands across his face so while charges against her have not been dropped they have been reduced so this is still a very good outcome for twenty one and as you said she's expected to be released sometime in may her lawyers said probably the first week of may she's already spent more than two years behind bars having been arrested just a couple of days after kim jong un was killed in february two thousand and seventeen and when the judge announced his sentencing decision there were cheers and applause in court and one as you can imagine was also very happy and she said she believed that this was a fair sentence florence she is now also pleaded guilty to this lesser charge do we know why the prosecutor's office. while prosecutors said told the court they were changing the charges they were offering her a reduced charge after receiving representation from the vietnamese embassy and

lawyers so sense this makes ok it's very similar to city case now in that case the prosecutors withdrew their charges against indonesian code cues they did not give a reason why but then the indonesian government subsequently revealed that they had been lobbying malaysian authorities now of course this opens up questions as to whether or not that has been political and foreign interference into the way malaysian authorities make their decisions but there's also a wider sense that justice is being served here now many people believe that these two women are scapegoats their defense arguments are essentially the same that they didn't know they were taking part in a murder plot they thought they had been recruited to take part in a reality t.v. show and while the malaysian government has never used the north korean government of being involved in kim jong un's killing the vienna the indonesian authorities had said they believed city indonesian citizen was used as a tool by north korean intelligence and of course these two women are not the only

people who've been charged with killing kim jong nam there for the north korean men who were charged but they have never been apprehended by malaysian authorities because they left the country just hours after kim jong un was killed and many people believe these are the real masterminds of the crime al jazeera is florence you leave that for us in kuala lumpur thank you florence well let's speak to james chin who's the director of the asia institute at the university of tasmania he joins us via skype from hobart so james now we know that the indonesian woman who was accused had her charges dropped and the vietnamese woman has been given a lesser charge is this a triumph of diplomacy. yes i think very much so i think it was quite clear also the charges were dropped against the intonation women the malaysian government was very worried about the section that they were practicing double standards so they had to find a solution and i think this is a very good solution you'll find. the of a lesser charge and based on the time stuff she can immediately go home and go back

to vietnam and carry on with life so i think this is a very good outcome in terms of relations but james isn't it still essentially double standards one essentially acquitted the other one getting a reduced charge rather than being acquitted is there a feeling of anger around double standards potentially i think we've being the public so i think people were very surprised initially when the charges were dropped against the indian nation suspects but i think you need to remember that in a nation government lobby very early on in fact the moment that the audition was arrested the nation got to have stopped at the lobby and i think one of the reasons why the malaysian government decided to drop the charges yesterday i shall yield to the company in the nation presidential election one of the candidates in the nation presidential election has actually made the case as one of the tape a issue he actually took a flight to quality board meeting as well so i think the malaysian government was

warning that should be used as election for the nature and he was much just that really changes the concession perhaps around political interference in malaysia's judicial system. i won't call this political interference the reality is that if the malaysian busses arrest you and other country or even vietnam or indonesia it is quite common for that in the day for the malaysian government to met representation on their behalf what is unique about this case is that it is quite clear that these two we mun did not know what they were doing all this leader were being used among you believe that by the north korean agents so i think you need to look at it from this angle james is as you say the women have been insisting they were stooges presumably the masterminds still at large what are the chances that they will ever face justice. the reality is that it is not possible to go after this mosque to my in the first case they are that the b.s.

thuggish although they were using fake identities that left the country immediately after the murders took place and it is widely assumed that not korea i think the reality is that the person ultimately response above all the mother is actually the brother who is in control north korea now and these are simply agents of the state so it is highly unlikely that we will be able to find them and it's highly unlikely that they will be charge in a court james chin from the university of tasmania thanks for being with us on al-jazeera thank you. well algeria's president has named a caretaker government following six weeks of protests demanding his resignation media reports in algeria are now saying eighty two year old abdul aziz is preparing to quit victoria gate and he reports. if president abdelaziz bouteflika and his backers thought a government reshuffle would be enough to satisfy the millions of algerians

demanding political change these crowds were a first sign they'd misjudged the mood of protest as. a statement from the president's office was read out on state television announcing a new can take a government it's the latest in a series of concessions by beautifully which have included a promise not to stand for a fifth term critics say it's another unsuccessful attempt to split the opposition and diffuse the protests to get to this point and then split up or turn around is not really a possibility at least not a possibility that i've been hearing about or seen no matter what differences you know no matter the different orientations of the people whatever the advocate for there the goal is still the same the only thing that we are night on at this point is that the system needs to go away the new cabinet is headed by prime minister nuri who himself was appointed just three weeks ago. only six of twenty seven

ministers from the outgoing cabinet have kept their jobs they include deputy defense minister and army chief of staff. on saturday he repeated his call for eighty two year old beautifully to be declared unfit for office and wound his opponents not to undermine the military. analysts say there's been confusion and incoherence among algeria's ruling elite about how to respond to the crisis it's pretty clear that the people on the street don't want to replace tweedledee with tweedle dum they want a complete comprehensive radical transformation jury in politics away from authoritarianism and toward a real democracy and how we able to obtain that you know remains to be seen what's clear is the cabinet reshuffle falls far short of what protesters have been demanding and could lead to even larger protests in the days and weeks to come. to

be al jazeera. turkey as local elections have seen the opposition make major gains at the expense of president. and his ruling ak party the voters has been widely seen as a referendum on their new a two decade dominance of tucker's politics the opposition has won control of the capital ankara meanwhile in istanbul it's a tight race that still considered too close to call sin and cos he already has more from ankara. since coming to power seventeen years ago present trajectory. has won every single ballots contested but sunday's vote wasn't all good news for the ruling party it lost the mayorship in the capital longer are assigned that to achieve months made by add on in the past no longer outweigh the misgivings some terms have about him and his party today however uncertain as to remains over istanbul the city where don began his political career as its mayor. with the majority of the votes in the result appears to be too close to call but both

candidates have already declared victory. as you will see i say it loud and clear i know we won however i cannot announced this because of my conscience my sense of ethics my political stance and my understanding of statement ship. now the vote count in istanbul is completed with more than thirty one thousand ballot boxes counted according to our official results according to these results we won the election in istanbul. over although it was the fourteenth time and donahue's elyse contested a nationwide tour and. the kurdish d p that supported the opposition candidates in the western cities preserve this position in turkey's south is going head to head with their party. turkey has a history of how they voted turnout and even though there have been seven the elections and five feel.