inches, impoverishment, is widespread. i saw scenes in lebanon that i had not imagined i would ever see in the middle income country. the you and envoy didn't describe lebanon as a failed state, at least not yet. he did say it is headed in that direction with a government failing its population. that doesn't believe it will work. and the public's interest. santa hunter, l shahida, beirut, american pop star britney spears has been released from her father's control. often nearly 14 years. fans waiting outside the court cheered and cried. as the court's decision was confirmed, the singer has spent the past 5 months fighting the conservatorship which prevented her making any personal decisions. ah, this is al jazeera, these, your top stories, former donald trump aid steve bannon has been formerly charged with 2 criminal acts

for disobeying a congressional order. it was subpoenaed and refused to testify in front of the committee investigating the attack on the u. s. capital on january 6th, kristen salumi reports steve ban in the long time advisor to the former president was subpoenaed and asked to appear by the committee that is investigating the january 6 capital breach. they say that they had reason to believe that he had information regarding little events that took place that day. they point 2 statements. he made the day before the january 6 attack on the capital in a podcast in which he said that extreme events were going to happen and quote, all hell is going to break loose on the following day. here in climate summit and glasgow has gone into overtime, delegates trying to reach an agreement on a revised draft plan aimed at protecting the planets. the u. s. equity of states

has announced cattle will represent the diplomatic interests of the united states enough chemist on cath, i will assume the role of protecting power to facilitate formal communication between washington. uncouple the u. s. doesn't recognize the taliban government in afghanistan. the european commission says it won't be intimidated by threats from batteries to cost of russian gas in a growing argument of migrants. acids and people remain stuck in the countries border with poland. but european officials have been involved in efforts to stop the flow these of a pos locked down. another ones has hawks a protest in the capitol demonstrate his class with police who fired war to canon into the crowd. k, there's a headlines. nice continues here on out there, off to context, india stay with us. from the al jazeera london broke our sentence to people in thoughtful conversation. we were fresh

a ratio of blackberry people and we had to really find our way with no hope and no limitation. the world is a much smaller place. we do better to get away with these regional boundaries. film direct think you're in to tell me thing a songwriter in if they were ready for the biggest weapon they have if making are invisible, you hear b unscripted coming soon on out to sarah. hello and welcome to context india. i'm fear the source are coming to you from the city of mom, but i'm 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 co would pandemic in this our 3rd episode when examining the role of the indian media. how effective were they introducing journalism in public interest? counting disinformation and holding those in power to account. i will be speaking with to journalist who's outlets occupy very different spaces in indian media

landscape. deductible, garage and founding editor of the online news publication go via an ar jogan. nothing editorial director for our gym in monte magazine and website. at the close of this week's episode, we will be featuring an x up to a piece of music created through the coven months. this week our artist is been goalies. singer songwriter, a 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 countries institutions, exposing deep flaws in some sectors. few more flawed than the countries vast media feel. i. 2 if you still are softer, google some it on, they put this look good on it on there. 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, 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 is growing more polarized and politicized than ever before. just how well equipped and willing are these numerous use 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 were being door by. governments was the reality on the ground. but if you look at the deli based national television news channels, and the reason we're focusing on them is because they really do set the agenda. and

we have a mass following a majority of these channels with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 channels. war primarily acting as cheerleaders of the government. political, i want to vis job on the mancha shorter here will be a movie, me, polished up long, but idea. those are jobs for a couple on bugger, biscuit parcels, obisky political plan. through the 1st year of the pandemic, some of the tv 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 bleak 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 nation wide locked on members of the, the leakage, 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 pylon on the bleaching. jamal was one of the ugliest moment in the coverage of the pandemic. i'll be able to go to top it. i get the leakage, i'm not a big part of it or not my body one got to do, but i the hysteria over that the leakage amount was one instance of misinformation being amplified during the pandemic. it was not the only one. this information has been a significant problem. i mean, everyone was trying to come to grips with what over 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 ways, the 2nd way of coming back to it in a very, very possibly, when the 2nd leave of school would hit 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 a prominent rule government leanne good. in fact, go ahead sir donna, from the beach and that also says life will be for the media. if some of us about a good get thought about it, got a little fun, stay up the hill. but even in this situation, when the lack of policy and preparation was so evident, there seemed to be a tactic of shifting the blame from prime minister more di and the central government of the region, governments, all state governments. this is mark media. it's shifting the blame for all being all are the brand itself is stored, the state is media is saying, does an issue with that you agree or not? this is that a state government should go best and government. yes. you read that it was a failure that leah is reporting you. media is the last year.

when you look at newspapers ad, see many national newspapers did a fairly decent job of record keeping. but among these newspapers, only very few newspapers really went big with prominent families, headlines at aggressive demands for accountability. one exception to this was in the newspaper. then in pasco, their reporting had been fairly blank for the lack of a better word in the 1st week. but there seemed to have been a clear and it wouldn't shift in the 2nd read. for instance, they were sending reporters to crematory. i had 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 cremmit williams full to capacity and working round the clock, didn't just make the front beaches of indian newspapers. they were all over the international news coverage to those days. most of your young was one look and the read yes. a sion which was made by some of the lobbies

that because of the government, the structure of the government practices see what is happening. the order did was in been on the outside. so what was ordered is normally 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 noreen from audi has not given any press conferences in which he has taken questions from. the media. is one on one interview. already made up. so much base was out of mel amanda to take a basket. however, as a 2nd wave rampaged through the country with kiss numbers and debts to sorting, the prime minister finally appeared on television. melons local.

i'm going to be number 100. i don't get but he's not going to be sound phone. i forgot about mr. pandemic panic. not only will people who 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, bob. but i'm davies, essentially a practitioner of yoga. who's done an entrepreneur. success will entrepreneur that and also has utilized the power of television. and that had not just multiply 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 that the c minister who was present at the launch, dakota and hovel tablets, had to publicly demand and apologies from, from the indian health care was funding the government coverage was not just a huge public health crisis. it was a public relations prices as well. this made reporting on failures of governance, or even just calling them out, particularly fucked, to the pandemic reporters and had cases 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 take 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 share positive stories for the prime minister today joining his monthly read your monolog monkey bought in a thought the online outreach lead to the tweet being deleted in a country with such a vocal media. how was it that to the panoramic so many news outlets seemingly point just to be that either distracted this informed or delayed meaningful, impactful discussion? i'm speaking with do senior journalists are other nothing editorial director of what roger magazine and website that says it represents liberal right to send to

discourse and india. we also have that for 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 outlets fit during the pandemic? mr. jonathan, you 1st. if you did media as a collect you, i would say they do the job well, it, especially in the question, well ah, do you do it right 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 porosity of the view, i think they went for boss, largely because nobody expected him to be so bad. but i think that happened push on there that journalists who are professional and amateur and impromptu job. but i would say you take it as a collective, i think it was done reasonably with job, but there are a lot of people who went bonkers the lot of damage that also is that,

but he got with you could take 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 to. we're 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 the slims. and this was also that reflected under section of the, in the press. and finally, the use of social media, bye bye. have you said motivated political activists then and showed 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. this is just 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 shoe in the dark, so in fact i, if you really want to place this one's going to be out there, the bottom it is, the certainly another important it's in the 2nd real because there's happened both soon. and but quickly, but these guys are getting wild numbers like and me and debts and i 1000000 deaths without any bases is extracted learning from blaine numbers, the responsibility of the western media. i would say it's a gate that us indian media into more that somewhere that is all this amount of

bias and this reporting, dental discount, what is it? so the damage was more done by the international media, which actually, well question and a 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 on the worst come in the litigation. we will talk you, people are talking about the room all the time as well. that was a little bit better. so i think a minimization isn't 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. and phase one was not to product or of popular prejudice or some misgivings among in these channels were getting the cue from, from the health ministry. 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 be, to the public. and so, as it had, i think there were several years 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 peril your deal once and

the hindu commission is quite different from the question that you have braced jenny 17 and a good deal for bother. a lot of people had to you of that because people that a forward and they do the last race you are showing what is money and one hundreds of them and you want to show how india was mismanaging it. and you're actually not thinking about the people was and the other ones will be ok. so this is what is wrong about it, but why does it the system of the world ok offer? does that all around box again? what are the charter play? limit audio or orwell. and that's why many of them have to be committed in 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 the show, and i live in our coming down every now and then just for comedies, people do what we did. and unfortunately, the media did the same thing because most of the other was an indian, i must,

you know, respect and 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 accommodate him to conduct the last rites 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 hannah, you know, disrespectful to the dead. yes, they were deeply embarrassing for the government. and so my visuals and reports of in bodies 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, the gas, something that is supposed to be and be indian, anti hindu. 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 debt that goes by his deposition another and nothing is gained by by under playing statistics. and we know that this happened on a systematic basis. so if the government was not so keen to hide, all was also 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 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 ranks to the 142 out of 180 countries in the world press freedom index as seen as your list. your says, do you see a deterioration in the manner in which government deals with you, mr. the? mr. jonathan, you for us? well, i don't think so, i did the same noise in many anytime this independence from nero down would be not one of them has actually fixed in and i think while it is in india, how, when, if only on an inability criticism, especially and one of them they're unable to do so this is, this is the kind of calling because we haven't even yet. so it's not unique to this government. so other action, do you agree that it's always been this bad things along the 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 politicians made that displeasure known, ah, was the filing of criminal or civil defamation case. so when i was talking to jennifer, 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 decades of the use of defamation as a tool of how to spend. what's been happening in the last 2 periods. is the invoking of criminal charges under section $153.00, which is promoting communal 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 account. the story 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 nessa potter to show that we feed 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 going to i think the viewers in leaders get the media they deserve. and the

relation is not unique to india. if you see the us there, you see a similar pull that information. 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 must 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 right and the latest so 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 this right is a fact, 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 them be preferred to keep quiet. i think this is wrong and i just wish that the media as a whole would 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 work in 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, mercury, roach. performed and filmed this all during the 1st lockdown in india in 2020. i

hope you enjoyed the music. thank you for watching context india hill on i'll just see that english a ah a ah

ah and frank assessments is likely to change biking behavioral. it's not going to change their behavior. they are going to continue to do what they do and in depth analysis of the days global headlights. inside story on out jazeera compelling, we keeping our distance because it's actually quite dangerous. ambulances continued to arrive at the scene of the explosion in spite, i still don't feel like i actually know enough about what living under fascism was life, unequal to broadcasting. something else happened on august night. he was born

a happy al jazeera english proud recipient of the new york festivals broadcaster of the year award for the 5th year running. ah steve balance charged with contempt of congress. the former chief strategist to president donald trump is refusing to testify as part of the investigation into the storming of the u. s. capital. ah, and oh i money fight. this is out there a life. and i've also coming up into overtime, late night talks continue for this. he has called 26 con at summit as countries trying to reach.