were on the rate all the intelligence services, some were even under surveillance, but nobody imagined that they would carry out the sort of violence that they did. now new team of astronauts is on its way to the international space station, 210 ignition i left off or who members are on board the space ex rocket 3 from nasa, one from the european space agency. the journey is expected to take 22 hours. they'll spend 6 months working on board the orbit in the book. ah, don't real quick check on the top stories here. china and the u. s. a promised to work together more closely to combat climate change in spite of the differences. both pledge to speed up emissions reductions to meet the goals of the parents agreement, katrina, you as more. this is really important for beijing because it's helping to

demonstrate that it, it, it is serious about tackling climate change and that's after i guess, weeks of skepticism and disappointment. firstly, present. and she didn't ping is not attending cop 26. he did not even give a video speech, he just submitted a written statement and also before cop 26, china did not submit any new targets or deliverables. so it basically just elaborated on it's already given goals of achieving a common peking by 2030 years. president joe biden says his infrastructure plan is the fixed of the country. soaring inflation. new data is revealed prices of risen by 6.2 percent in the past. year is the biggest spike in 30 years. villaru says the eas, broking, a refugee and migrant standoff as an excuse to impose new sanctions. it's the latest and an escalating back and forth. the u, as accused president alexander lucas shanker, abusing people as a form of hybrid warfare, about 2000 are stuck in freezing conditions on the border with poland. more than 70

drivers working for the world food program have been detained by the ethiopian authorities, un, and humanitarian sources say they were arrested during government raids, targeting ethnic to grimes. well, the government has denied this in an interview with al jazeera a day earlier 16 you and workers were detained in the capital. a u. s. judge is approved a $626000000.00, settlement for those harmed by the lead water crisis in flint. michigan, the suit was brought forward by tens of thousands of residents. most of the money will be coming from a state which was, which was accused of overlooking issues leading to the water crisis. flint water supply was switched in 2014 to save money, but toxic levels of lead caused several deaths and severe health problems. those were the headlines. the news continues on our 0 after context, india statement. and so much of that in the vietnam war, the u. s. army used to heidi, talk to the curb side with catastrophic consequences. agent orange was the most

destructive instances chemical warfare. a decade later, the same happened in the us state of oregon. these helicopters flying over the ribs, bringing something, and they didn't even see the case. to women are still fighting for justice against some of the most powerful forces in the world. the people versus agent orange. one out there on hello and welcome to context india. i'm fetus. those are coming to you from the city of mom by on context india. our aim is to give you an in depth look into the world's most populous democracy. from the inside. we're taking a closer look at what has perhaps been the biggest crisis india has faced since independence the call with pandemic. in this, our 3rd episode been examining the role of the indian media. how effective were they introducing journalism in public interest? counting dis information and holding those in power to account. i will be speaking with to journalist who's outlet occupied very different spaces in the media

landscape. deductible, garage and founding editor of the online news publication go via and our jogan. nothing editorial director for our gym or monte magazine and website. at the close of this week's episode, we will be featuring an except for a piece of music created through the coven months. this week our artist is been goalies. singer songwriter on mercury ah . when cove it hits india 1st in 2020, and then much worse, and the 2nd wave of 2021. it tested all of the country's institutions, exposing deep flaws in some sectors. few more flawed than the countries bossed media's feel. and under use will come are saw loop, you will summit on they put this a good phone. we don't do when you got on barn magazine i added

i india has more than 400 news channels that broadcast in about 20 different languages. there are thousands of newspapers in news websites and then of course, that are the social media platforms as well. this is one of the most active and heavily populated media markets in the world. and in the past decade, it has grown more polarized and politicized than ever before. just how well equipped and willing are these numerous views outlets, especially the most prominent ones, to deal with the challenges of reporting uncovered in india. one thing that we definitely needed news reporting to focus on was demanding accountability from the government. we should have add more journalists question, our preparedness, we should have had the media really examined the state of health infrastructure on what we've been door by. governments was the reality on the ground. but if you look at the daily base national television, news tenants, and the reason we're focusing on them is because they really do said the agenda.

and we have a mass following majority of these channels with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 channels. war primarily acting as cheerleaders of the government. political bottom of this job, the mancha shorter here may be a more the me polish it up line, but idea. those are the jobs for couple on bug her biscuit parcels. her biscuit bellanca belong to the 1st year of the pandemic. some of the t v. news coverage really exemplified the problems with india's mainstream media sensationalism. a lack of critical perspective. and especially in one case that of the international muslim movement called the blackie jamal. a tendency to 0 in on a group and stigmatize them in march 2020. in the early days of the pandemic and well before the government announced the 1st nationwide locked down, members of the blockage ahmad gathered in the thousands for a conference at the groups headquarters in new delhi. social distance in guidelines were not followed by the groups members. but they were not alone in that,

across india, people was slow to follow mandates on distancing and masking the media pile on on this, a bleaching. jamal was one of the ugliest moment in the coverage of the pandemic. i'll be a good topic for july. i get the leakage a big part of may or not it madi bun. gotta do the hysteria over that leakage. ahmad was one instance of misinformation being amplified during the pandemic. it was not the only one message a mission has been a significant problem. i mean, everyone was trying to come to grips with walk over it was and didn't understand it . the other thing i would say, which became a problem is definitely the point at which we started believing that the widest was gone. so there was no scientific evidence for that statement, and many of us started believing it, so it actually became misinformation. and that's what led to in some is the 2nd way of coming back to a very, very possibly, when the 2nd leave of school would hate us in 2021. it became too difficult even

for a news august to ignore the situation. we don't know many news men and women are very prominent, true government leanne good. in fact, go ahead sir donna, from the beach and that also says life with a month us about a yeah. if you thought about it got a little fun, stay up the hill. but even in this situation, when the lapis policy on completion was so evident, there seemed to be a tactic of shifting the blame from prime minister more d and the central government of the region, governments, all state governments. this is mark, media is shifting the blame for all being all on the brand itself. is the state media is doing business. we should do that. we are not. this is the state government should go best and government just bring that it was a failure. that media is reporting the media is the last year

when you look at newspapers, i'd say many national newspapers did a fairly decent job of record keeping. but among these newspapers only have a few newspapers really rank big, with prominent families, headlines, or aggressive demands for accountability. one exception to this was in the newspaper. then in pasco, the reporting had been fairly blank for the lack of a better word in the 1st faith. but there seemed to have been a clear editorial shift in the 2nd wave. for instance, they were sending reporters took them atoria to count the number of funeral buyers . this was to compare the official numbers that were being put out by governments versus what was actually happening on the ground. those images of crematorium full to capacity and working round the clock didn't just make the front pages of indian newspapers. they were all over the international news coverage to those days. poster territorial was one look and then we get

a sion which was made by some of the lobby that because of the government structure of the government, backed he says, see what is happening. the order did was in been on the outside. so what was or is law, they do it by the peak of the 2nd wave in may 2021 . the silence from new delhi had become deafening since he came into office in 2014, the prime minister and the reins from audi has not given any press conferences in which he has taken questions from. the media is one or one in 2 already made up. i'm going to be out of my will. monday, take a make up basketball. however, as a 2nd wave rampaged through the country with kiss numbers and death to sorting. the prime minister finally appeared on television known local

i'm going to be numbers a 100 i don't get but he did not give me some fun. i forgot about mr. pandemic panic. not only what people are desperately trying to solve, oxygen and space and hospitals, they would also scrambling for medication. now, more than ever, medical misinformation was a significant issue. one of the most notable examples involved a man named bob around the but i'm the visa, essentially practitioner of yoga, who's done an entrepreneur. success will entrepreneur that and also has the power of television. and that has not just multiplied his audience across the country, but also created a connect with his brandon creating annually. and with the brand,

i think the problem specifically was that but under the launch something called coronel, which was clearly not a cure part. cobra 1900, but it was position as a cure for over 19 the matter also got a little aggravated because it seemed to have got the blessings of the ministry. there was a long ceremony and the minister was standing right there. but everyone backtracked quite furiously after that because it was a public outcry when bob around they read it further into controversy. calling modern medicine, a stupid science doctor hush for the oil. the health minister at the time. the c minister who was present at the launch, dakota and hubble tablet, had to publicly demand an apology from, from the indian health care was funny in the government coverage was not just a huge public health crisis. it was a public relations practice as well. this made reporting on failures of governance, or even just calling them out, particularly fucked to the panoramic reporters. and this case is filed against the

predominant gene b, govern states for legitimate news reporting. as the 2nd wave was approaching its p, at the end of april 2021, indian government ordered facebook instagram and twitter dig down post particular movie. these included tweets was a parliament. there was a campaign by the prime minister's media team in may 2021. the backfired somewhat. indians were urged to ship positive stories for the prime minister to narrate joining his monkey, read your monolog monkey bought or in our thoughts, the online outreach lead to the tweet being deleted in a country with such a vocal media. how was it that through the pandemic, so many news outlets seemingly point just to be that the, the distracted this informed or delayed meaningful, impactful discussion. i'm speaking with to senior journalists are just not the net oral director of roger magazine and website that says it represents liberal right

to send to discourse and india. we also have some of the raj and founding editor of the via an online publication with a reputation for adversarial and challenging journalism. everyone, thank you so much for joining us on context india. my 1st question is to the both of you, how do you think the indian media, especially prominent, doubtless fit during the pandemic? mr. jonathan, you 1st. if you did media as a collect, you say they do the job well, especially in the question. well, i will try to give out no medical opinion and wanting people what not to do that kind of stuff in the 2nd there, i think because of the for also the of the be i think a living room for boss, largely because nobody expected him to be so bad, but i think that happened put a shot there that journalists were professional and amateur, and impromptu julius. but i would say the dig into the collective, i think it was reasonably resolved, but there are a lot of people who went bonkers. the lot of damage that also is that,

but he thought you could make this about roger. the same question to you. i think in phase one, it's highly aggressive. a letter major section of the media played an active role in shall i say, communal lising, the pandemic trying to paint the spread of pro virus in the initial phases in religious colors. and then also, of course, in the wider of ecosystem fueled by, by right wing political groups where there was a very clear and conscious attempt made to present muslims as the prime areas of the novel currently. whereas i think this was highly unforced, clipped, regrettable, even criminal. and to my mind the stands out as one of the signal failures of the new media in phase one. i think another failure, i would say is a, was the,

you know, there was a section that was reporting quite diligently. the impact of the unannounced and unplanned government locked down and the huge hardship this caused on literally millions and millions of workers. and that there wasn't enough and you know, sustained coverage of that exodus across all sections of media. there was also an attempt by the, by the section of the media to deflect attention away from the government's very obvious feelings in planning for and preparing for, for the doctor. there was a lot of, you know, a lot of dog listing and blatant targeting of slims. and this was also then reflected under section of the, in the press. and finally, the use of social media. bye bye. should we say motivated political activists then ensured that this message was carried across the country so that

the, you know, toxic messaging was delivered all the way to everybody. smartphone i think was the when the 2nd with the lead was definitely established by a handful of television channels. mr. chuck, another one review off these channels, could be that they did. in fact, target communities. they did in fact spec misinformation and they failed to on many occasions, fact check the government's more optimistic claims of how the problem was being handled. how would you rate that performance then? i think the point is if you do a short in the dark, so in fact i, if you really want to place in this one's going to be out there, the bottom it be certainly another important, it's in the 2nd room because there's happened boone and boom. quickly, but these guys are getting wild numbers like and me and debts and i 1000000 deaths without any bases. just extract alerting from blaine numbers the responsibility of the western media. i would say it's a gig, let us indian media into more that somewhere that is all this i'm, i'm on the buyers and was reporting who daniel discount, what is it?

so the damage was more done by the international media, which actually, well was fair and the 2nd realistic and a very negative view with no concession or what are being offered to the fact that the government may have been trying to do it fairly these noon. i mean, you're talking about immunization, human talking will been been talk about all kinds of things in india, which are the worst come in, the litigation. we will knock if people are talking about the room all the time as well. that was a little bit better. so i think a minimization has been happening right through on both sides. it's not a one sided miss of a 1000. do you want to respond to her? but the fact is that of the community reporting all's the couple of others in phase one was not the product or of popular prejudice or some misgivings among, into these tv channels. we're getting the queue from, from the health industry, you know, so you have the irony of the w h o issuing guidelines. thing that in reporting

about the pandemic, we should not focus on the, you know, religious or other forms of identity of admissions. and you had the unity health ministry every day in the press conference or adding, you know, giving a new percentage for the total number of cases that could be attributed to the, to the public. and so was it had, i think there were several, yes, publications. in india and overseas that ran pictures of the crematorium that were overflowing, you wrote, and i court speaking the truth to power does not mean speaking, insensitivity, or showing visuals that can traumatize and court. but there were several others who felt that the depth of the problem and the crisis needed strong wording and emotive photographs. where do you think the media should draw that line? see, i think if you see militia commission is an emotional spinal barrel, you're deal once and the hindu commission is quite different from the christian

venue. you have brace, janice, certainty and it to the father. a lot of people had to you of that because people that of forward and the last place you are showing what is bunny and hundreds of them and you want to show how india was mismanaging it. and you're actually not thinking about the people was so near ones will be ok. so this is what is wrong about the why is it the system of the world? ok offer. does that all around again, what are the charter play limit already overwhelmed? and that's why many of them have to be committed to the open. so this was the issue . and instead of saying this is the problem, you sort of shore as those on the nation is. i don't think anybody in the us. sure . 911, our coming down every now and then just from what i do, what we did. and unfortunately the media did the same thing because most of the other was an indian. i must, you know, respectfully, respectfully disagree with

a lot of thing. i think that it was important for the scale of the tragedy to be conveyed. and i'm saying that the person who himself had the misfortune of going to come at him to conduct the last rates of my father in law and my last 20 friends in the pandemic. and i think that i did not find any of the visuals that look at it in the media of you know, bodies being committed and make sure manner you know, disrespectful to the dead. yes, they were deeply embarrassing for the government. and so what visual and reports of in a body is being disposed of along the ganges, the government didn't like this. and there was then a concerted campaign to bent this portrayal. aud depiction of the

scale of the tragedy that gas something that is suppose a, b, and b, and then add to him, bu, ah, that's not the case at all. and i think it's highly unfair to call journalists who often put them so that risk by going out there and covering these scenes of, of loss of, of commissions to call them budget. i think that's very, very unfair. the fact is that what you've had is a detailed analysis of that goes by that edition than others. and nothing is gained by, by under playing statistics. and we know that this happen on a systematic basis. so if the government was not so keen to hide all with lots of inept and gathering data, you wouldn't have this mismatch, but there is a mismatch. and i think it's important for the media, whether the media be in india or abroad to try to put their finger on what the

scale of the tragedy might really and why do want to ask both of you this question as well. india rank city, 142 out of 180 countries in the world press freedom index. i've seen as your list, your says, do you see a deterioration in the manner in which government deals with john yesterday? mr. joseph, can you for us? well, i don't think so, i did the same noise in many anytime independence from nero down would be not one of them has actually had picks in. and i think while it is in india, how, when, if only on an inability criticisms especially a dire and one of them, they're unable to handle. so this is, this is the kind of politicians we haven't even get. so it's not unique to this government. so i do agree that it's always been this bad, he's always been back, but i think that we have we are currently with the single qualitative escalation in

official attacks on, on press freedom. and the reason i say that is because the traditional form in which bothered and made that displeasure known, ah, was the filing of criminal or civil defamation case. so when i was edited the hindu jello who was she for us to find nothing to criminal defamation case? against me in response to new stories. now of you know that in the newspapers and media media from the quite used to handling defamation case because there's been 6 of the youth of defamation as a tool of how to spend. what's been happening in the last 2 periods is the invoking of criminal charges on the section $153.00, which is promoting community hatred, or 5 or 5 spreading rumors with a view to triggering an infection again, against the government. you have these charges being leveled against reporters against editors, against media platforms for new stories. this represents

a new and dangerous done. and i should say that our colleagues and me are particularly bad you targeted because you have several reporters against whom f i r will filed under the address to the law for news reports, and journalists are regularly coming to the police station to render the council stories that they have to go of the state. so yes, there is. that is the, you know, there is an added problem of which goes beyond the traditional, quickly, quickly nestle politicians that we've seen over the past 6 seconds. but my last question to the 2 of you is this media watch dogs and writes organization called the indian media increasingly polarized and partisan post pandemic, massive elections coming up. how can the indian media better fulfill its very important democratic rule? now going forward, this is i think the viewers in leaders get the media they deserve. and the

vision is not unique to india. if you see the us there, you see similar polarized ation. the right is not willing to listen to the left, left is not willing to the technology can be platform but isn't it. so the bottom of that, let me tell you that if you want the truth, you might look at public issues. we probably disagree with one another and read them on the same issue. then you will come closer to some other other i think the media is polarized and the latest that anybody can do about it. but i think what the least that we should demand of each other i think is that we stand strongly by meet the, the right to breastfeed them in this country. and wherever the writers affect no matter who the target is, no matter who's doing the targeting. i think john list and media platforms have

a responsibility under duty to speak up. there's too much of selectivity. if, if a, if a government goes after the job list that you don't like and be preferred to keep quiet . i think this is wrong and i just wish that the media as a whole was set aside that are there on, you know, different perspectives and say, look, we need to see if barbie just need to. because if that goes, then we have nothing left to protect us gentlemen, thank you so much for speaking with us here on context india. and finally on the shore, we want to share our space with indian voices outside of government, academics, and mainstream media. there are a multitude of artists in india who've been creating work through the pandemic. we wanted to feature some of the varied languages, the working, and the perspectives they bring. this week we're closing to the next up to the song in bengali, titled, i mean up to me, which translates to me or hugh songwriter i'm or to re roche performed and found this all during the 1st lockdown in india in 2020. i hope you enjoy the music.

thank you for watching context india here on. i'll just see that english a . ah, a ah

. shawna is pursuing prosperity and influence on the globe and stage one at one aisd investigates what be bathe, but one of its closest neighbors. taiwan on al jazeera, the stage ascent, and it's time for a different approach. one that is going to challenge the way you thing from international politics to the global pandemic, and everything in between. upfront with me, mark lamond hill on out 0 al jazeera world, here's into the murky world of state sponsored spyware. and the discovery by al jazeera journalists, that 0 pick technology attacks that smartphones. every francisco can be, is this the new frontier espionage think about the sophistication of exports to breaking perfumes? this is as good as it gets this high and you're on al jazeera.

ah, hello, i'm darn jordan and go how the top stories here and al jazeera china and the u. s. official. a joint declaration that the cop 26 summit in glasgow. promising to work together more closely to bring about reelection on climate change. both pledge to speed up emissions reductions to meet the goals of the paris agreement. us climate and by john carries as corporation is key to getting the job done. katrina, you as more this is really important for beijing because it's helping to demonstrate that it, it, it is serious about tackling climate change and that's after i guess weeks of skepticism and disappointment. first.