have to reshuffle has resulted in 3 men successfully been prince in charge of the interior ministry. box the leadership changes don't seem to have calmed protesters the constitutional referendum is the 25th all to cave in 1000 restriction since march has prevented demonstrations things are increasing for further protests we. saw the hideouts and just via. the headlines on al-jazeera donald trump has briefly left the hospital where he's being treated for coronavirus to do a drive by for hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the u.s. president was seen waving to crowds from inside a vehicle outside the walter reed military medical center john hendren has more. well it was perhaps the most brazen campaign stop in political history a candidate and president so ill that he's on an experimental cocktail of drugs and

has taken oxygen twice to supplement his own low oxygen levels climbing with a man into a motorcade and rolling by on both sides of this street here hundreds of fans that are lined up to pay tribute to him it was a classic trump moment but like many of those trump moments it is divided america ruling the crowds out here in the street but alarming medical authorities you have to move incredibly irresponsible earlier doctors treating trauma said they'd given him dexamethasone that's a steroid the world health organization only work recommends for a severe cases they also revealed his oxygen levels dropped briefly on both friday and saturday but say he could be discharged from hospital as early as monday 9 states in the u.s. have reported record numbers of cope with 1000 cases over the past week it's had an increase of nearly 49000 new infections on saturday alone. other news in

azerbaijan and armenia are accusing each other of targeting civilians in their conflict over the disputed region of nagorno-karabakh. through if it cities were attacked this after the karabakh capital stepanek currents came under sustained bombardments which killed at least 10 people for the 9th week tens of thousands of people have marched through the center of the bell the russian capital demanding the resignation of president alexander lukashenko demonstrators called for a political prisoners to be freed police used water cannon to disperse them and then they cordoned off the streets. those are the latest headlines we're following for you on al-jazeera we'll have more news at the top of the hour after inside story.

can you fight a pandemic without rolling back freedom is government surveillance necessary to stop the spread in short is the coronavirus a threat to democracy this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. the coronavirus pandemic is causing a worldwide crisis for democracy that's the conclusion of freedom house the us based research group its annual survey identifies 80 nations where democracy or human rights have been curtailed since the virus emerged at the end of last year

they are highlighted in red grey areas represent countries largely unchanged freedom house says the rights abuses weren't only reported in countries with authoritarian regimes but others rated as being free the freedom house survey focuses on 5 main areas it says have weakened during the pandemic they are checks against abuses of power protection of vulnerable groups government transparency media freedom and credible elections or leaders are accused of failing to be transparent about the impact of the coronavirus prompting public distrust and allowing misinformation to spread. citizens face limits on free speech and government abuses of power are rising says the survey adding that pandemic restrictions disproportionately affect marginalized communities and minority groups the disease has disrupted elections and some governments have used that to their advantage and looking ahead the imposition of new laws may be blamed on the pandemic but they can't be easily reversed so the survey says the crisis in

democracy is likely to continue long after the coronavirus is under control. all right let's bring in our guests in new york amy slip of wits is research manager at freedom house and co-author of the report democracy under lockdown in new delhi kavita krishnan is secretary of the all india progressive women's association and author of fearless freedom and in kiev eve our dollar is senior policy adviser at norwegian helsinki committee welcome to the program amy let me start with you this decline in democracy around the world that is being highlighted in your reporting this is something that started happening long before the code 19 pandemic correct that's right freedom house also produces an annual publication called freedom in the world and it looks at every country and its political rights

and civil liberties so the way it has found is that over the past 14 years global trade ads have been into kind of code that 19 is an exacerbation of this trend give it to report sites specifically the indian government as a government that is scapegoating marginalized groups the report talks about how india's muslims were labeled as super spreaders of covert 19 and subjected to a hate campaign how bad is the situation there. it's been very bad and joe just as any said it is not something that is unique to the covert 19 endemic it's been happening in the since 2014 when to be have had a far cry team discipline this is regime and it was reelected in 2019 headed by not in the movie so this is a regime that yes used 1000 weaponized who had 19 to skip cool to

a muslim minorities and claim that they have a super spread and this was done but the head of a absolutely captive media electronic media television media and so on but i think the beyond that there's also other things that are happening during the end which are also disproportionately affecting muslims but also dissenting voices and to sit activists just before the pandemic hit that was massive historic movement that the bullet noticed in india against it discriminate 3 anti muslim citizenship that sought to make muslims 2nd class citizens in. this movement you know when the ben demick hit naturally the movement had to take it back see to be out in large numbers in the streets and so you had the you have had the government then subsequently cracking down on activists of that movement disproportionately muslims but not only muslims and arresting them and claiming that their their activism was

something that was out to it was a conspiracy to create it and so they are playing being blamed for the anti museum by lim's the daily with the student on attempts with the 2. if are what's the level of concern currently in europe because in hungary prime minister viktor orban passed an act that gave him absolute powers to rule by decree there's also concerns about democratic backsliding in poland as well right. yeah i mean as samy mentioned in the beginning this trend isn't something that started with with the pandemic of course but it's something that has probably made it worse and i think the. europeans who follow the democracy situation and respect for human rights in european countries and in the larger your ration region are concerned that once the pandemic of this is over we'll be at a much worse point than we were when it started so i think that you know when when

when the pandemic is over clearly the world will go back and see what was our preparedness really like in terms of public health and all these things that are very important but i think at that point we also need to stop and say where were we human rights wise when this began and are we now in a place that is much much worse and what if so what we're going to do to put things back the way they were again hopefully better in time i mean one of the more interesting things in the report is it doesn't just talk about countries where authorial authoritarianism is on the rise you also cite some examples of countries like tunisia and georgia and these are countries that are struggling democracies that have been widely commended for taking health care measures during this pandemic without abusing freedoms are you hopeful that we could see more of that going forward. yes there is there is some hope that the country doesn't have to be

an established democracy to be able to tackle the pandemic in a transparent and clear and not just for a minute manner there have been a lot of cases where journalists have really courageously and reporting on government m.p.'s says protests in support of democratic reform have persisted despite a. restrictions so there is room for hope there. last month the press club of india issued a statement expressing concern that the government in india was criminalizing dissent from your vantage point now has this gotten worse during the pandemic it has gotten immensely worse and i also want to say that it has not gotten worse because the government wanted to tackle that and it's much worse than that because one of the basic things that many institutions including the w.h.o.

spoke about was that you should be trying to depopulate your right but aus as a government the movie to shimon india which talked beings to try and arrest people during the bend of an arrest activists during the bend make including one pregnant young woman but also several other young students and older activists as well and put them in jail said this day so they have invested in delhi alone some 20 activists who are leading activists of the un that witch hunt is still on so you know so that i'm absolutely in agreement with this and the other thing i want to say is that they're also testing journalists one instance there is one young journalist of a good journalist. who is known for his reporting on about the lives of india's oppressed costs and he is somebody who has been arrested by the but these men the government of state called the but the and he's been in jail for now a month and col. formal climate all except for

a tweet that was critical of the gov. the other thing i want to quickly highlight is that you may be aware that there's a huge movement building up in india against a fine woman of an oppressed cost in with the provision of peace. there the well you know the british government declared the whole village to be containment in order to prevent opposition leaders from being able to visit the beauty of family and from being a from preventing people from oppressed costume protesting and feminists from protesting but they have allowed dominant cost people to hold large it immediately gatherings against the oppressed however they have also among the people of vested and also media young feminists activists of india who are also in a vested under law under which you can get bail and you can remain in jail endlessly for years on some absolute job. till your trial stocks and the trial may not stock to fight was 7 years late that's

a local of the us. if our health measures taken by governments around the world during this pandemic mean that populations are surveilled in a way they had not been before that there is an increasing amount of surveillance of populations around the world whether these are done by apps that are used to contact trace or whether it's just officials health officials government officials going house to house in different countries checking populations how worrying is it for you that these measures could potentially be abused. well this and the pandemic has led to discussions on this even in establish democracy is like norway where people are concerned about the amount of personal data they're sharing through apps that are intended of course to do good to help curb the spread of the virus. i'm

probably more concerned about the way that this can be used in the regimes. very far east in the in your a should occur in countries like kazakhstan and the chick is down but also in more you know emerging. authoritarian directions you know yet like you mentioned hungary and poland at the outset because i think if you look more the traditional thora tarion regimes. you'll see that they they of course don't really feel like they need a reason. to put the place a ban on freedom of assembly for example but even these countries do have. they do think about the p.r. effect to a certain extent so when they can point to something like the coronavirus and say we are not doing this. a similar story terry and mesure were doing it to protect the population south then that's just all 'd the better for them and the same

tactic i'm sure will be gladly used by countries that are moving in a more authoritarian direction and where democracy is at stake in me let me ask you to expand a little bit on what you've are saying because you know we're looking at the increase of the surveillance state but also on the flip side of that let me ask you about the proper use of that type of data i mean there is general agreement consensus that it's a good thing when governments leverage technology to control the virus through things like contact tracing it enables them to give more effective treatment to the population how are you able to strike the balance between utilizing that data and that technology properly and then its opposite which is a complete surveillance state. it's a difficult balance to strike and there are have also been studies showing that using this type of technology might not necessarily be effective but if it is it's

really important to clearly state where data is going to make sure its firewalled against other uses by different authorities and agencies in the government. so basically making sure the data protection is very strong and can be misused and shoring met the data is deleted after a certain period as well given to this rolling back of symbol civil liberties that we're seeing i mean this is not just happening in dictatorships this is happening in democracies as well in different parts of the world correct. i think that you know the indian example is a case in point where i think the world is still to be reassured that india has this been democracy because it holds elections but i think just as a commentator in the time magazine vista and commented on guest prime minister saying that the test of a democracy is not treat those who looked at far the victor but those who did not

have as a tree those who did not or for the winning party and so i think that in india right now you're having if that is. trying to eliminate all kinds of critical voices it doesn't and that this doesn't just cool for india's opposition oxys political opposition parties it goes for small groups most far left it goes for intellectuals on campuses it goes for students anybody who is seen as a potential you know somebody who can articulate opinion against the government effectively that person including journalists are seen as a threat and also in the vehicle or with 19 the government to stop missing data we just happened in parliament session where the government is saying we don't have data on how many michael workers died because suddenly you know a declared lockdown where michael welcome home we don't have data on how many

doctors nurses sanitation workers died during that and we don't have data on any of these things but we have it and 11 lack the job sheet police jaci against a small bunch of students and intellectuals who work will be eased during a riot that in a not and now they're being blamed for that trite for that docketed violence against mr so this tells you where the government's priorities are i think that we need to look a little more kills you all of us need to. look a little more closely at the good news that. you know democracies and countries we need to look beyond regular elections and so on and not close the window on not could to confuse the speech and sleep through this to freedom to protest is you know being allowed on oct i mean is there anything that particularly surprised you during the researching of this report. i wouldn't say there were that many

surprises i think just tracking what has been happening it was pretty clear that the pandemic has really exacerbated the decline into mock recy one thing that really interested me though was some of these restrictions we found in the media were taking place when journalists were attempting to report on discriminatory enforcement of lockdowns for example or treatment of migrants or asylum seekers under lockdown really trying to stifle forms of accountability in the face of government and he says you are we've seen more and more the issue of covert 19 and the pandemic become politicized in the united states this is a country that's considered a beacon of democracy if the situation is as bad as it is there what does that mean for the rest of the world. absolutely. you know we have the big demonstrations government protests happening now in belarus in the neighboring country of ukraine

where i am at the moment and these partially started because of anger at the way the authorities were handling the covert 1000 situation. so i think. it's hard to imagine it become quite. extreme as political as polarized perhaps as it is and the united states but we see in many countries including in norway there are stark you know differences 'd in how people how the different parties or political 'd groups see how this should be be managed and further east i'm sure there are definitely. differences in opinion on where human rights fit into all of this whether human rights should be set aside in such a situation so whether. whether we must. keep making sure that they are respected even. inst the world has been in over the past year.

you know you've spoken a lot about marginalized communities vulnerable groups let's talk about one of the most vulnerable populations in the world right now refugees how will all this impact them because they've been so stigmatized the past several years by so many governments and now in this reporting from freedom house it states that many countries are stigmatizing the further how dire is the situation for refugees right now. i think it's an extremely dire situation and just using one instance from my maid of the day he can get a few g.'s through our state plus persons in myanmar and who then see refuge in neighboring countries including india india the ruling the sick in the spotty makes an easy scapegoat of them it is used dehumanizing language like dumb mites and so on for really get a few g.'s as well as for people of. muslim you know muslim people who

speak bengali who they claim upon let the she infiltrate you know for if you g.'s they use the word infiltrate. and don't mites and so on so this kind of dumas in language has been going on for a while but now what happens is that it is possible to medicalize this for stigmatization and say that oh you know they are a source of disease they have a source of vitus they have a source of. you know script spreading of a disease and so on and so you know this added layer of stigmatization of g.'s and of denial of care where the government says oh we have only so much help to give and so you can't expect us to care for foreigners you can't expect us to provide care to foreigners and so on so this kind of thing we are seeing this kind of thing happening in many countries and certainly the situation of refugees you know

including in south asia is a great concern they make of it i just mentioned rohingya refugees the ring of course are one of the world's most persecuted minorities now that's one thing when you're talking about refugees in places like bangladesh or india or other countries but your reporting also talks about the adverse effects that the pandemic has had a far as not allowing you know international bodies to try and stop the abuse at the rink are facing in me and more as well correct. that's correct there are a profound that well the international attention here is really turns to you and asking the pandemic a lot of abusive abuses have been able to take place while our stateful players are really looking away so in western iraq march for example. security services are able to really step up their abuse of rohingya and and escape

attention as the world is focused on public health matters for want to ask you to pick up on something that could have been talking about which is. journalists being gone after in different countries do you expect that the situation for journalists is going to worsen around the world right now i think that their situation can quickly become more difficult. because that goes with the more authoritarian country becomes. the quick the people on the frontline are often the journalists and they're the ones who often feel the effects of it before anyone else does. so i'm hoping that once the pandemic is over i think that indexes for example like freedom house are doing where they are particularly looking at the situation for freedom of the media and journalists are very. i don't know just going to be

important because we will be able to go back and see you know to what to what degree has the situation become worse and. before and after the pandemic and the same goes really for another area which is the various. committees in the u.n. who are now suffering under a lack of funding for their reviews they will also be very important in establishing to what extent has the situation for for example journalists gotten worse in the course of the pandemic where you can go back and you can look at the previous reporting period which countries have. had particularly bad pressure against the media against independent media which countries have you know and the higher numbers of the arrests of journalists and others and see whether this actually has gotten worse or not amy let me go to you we only have

a couple of minutes left your report says that what is happening in sri lanka currently is really illustrative of global trends what exactly has been going on there. yeah so again she won't go there rajapaksa has have really been able to intensify there aren't carry an agenda over the past few months they've been doing things like controlling independent reporting on state feeling and fever of all speech but what really illustrates this is the calling of early elections which were actually had to be postponed and jericho then one team so this left the national legislator out of session beyond the constitutional deadline allowing the executive to kind of rule with out this over say and much fewer checks on the power . and then at the same time as we mentioned muslims have been suffering from very intense scapegoating within the kind they've been labeled as super spatters that

the media has singled out cases where muslims contracted the virus so that they're really a bunch of aspects and she locked at that kind of illustrates some of those issues that we highlight including abuse of power. restrictions against marginalized communities stifling of the press and elections that have been held with some kind of undermining of their credibility all right we've run out of time so we're going to have to leave it there thanks so much to all our guests aimee's the poets can read to krishnan and eve our dolly 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 mohammed abdul and the whole team by going to.

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a. diverse range of stories from across the globe from the perspective of our networks journalists on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera i'm doubting you now brigade there with a check on your world headlines donald trump has briefly left the hospital where he's being treated for corona virus so there were a drive by for hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the u.s. president was seen waving to crowds from a motorcade that did a lap of the street directly outside the walter reed medical center minutes prior to his trip outside he posted a new video on twitter saying he now understands code 19 having experienced it firsthand we get a great reports from the doctors this is an incredible hospital well to read the work they do is.