i find that there is an obstruction of justice and what we've had here you may find you may have and he is basically inviting congress to participate in the next chapters of this report and i think they'll be no doubt that he appears before may twenty third in house member gerry natters house judiciary committee which will take this further so the headline as donald trump would like us to believe is no collusion no obstruction it's all game over but if you believe the devil's in the details it all seems to show that there was a lot of. questionable stuff going on a lot of stuff that still needs to be answered from that whole election period i think the cad line is going to be what this guilt look like what does obstruction look like and this story is not done. all right steve clemons joining us from washington thank you so much for your time today. two other news and huge crowds are gathering in sudan outside the military headquarters where

a sit in has been staged for the last two weeks protesters are demanding the immediate return of civilian rule following the overthrow of president omar al bashir a special representative of russia's president has also met sudan's military rover's ahmed val's at the protest sent us this update from culture. i am at the fringe of this morrow test of the sit in and you can see behind me the headquarters of the military and the crowds decided today to show how many people they can still bring to the streets because yesterday they have submitted a list of demands to the military council including the creation of a civilian government and i civilian the presidential council instead of the military council wants to. put them in the prison of the. last government but. we are here. one won't move on we want unity we are here to see the trades are trying. to show the word we are

not resisting here because we need we need to put those on the one team to the prison we need to meet. freedom. right now some of them they are not in the prison. you know. they have called it the march of the millions. every single component of the city's professional and unprofessional society about what to do to do this march and that the message is united and the gist of it is that the sudanese protesters tabulate from the history of sudan they have ceded to evolution is stolen in the past by the military and today they want to make sure that they don't leave the streets until they see the fruits of this revolution until they see a complete change happening in this country with the you. u.n. envoy for libya is warning of a broader escalation in the fighting in the south and i says there is deadlock

between the warring sides south of the capital tripoli fighters loyal to the un recognized government of launched a new campaign in the south against warlord khalifa haftar was about germany calling for an emergency un security council meeting about the battle for control of tripoli. in the news ahead on al-jazeera pirouette in mourning as the former president commits suicide to avoid arrest. hello spring weather is still with us means brain often sundry and sometimes heavy and he's the latest potential says to running through western iraq now stop particularly active we could see a few showers as far north as terror on the far side says kuwait city and certainly

seen rain to the west of that this usually being the source so from lebanon north was through northern syria country northern iraq and turkey has been where as well as young too so that's the area probably to watch and the west is where they're at the be occasional thunderstorms to the south so that twenty eight in baghdad twenty four in kabul now a dry country afghanistan at least from the point of view of what comes down from the sky for the arabian place or maybe some tail end charlie showers are likely in the east and sadi bahrain possibly in qatar in the next day or so more especially i think sunday and monday is the time to watch and down in yemen and the southwest decided imagines here generating is under stores usually this time of year. in southern africa the shells haven't gone away we've seen some quite big ones recently in crossing the top but some allow in mozambique and that certainly is the weakness are from zimbabwe and towards sore lanka where we'll see a share or two in the next day or so but mostly it's a dry picture. in

syria citizens are collecting evidence in all our public buildings shot of crimes committed against civilians we've moved out of syria and six hundred thousand pages of material so that one day they can bring the assad regime to justice it puts a human face on the charges it's a dead human face but it's a human tricks syria witnesses for the prosecution on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera these are the top stories the robert muller report investigating

russian involvement in the twenty sixteen u.s. election has been released it found numerous contacts between individuals tied to the russian government and to president trump's campaign but it says the evidence didn't reach the level of a crime. huge crowds gathering in sudan outside the military headquarters where a sit in has been studied for the last two weeks protesters are demanding the immediate return of civilian rule following the overthrow of president omar al bashir. and the un envoy for libya is warning of a broader escalation in fighting in the south on saddam i sense there is deadlock between warring sides south of the capital fight as those of you recognize government approved a new campaign in the south against the hard stuff. the top man a star has been ranked the most dangerous country in the world for journalists to do their job with no way being ranked the safest in the campaign group reporters without borders has published its annual lead tape. well of press freedom worldwide

and more a better man it's been taking a look. here for the first time in three years north korea has been replaced as the world's most dangerous country for journalists turkmenistan now tops the world rankings president kirchner and girly brought him a command of his run the former soviet republic for twelve years with what its critics describe as an iron fist. the government controls all media journalists or press and the internet is highly censored essentially leaving a media black hole. syria remains another dangerous zone for journalists but reporters without borders says journalists worldwide are up against an intense climate of fear and danger the press freedom campaigners say bahrain egypt and saudi arabia stepped up repression of the media censorship has increased in the saudi kingdom since the murder of jamal to shock she last october a journalist in egypt can't do their job without fear of imprisonment al-jazeera

journalist mahmud hussein who spent more than two years in jail without trial al-jazeera denies the gyptian government accusations of broadcasting false news to spread chaos the world's biggest jailer of journalists is turkey i called the fake jews the enemy of the people and they are they are the enemy of the us president donald trump has often had a rocky relationship with the media a b.b.c. cameraman was attached to the trump support rally in texas a couple of months ago and bomb threats getting sent to media outlets for the first year the united states slipped into the orange which is the problematic category of countries it was also in two thousand and eighteen for the first time ever on the short list of deadliest countries for journalists in the world and that was following the massacre in the capital because that news room in maryland mexico remains one of the balls deadliest countries because. at least ten were murdered

last year some of the thousands who have lost their lives in gang violence. the report says one of the price is ethiopia since becoming prime minister here. introduced widespread reforms including releasing prisoners and dropping charges against media outlets the feeling of safety and security for the ethiopian journalists has improved to the envy of many of their colleagues worldwide. al-jazeera the united nations human rights chief says a mass trial in bahrain failed to comply with international standards on fairness amnesty international says choosers hearing was a mockery of justice one hundred thirty nine people were jailed for plotting to form a so-called behind he has a law with links to iran's revolutionary guard or one of them had their citizenship revoked the shia majority in bahrain has been revolting for years against the

island's sunni muslim monarchy gunmen in southwest pakistan of ambushed a bus and then killed fourteen and then kidnapped and killed fourteen passengers an alliance of blotch separatist groups is claiming responsibility for the attack on the main road between corruption and the port of quota. thousands of mourners have gathered to pay their respects to peruse former president. from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police were preparing to arrest him he was being investigated over a massive corruption stemmed the money on the son. has more from lima. at the people's party this is the headquarters of the party the party that was led by former president alan garcia and the way it is taking place there's been hundreds of people queuing up the place is so full that they have to close the door for now until people start leaving they've been singing the parties and and hugging

among each other a lot of people affected bringing flowers putting flowers on the coffin and now there's been a lot of divided reaction in the country with political allies blaming. on members of the press has been releasing information about his involvement or his alleged involvement in the bribery scandal the all the rich bribery scandal also blaming. on public prosecutors are saying that the prosecutors were showing. all the elements that they were releasing the information released as evidence before before. defend himself so the same time there's been fierce critics critics even on air saying that he's been a coward to take his life before facing justice others who said that who are saying that they want to send their condolences to the families of garcia but at the same

time they believe that garcia robbed during his government and that he should have face justice and as well as president nicolas maduro has accused the united states of stealing from the venezuelan people. thirty billion. well as it's been taken by imposing sanctions the only imperioli. i see imperialism is crazy and desperate the news also came out the donald trump called the pope i'm sure the pope through holy water on the telephone when he spoke to trump i'm sure donald trump gave his confession he must have confessed to the pope all the harm he's doing in the world he must have confessed to the pope all the harm he's doing to the people of venezuela with illegal unilateral sanctions all the money the thirty billion dollars that he's stolen from the people of venezuela. but as madeira says that the first shipment of humanitarian aid is finally being distributed in venezuela after years of refusing to accept any international humanitarian assistance the

government did reach a deal weeks ago with the international red cross to import and distribute food medicine and hospital equipment a waiting list extremely long latin america the sea and human now reports. this refuge in northwestern venezuela is home to sixty seven children and young adults with disabilities who have nowhere else to go yet most of the residents were born with mental retardation severe autism or varying degrees of cerebral paralysis all of which required medical treatment. if they don't get their medication they have or have acute anxiety they fall down they're frightened but there's a shortage of treatments which are an affordable now we're all suffering. the home is run by the catholic church with volunteers and donations government subsidies stopped years ago many families here northwestern

a lot of states are struggling just to feed their families and can't cope with a child with special needs but the institution says it doesn't have the means to take in anymore like many here hydro was born with cerebral paralysis that's a disorder of movement and muscle to. which means he is confined to a wheelchair but if there was proper specialized treatment physiotherapy he could probably move a lot better perhaps even walk the problem is there's absolutely no budget for that . in fact the institution can barely afford food and salaries for the nurses even electricity and water have become a luxury in this part of the country with constant power blackouts classes suspended so serapis do what they can to keep the residents occupied. if we demand that the government open the doors to monitor and we need a desperate man there are people dying because there are no resources no medicine

or equipment to treat the ill. father but uncle says that in the thirty six years that he's been here he's never felt so unable to provide for youngsters who have already been dealt a difficult hand. children like ten year old jonathan rojas a bright incurious boy who was born with hydrocephalus it requires treatment but under other circumstances he could expect to live a normal life. right now the only hope for him and the others is the arrival of international aid and as everyone here will tell you it can't come fast enough to see him human and just see down but because he made the news whaler. a french investigators now believe it was an electrical short circuit which may have caused the not cathedral fire remember it was under renovation at the time of monday's blaze which devastated an ancient symbol of fronts french president in my new

micron he wants not saddam restored and wants it done within five years but there are a lot of experts warning that any rebuilding may take a lot longer now correspondent natasha has more now from paris. from above the extent of the damage to not a dam is clear monday's fire ravaged the twelfth century cathedral destroying its roof and making the spire collapse dozens of precious artworks were burned centuries old stained glass windows melted. firefighters continue to assess the cathedral safety and used water jets to cool parts of it the spokesperson said risks remained visits to the shore the most money toward a hot spot that can be found in the cracks between the stones that make up the votes the lead which covered the entirety of this vote as complete melted so we have to continue monitoring the boat to do that with you on the banks of the river saying people watched juicier the overall b.c.

i thought to myself i have to come and take in the same ocean it's really deeply moving it's very different to watching it on screen to take time to see the devastating impact france's prime minister said a committee will oversee not traditions reconstruction and an international competition will be launched to rebuild the spire. the international competition will allow us to ask whether we should even recreate the spire if we should rebuild the spire as it was conceived and built by the architect in the same manner or if as is often the case in the evolution of heritage and of the cathedral we should give not a new spire adapted to the techniques and challenges of our times the french president emmanuel mccall wants not for down to be rebuilt in five years that would be time for the paris and then picks but some building experts say that's too ambitious that a project of this scale could take decades the deadline for rebuilding could be a challenge but funding it seems less of

a concern with multimillion dollar donations flooding in on wednesday cathedral bells across france rang out in solidarity. not to dams devastation. has touched many people perhaps because it's a famous symbol of paris because the imposing eight hundred fifty year old building office people a link to the past natasha butler al-jazeera paris. take it to the headlines now on al-jazeera the robert muller report investigating russian involvement in the twenty sixteen u.s. election has been released it found numerous contacts between individuals tied to the russian government and members of president trump's campaign but it says the evidence didn't reach the level of a crime it also said donald trump ordered a white house lawyer to fire robert mala but the lawyer refused the u.s.

attorney general william barlow announced his take on the censored version of the mother reporter remember he was appointed by the us president and told reporters it confirmed trump didn't obstruct justice the report recounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting those activities to the elements of an obstruction offense after carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report and in consultation with the office of legal counsel and other department lawyers the deputy attorney general and i concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense in other news libya fighters loyal to the united nations recognized government have launched a new campaign against the warlord huffed are in the south of the country after us forces are battling government troops for control of the capital tripoli

a group aligned to the government conducted the attack while half his forces were tied up in the north. now huge crowds of gathered in sudan outside the military headquarters in fact we've got live pictures of that now they are demanding the immediate return of civilian rule following the overthrow of president omar al bashir a special representative of russia's president has also met sudan's military rulers . in the united nations a human rights chief says a mass trial and battery in failed to comply with international standards on fairness international says tuesday's hearing was a mockery of justice one hundred thirty nine people were jailed for plotting to form a so-called but rainy hezbollah with links to iran's revolutionary guard all but one of them had their citizenship revoked the shia majority in bahrain has been revolting for years against the island's sunni muslim monarchy you're up to date with the headlines plenty more on the robert muller report to come in the news hour

in about twenty five minutes but right now it's inside story. a cycle of fear a report shows journalists are facing increasing hostility around the world the dangers are not just in conflict zones harassed persecuted and sometimes think mkhize they are facing a new threat so what's caused press freedom to deteriorate globally this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm a media freedom is in decline and journalists around the world are working in an intense climate of fear this year's evaluation by reporters without borders shows a market drop in the number of countries where it is safe for journalists to work and it says political leaders rhetoric has fueled violence against them in many parts of the world the world press freedom and the index covers the state of journalism in one hundred eighty countries it found eight percent of them have a media climate considered good for journalists the biggest deterioration is in the americas with the us brazil venezuela and nicaragua performing poorly the middle east and north africa region continues to be the most dangerous for journalists. on the flip side ethiopia and gambia as rankings have climbed significantly norway stayed top of the list while sweden last one place to become third and north korea is no longer the most dangerous country for journalists it's turkmenistan.

i already let's bring in our guests from london baden white president and founder of the ethical journalism network rami hooty is professor of journalism at american university of beirut he is currently in new york to address an international forum on press freedom and again from london caroline muscat co-founder and editor of the shift news welcome to the program caroline let me start with you it used to be that journalists mostly came under threat due to violence covering war covering dangerous stories that really has changed fundamentally in the last several years has it not it has we are seeing a change and threats and the kind of intimidation that genesis are facing. this climate of fear that we're talking about test started over the last intensified of the last couple of yes we are not looking at things like cyber harassment they

threats of. harassment all the challenges that make janet's life on the ground very difficult and make it very hard to act rami i want to start the discussion today by discussing the united states a country where the notion of freedom of the press is in shrine in its constitution not only has the u.s. fallen in the reporters without borders list this year it's fallen three places in this year's index but it is now classified as having a problematic climate for journalists so just how significant is this. it's very significant in terms of the modern historical legacy world the united states along with some western european countries are really champions of the independence of the press and free expression of citizens and the privacy of citizens that's changed now and trump really is the latest manifestation most dramatic manifestation of this because he publicly openly attacks the media and

says they're enemies of the people and and had to take his followers to in some cases the followers go and beat them up and stuff but this did not start with trump this really started with george bush on the war in iraq where george bush suddenly said in the global war on terror you're either with us or against us anybody who doesn't fully support the american government policies and war in other areas as an enemy of the people is a danger is a threat is a subversive element and this process has gone on for about twenty five years and it's getting worse and worse and a spreading all over the world but in the us the interesting thing is that while the government is pushing. to restrict press freedoms and personal expression and criminalize it in some cases such as for instance supporting the b.d.s. peaceful sanctions against israel movement they push back from the u.s. is very serious including the american civil liberties unions and law cases all over the country saying that the freedom of expression that isn't shrine then the

constitution has to override everything else and there's a huge battle this is really the great new ideological battlefield in not just the western world but the rest of the world as well eight in the report calls the period since president trumps election in two thousand and sixteen and one of american journalism communities darkest moments and it also links trumps notorious anti-press rhetoric with terrifying harassment it says in the report and particularly at women and journalists of color so from your perspective how much have trump's words degraded the atmosphere i mean i don't think there's any doubt that. notwithstanding the difficulties the past presidents have had with the press there's no doubt that. president trump has elevated to a new and quite. unacceptable level hostility to the press he's generated a movement against mainstream press he has tried to humiliate and to isolate

and to intimidate some of them the best journalists in the world and it seems to me with what he's done is that he has created in the public mind a deep suspicion and hostility towards mainstream journalism and given the circumstances that we are in nationally and globally with the information landscape that's a very dangerous thing in particular he's given a green light to populist and unscrupulous politicians all around the world to bring the press and investigative journalists for example into the crosshairs of conflict he is very much. the leading light in a very dark force in global politics today it includes putin it includes or no one in turkey it includes others who really are generating now very hostile climate in which journalists find it difficult to work so i don't

think i've known and i've been in this business for more than thirty years representing journalists internationally i don't think i've known a worse period in terms of the problems and challenges facing journalists and the threats that are out of free expression rami this report says that the americas have suffered the greatest deterioration of any of the regions first off why are things getting so much worse in places like brazil in venezuela nicaragua and secondly the fact that things are so much worse in the u.s. what does that mean for the safety of journalists in other parts of the world. well the us has a leader as seen as a leader across the world in many arenas and it used to be a leader and free press now it's a leader in pushing back against the freedom of the press and criminalizing free expression so anybody who's critical of trump or american policies is seen in the trump the in world to be an enemy and

a dangerous subversive and therefore can be attacked with legal means sometimes just beaten up sometimes intimidated and this is spreading around the world that the critical thing now is that there is a global growing network of autocrats let's call them some of them are really awful . dictators and brutal people others are just really strong autocrats who don't want to hear any views that oppose them and you see it on in brazil in the. in venezuela. egypt in iran and turkey and india hungary all over the world are spreading more and more and they're really dangerous thing is that they are now getting technology for instance the united arab emirates has bought israeli technology and has passed on to presidencies in egypt to monitor electronically hundreds of thousands of people and prevent them from expressing themselves so we have the situation where thousands of websites were just closed

down in egypt a few days ago by the government in order to prevent a free discussion about the so-called referendum that's going to take place no in a few days that would allow caesar to stay president for another twenty years or so so there the web of terrible things happening is much worse than just clamping down on journalists it's about controlling the minds and the thoughts and the expressions of individual citizens and preventing citizens from work together and n.g.o.s or professional organizations or whatever to express themselves and hold the governments accountable so this is really a dangerous moment but the good news is that there is pushback. everywhere in the world and this is a great great global battle now taking place carolina the european union and the balkans are registered this year as the second biggest deterioration in this original score which measures the level of constraints and violated as according to reporters without borders report tell us about the kind of threats faced by journalists in malta well definitely i want to get it's an investigative

journalist who was assassinated and will turn sixteen talked to about twenty seventeen. there is no real serious investigation going on three known criminals but accused of the of the assassination but you have absolutely no idea who commissioned the murder they side and single of an investigative journalist in north a country where more than ninety percent of the media is own directly by political parties these are very little room for criticism of the government. there is continued impunity and discontinues to make the rest of the journalists working on the ground more and more vulnerable to the threats and cycle of hate that such investigations have revealed are directly linked to online government portals closed and secret groups that are used to whip up hate to get stuffed i want to collect them i know being used to target and isolate activists and journalists

who are critical of the government and once you're isolated you become a much easier target and the maltese government is refusing national and international calls for an independent public inquiry to look at what the state could have done to prevent the assassination the state's positive obligation the government is refusing to score. in this report sweden is highly ranked but but even sweden was downgraded this year and one of the reasons for that was because of cyber bullying of journalists and this is something that keeps coming up in the report of the borders index this year what do you make of that. well i think the the the problem about the use of technology to to to monitor the work of journalists to interfere and to intimidate journalists in the in the way they're working is is extremely disturbing and i mean sweden has been demoted

but you know in terms of the league table the scandinavian countries still shine by a long way most of the rest of the democratic world and. globally as a whole but i think this problem about technology is is not just about how the technology can be used and developed specifically to target and to intimidate journalists one of the big problems that we're facing in terms of protecting free expression these days is the failure of the big technology companies to take their responsibility as publishers they have created in many ways the technological facilities for an informational landscape that shows no respect for public decency for respect for standards of expression that we have many many problems with misinformation fake news abusive communications and so on and had this this deterioration in the quality of public communications has added to the general problem about free expression the public at large have no idea about how to deal

with a confused landscape in which is it difficult if not impossible to identify what is reliable what is truthful what is is worthwhile in terms of free expression and this itself the focus is a massive problem so we have with technological developments with the utilization of technology by unscrupulous forces who will try to shut down journalism where is we also have the creation of an informational landscape which is increasingly toxic and that also is very dangerous for free expression around me arrayed in there talk about a toxic landscape and what comes up in my mind is you know social media and how toxic a landscape that can be can you talk a little bit about how much of a problem that is for journalists in the middle east and also how much a problem cyberbullying is for journalists in the middle east. yes both of those things or her earn issue are just there for her to what hayden said which i agree with completely was that we really need to understand how this started and my sense

having lived through it and watched it all in the last forty fifty years it really started with the satcher reagan revolution where they decided that free market capitalism really is the mechanism to rule the world that all people should live in free market economies and therefore everything becomes commodified everything is a commodity to buy and sell them the market rules everything and this is what's happened to media all over the war started in england and in the us and i was spread everywhere the media has been broken up into hundreds and hundreds of small little groups and politicised as well as being out of my eyes at the same time so we don't have many centrist reliable news sources that would like we used to when i was in college and i had to in sixty's and seventy's you could rely on the centrist major news organizations to give you relatively fictional honest and fair news of what happened yesterday today the media has become an ideological

battleground and this is going on all over the world now as well as in the middle east it's very obvious governments have control most of the media in most of the middle eastern countries not just the arab countries iran turkey israel as well there's a massive move by governments to boy or influence or control media and this is one of the reasons where why is social media has become such an important turn at of to people's news but the governments are cracking down on social media and if somebody says something on social media that the government isn't like there are no laws in all countries that allow the government to detain somebody put them in jail just because they were accused of demeaning the leader or ruining the country's reputation vague stings like that which of course the government decides and it's the courts that it controls decides how to. interpret that so there is a huge problem in terms of why individual journalists are having more and more difficulty getting their work done and that's why so many of the best ones leave

the middle east and go overseas where they can continue to work online but they have less impact when they're outside the country and this is because of the bullying because of the threats the intimidation the imprisonment and all of the and of course the governments ultimately have to license almost anybody in the middle east in any medium has to be licensed somehow so this is a very dark moment for the region across the middle east as it is for many around the world but i would add again that people are pushing back people are not silently sitting and and taking this there are pockets of excellence and independence and quality journalism all across the middle east is one of them amid the muslim is one of them have been jordan is one of them there's many small groups big groups that are doing genuinely professional work and that's why they tend to be attacked by the order of pratt's caroline from your perspective how much of

a problem for journalists is cyber bullying and also the social media landscape how much of a threat does that pose. well the promise of social media the democratization of these platforms are supposed to offer i think and it up in the same process as every other channel that was ever created it has taken over. there's no need to shut down facebook accounts or twitter accounts anymore they simply just dominates through. and in motel we have proven to direct link between states trolling and the targeting of activists and citizens and in this sense i agree with what was said but these social media platforms need to take the responsibility of acting us publishers rather than neutral carriers like any editor or journalist that has to go through you know verification fact checking and phase that i ability and consequence when failing these platforms need to need to take up that same

responsibility because they influenced and the damage that they are causing are quite exchanging. let's talk for a minute as a return to the theme of descent from asian and how bad is getting particularly in asia i mean let's talk first about me and more because that is someplace where we're distant from asia and the manipulation of social networks led to a lot of heat for rhetoric being directed toward the river in myanmar for example you have the two reporters wallow and also who they are reporters and me and more they were jailed as they were investigating an atrocity that was committed in me and more they just won the pulitzer prize for their reporting just a few days ago there was a time when something like that would apply pressure a prize that prestigious a statement like that would apply pressure on a government to release journalists of that caliber so much in the spotlight that doesn't seem to be the case anymore does it. no i think that's right i mean and i think this goes back to the discussion that we were having having at that at the

beginning which is there's a political climate has been created and unfortunately led by political leaders from democratic countries which is actually in hunting the capacity for impunity in countries which were actually never very good in the first place and so you have now a sort of fresh wind in the sails of autocrats some people who are the enemies of press freedom really not to feel any responsibility the general question murder the targeted murder by saudi arabia or. is the worst example in the past twelve months but we see everywhere now governments are quite happy to play fast and loose with international standards and obligations and this is created a very dangerous atmosphere but in asia we are beginning to see. pushback but there are massive problems the problems facing maria ressa the. outstanding journalist in

the philippines who is being targeted by the government there because of her work as an independent journalist so with so we have to sort of recognize that there is a political struggle here to get political organizations to get back on track in terms of respecting international standards but can i just on that i do feel the point that been made that there is pushback is actually very important this is a time where we have to reinforce the importance of journalism reliable professional an ethical journalism as a stream or useful stream of information and even in some unlikely places we're saying that now being taken up very recently there was the creation of a coalition for ethical journalism in turkey there was a coalition for media organizations in the western balkans both areas both regional areas where a muslim. elliptical problems facing journalists but then we say the journalists and media organizations and media support groups getting together to devise new

strategies for pushback this is actually a very welcome sign but rami i want to discuss the issue of giuliana songe for a moment because his arrest just several days ago. that has raised the alarm bells for many activists and many journalists many journalism professors lawyers many of them saying that if he is extradited to the united states that that sets a very dangerous precedence for journalists all over the world going forward now there has been a debate for a while about whether or not julian assange should actually be considered a journalist but this idea of him potentially being extradited to the united states when discussing the topic of safety for journalists what do you make of that. it is a big problem if he is extradited i think the government said he wouldn't be sent

to a country that has a death penalty so we'll see what would happen but we should see this as a as an incremental a bad step in the wrong direction. in a much bigger march towards a bad directions by many people all over the world so it would create pressure on whistleblowers and people who leak information and it really tells us that there is a central weakness that is permeating much of the media all over the world now which is the lack of trust at all the different levels that exist so publics don't trust the media as much as they used to is room twenty twenty five percent roughly of different countries people say they trust the media the media doesn't trust what the government is telling them or the governments don't trust the word the media that they are dealing with and there's a huge simultaneous deterioration in the core trust relationship that has always formed the strength of the free media world which is that you can count on

what you see in the paper or on t.v. or radio as being relatively accurate and fair that no longer a counsellor media has been weaponized politicized polarized commercialised privatized all the bad things that can happen have happened to the media and remember the media broadly speaking are businesses they're out to make money and these businesses are now controlled by ideological extremists some of them in government some of them in other movements in their countries who want to exploit the freedom that there exists in the media to attack people that you don't like so this is a very difficult combination of pressures that people deal with and the adding julian assange is to this list of maybe him being prosecuted in the united states it just is one more element i wouldn't say is it too much because there are many many other bad things going on that we probably have more ability to control right now aden it looks like you're shaking your head i'm going to give you the last word

but please be mindful the fact that we only have about forty seconds left go ahead . all i wanted to say is that i wanted to take issue with the idea that we must regard media as businesses journalism actually is moving out of being regarded as a business in the market sense today increasingly journalism isn't a business in the market sense journalism is increasingly a public institution with public purpose and it's first an ultimate aim is to provide reliable and trustworthy information the question is how we can do that without pressure from government how we can do that and make it sustainable for the future these are the big questions that are that have to be answered for the future of journalism but also for the future of democracy all right we're going to leave it there as we have run out of time thanks so much to all our guests aiden white from the hootie and caroline mascot and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j.

inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me and i am with him and the whole team here by for now. i. how is he changed since he was seven.

charting the lives of the children of apartheid over twenty one years each story reflecting a history of dramatic social and political change twenty eight hour south africa part one on al-jazeera. when the news breaks when people need to be heard and the story needs to be told segregation occupation discrimination injustice this is about died in the twenty first century with exclusive interviews has honesty fall into the lowest point in its history and in-depth reports al-jazeera has teams on the ground it takes to bring new move toward women documentaries on general and life moves on and don. this was wrong to teach children away from their parents and herd them into a school against their will there was no mother no father figures they put his

in the big player and we sort of looked after ourselves i don't remember the children's names but i'll never forget the kind it is dark secret on al-jazeera. you know what. i'm. not. hearing that. this is al-jazeera. hello from doha everyone on come on santa maria this is the news hour from al-jazeera. this special councils report states that is quote investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the

russian government. which the u.s. attorney general says the mother investigation clears donald trump of the report says trump feared it would spell the end of his presidency. we want the president to be in prison but look up to him actually but the whole region. protesters in sudan say the arrest of the president is not enough they want the entire administration gone and civilian rule right now. and a new number one danger zone for journalists to work and we are looking at international press freedom. i'm not in town or nandan with the top stories from europe including three days of mourning a declared on a portuguese island of new. deraa after a bus crash kills twenty nine people. and i'm we're hiding here with all of your support several top footballers in the u.k. will boycott social media for twenty four hours on friday to protest racial abuse they say they've had enough.

so the redacted the edited version of the special counsel robert muller's report on russian interference in the twenty sixteen u.s. election has been released four hundred forty eight pages detailing the entire two year investigation here's some of what it found first of all numerous contacts between individuals tied to the russian government and members of president trump's campaign but the report says the evidence didn't reach the level of an actual crime but also says donald trump jr had direct contact with wiki leaks just before it released the hacked democratic party e-mails and we don't trump was told the special counsel had been appointed the president told the then attorney general jeff sessions this is the end of my presidency donald trump later ordered white house lawyer don began to fire robert malley again however refused before the report came out we heard from the attorney general william barr and here is some of

what he had to say as you will see the special counsel's report states that his quote investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities i am sure that all americans share my concern about the efforts of the russian government to interfere in our presidential election. as the special counsel report makes clear the russian government sought to interfere in our election process but thanks to the special counsel's thorough investigation we now know that the russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of president trump or the trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other american for that matter that is something that all americans can and should be grateful to have

confirmed plenty to talk about and we will be with alan fischer at the white house for presidential reaction shortly but we're starting with rosalynn jordan in washington d.c. use habit of had a bit of time roselands actually have a look over this very long report from from the the pieces i've seen i'm trying to decide is it a case of no collusion or was it as the phrase was often said by william bell not enough evidence. well certainly when you look at a report that is four hundred forty eight pages it does stretch the bounds of credulity to want to suggest that there somehow isn't enough evidence to bring some sort of collusion or cooperation or conspiracy charge before a jury but the attorney general bill barr is making that argument certainly there is so much evidence there is and how much of it already in the public domain but a lot of information that the general public did not know before about the extent

of contacts between the trump campaign in two thousand and sixteen and with persons connected to the russian government that it really is rather remarkable what is one of the things that i found quite interesting was the fact that one of the people who had contact repeated contacts with russian persons was carter page parent lee had been targeted by the russian government as someone that they might turn into an intelligence operative because of his concerns about financial security he was trying to run a business and was basically living off his savings he wasn't getting anywhere and so he was targeted by the russian government especially during the time when he was acting as a foreign policy adviser to the trump campaign it also a covers a cattle much of what we already knew about the case of michael cohen the former personal lawyer for president trump it also we count

a lot of the information about paul bahn afford the one time campaign manager who has found himself in a lot of legal trouble is headed to prison because of his ongoing efforts to conceal what he had been doing throughout his a lengthy career. so much of our focus roselyn up until this point has been on the attorney general when bob because he was the one who had the report was delivered to you but now that it's out in the public and so important that it's in the hands of congress what can happen with it as a document as a as a jumping off point if you like. well already there is a lot of a lot of calls coming from congress to say that the special counsel robert mueller should come before congress to testify about the scope of the report especially about his decision to not issue a subpoena to donald trump the u.s. president and compel him to sit for an interview the report does know that the

president did answer some questions in writing but refused to answer other questions and writing and the off the explanation that's offered in the report is that they felt that at this late stage it really wouldn't have been productive to try to bring in the president perhaps anticipating some sort of like the resistance to sitting down for an interview and so you can expect come all that a lot of people are going to was basically criticize robert mueller for not taking advantage of something which he himself said in the report he had the legal authority to do now there's also going to be the question of the underlying evidence about a third or so of this document was blacked out so you don't know and i don't know what the general public doesn't know what material was held back and we also don't have the raw material to basically support what has been outlined in this four

hundred forty eight page report and sobers of congress are already saying they want all of the information they don't want anything held back and so if there is a suggestion at least from the attorney general mindset that this matter essentially is over it's probably fair to assume that as far as the u.s. congress is concerned at least congressional democrats this matter of russian interference and whether the trump campaign to help that interference is far from over that is rosalynn jordan in washington thank you we head now to the white house santa alan fischer alan i'm seeing statements from mike pence kellyanne conway everyone seems pretty happy. well kellyanne conway has just been out on the drive here at the white house within the last thirty minutes or so and she said that president trump is enjoying his best state since he got elected we certainly knew he was in good form he told everyone to tune in to the bill barr news conference on

two right leaning t.v. stations here rather than the official government feed and within minutes of bill barr finishing that news conference he tweeted out that it was game over to those heaters and radical left democrats who talked about collusion and obstruction for the last twenty two months soundly he was in good form when he arrived winded water years event in the white house saying that he was having a very good day i said in front of my friends it should never happen to another president again this hoax should never happen to another president again thank you and isn't it interesting alan that he's having such a good day and yet we see from the reporting this is not via anyone this is come from the report itself that he told his then attorney general jeff sessions when you heard about robert mills appointment quote this is the end of my presidency.

and that's one of the most telling parts of the four hundred pages certainly one of the most telling parts of the bit that i've been through yet we're expecting perhaps to hear a bit more from donald trump in a couple of hours in fact in about two hours time when he's jude to board the helicopter which will take him to join if force base andrews and then fly him on to florida there's every possibility they will come out and speak to the media which is normally what happens when he is in a good mood also we knew from his attorneys they had been planning a document of rebuttal to the miller report. excuse me the polling here is really very high today catches in your throat my apologies his lawyers had provided produced one hundred fifty page document which over the weekend was whittled down the of course got a sneak preview of what was in the middle of a report and that is now you don't do thirty pages we're told but they haven't even decided whether or not they want to issue that but the trump campaign for the

twenty twenty election has decided that it's going to issue something it's issued a statement and saying that it's great to see donald trump has been cleared with no obstruction and no collusion but says it's time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into president trump so those of you that thought this was great end of that trump miller saga no this is just the start of the end it's just the next phase because not only do we have republicans saying we need to investigate those who started this investigation who leaked the information we have as you heard from rosalynn jordan we have people in the senate and the house saying we need to talk to bill barr we need to talk to robert mueller we need to cut investigations and end the document and let's be clear on this in the documents robert mueller is pretty clear saying look it's really up to congress to decide if they want to take further action here so there is no way you can at this stage rule out. impeachment proceedings but what you can probably rule out is it

getting through the senate while it's still republican controlled and the republicans that are seeing let's move on alan fischer at the white house thank you i guess joining us this hour is melanie sloan a former federal prosecutor and a partner at some of strategies of public affairs from she's in washington. a so much to discuss melanie tell me what you you know your gut feeling is having heard from bill by and then actually seen or all the stuff which is coming out from this now the president says it's a big win but there's still plenty of questions to be answered. there are and it's clearly not the big win that either the president or his attorney general have tried to spin it to be mean it was quite shocking that bar went out there this morning and gave this press conference spinning their report for everybody before any of the reporters had had it or the american public had had a chance to look at it and now once we've seen it and it is more than four hundred pages so people are still.