tv Inside Story Al Jazeera March 16, 2022 8:30pm-9:01pm AST
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and what often look like just that i was from a boat, where in fact, entrances to the underground city. even if it were, there's found the way inside they had to survive surprise attacks in this curve in quarters or traps set in pits all did. what do i to stop into this from region, these chambers where civilians will take refuge? the underground city of new shabba tells a story of resistance and a will to survive. thousands of tourists every year comes here to understand and experience. it said that i was 0, no shabba. ah, hello again, i'm fully back to go with the headlines on al jazeera us raising joe biden has announced an additional $800000000.00 in military and monetary and aid for ukraine . that he stopped short of agreeing to a no fly zone, which ukrainian leader again requested during
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a virtual address to us to the u. s. congress. earlier for me as lend key also asks for more sanctions against russian official friends, americans in your great history, you have pages that allow you to understand ukrainians. now we need you right now. remember, pearl harbor that terrible morning of december 7th. 1941. when your skies turned black from plains attacking you, just remember it. remember september, the 11th that terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities into battlefields, innocent people were attacked from the air, no unexpected, and you could not stop at our country is experiencing the same every day, every night for 3 weeks now ukraine has accused russia or firing rockets at a convoy trying to escape the city of merrier pole. it says at least 5 people were wounded in the attack, including a child authority say around $20000.00 people have left the besieged city through a humanitarian corridor. the world's top court has ordered russia to seize its military action in ukraine immediately and its ruling the trash. a court of justice
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warned both sides not to aggravate the dispute. turkeys president, russia typo on end of poland, leader have called for intensive diplomatic efforts to end russia's invasion of ukraine. the 2 leaders met in ankara in avenues or magnitude 7.3. earthquake has struck off the coast of northern japan. but this nami advisory for the me agi and fukushima regions is a low risk. 12000000 homes are without power. the quake shook large quantities to japan, including tokyo. there are no immediate reports of casualties. and to british, iranians are on their way back to the u. k. from iran, after years in detention, one of them is nazarenes gary radcliff, who took this photo on the flight home. she was convicted in 2016 of frauding to overthrow iran's government. but as always denied fianna cations, and those are the headlines on al jazeera. i'll be back with the al jazeera and use our right after inside story to stay with us. or china in the u. s. sleep walking
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their way to war. in the struggle over ukraine, here's the test for president joe biden whitman is really trying to do is rewrite the security architecture in europe. it's your personal united states. you seriously go to walk and chew gum at the same time. you'll weekly take on us politics and society. that's the bottom line. how is the media viewing russia's war in ukraine? competing narrative is fight for coverage, imprint on air and online. so are we getting an accurate picture of what's happening in the conflict? this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm hammer, jim, jim. it's often said that the 1st casualty of war is the truth. and the media is
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the battle ground for competing narratives on russia's invasion of ukraine. images of destruction and civilian suffering, dominate headlines worldwide. but both sides accuse each other of disinformation. take, for example, the russian air strike that destroyed a maternity hospital in mary up hall last week. at least 3 people died in what western leaders called a war crime. but russia accused ukraine of staging the attack in a now deleted tweet. the russian embassy in london accused this woman of being a so called crisis actor who was paid to play a victim. the ukrainian and russian presidents project different images of themselves below them, as a lensky gives daily updates on social media. dressed in green army t shirts that's helped to boost his popularity among ukrainians to nearly 90 percent. in contrast, rushes vladimir putin is mostly seen in official videos sitting far away from government advisors. an editor on russian state t. v was fined for interrupting
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a news broadcast with her anti war message, but russian media mostly repeat the kremlin message of what it calls a special military operation. journalists who call it a war or invasion face 15 years in prison. independent outlets have been shut down . facebook and instagram are blocked. 58 percent of russians support the invasion, according to a survey last week. ah. all right, let's bring in our guests in western ukraine, olga to cut a yoke, a ukrainian journalist, and a non resident fellow at the center for european policy analysis in london. nikolai petrov, a senior research fellow at the russia and eurasia program at the chatham house, thinktank and in berlin. marcus xena, a professor of journalism at the university of applied sciences. a warm welcome to you all. and thanks so much for joining us today on inside story, olga. let me start with you today from your vantage point in western ukraine. do you believe that most of the world is now getting an accurate picture of what's
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happening in the conflict? well, you know, it's very difficult to generalize, right. we cannot speak about the whole world. there are specific differences in every region. well, as a journalist, i'm speaking to many media from different countries, just today i had interviews with, you know, media from south korea to india, australia you grow and united arab emirates. and i can also see the difference in the kinds of questions that i'm getting. and you know, the concerns that are different in different country than the essence that sometimes put differently as a journalist. they can say that, you know, my colleagues are doing an amazing job hearing you praying time trying to report and what has happened in from ukraine in extremely difficult circumstances for journalists have been killed so far and your brain. i happened to know 2 of them personally, you know, breaks my heart that my colleagues have to go through such enormous risk because
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russians are targeting civilians are deliberately target in journalists would discuss to spend the day and with the goal apparently to revive the world from knowing what is happening here, it's an immediate media and journalist from, you know, reporting from the ground in ukraine. so i want to command the car just colleagues who despite everything continue reporting from ukraine, from the health. well, such as cave argued mario, paul, and you know, i just want to really strike how important this information is. and i'm buying reporting is especially in the euro off full, many face and is information coming from the russian side. mikayla. i want to turn the viewers attention specifically to russia right now. and i want to ask you about russians watching or reading or listening to the news within russia. what are they hearing? how different is what they are hearing or seeing, or reading from what most of the rest of the world is reading or seeing or hearing about the conflict in ukraine. i would say that russians i getting their ears
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sanstrom's and limited picture and the images from grain shown by seeds. busy own channels and so as it becomes no, almost full independent media, him chandler and even a social land hooks are close in some cases. but the problem i see is not so much connected with the fact that there is a layer of information was this brand is was neighbor boundary. there all the personal connections, which would somehow been said on the my see is financing with. there is advancing a logical but real. busy government lives as. busy to bullied muslim world wide, so the limited military operation by the vision. majority of rosters do
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he of in their minds is there on me, is liberating brothers companions to sponsor government. and psychologically, it's much more comfortable to keep this vision than to say, and that is your speed, your government meeting, what crime sounds used to do something by yourself. luke, he has a lot of jesus when relatives are given calls from ukraine and they are not understood by their direct relatives mark. as i want to talk for a moment about this study, in contrast between the image that's being projected by ukrainian president of all of them are zalinski versus the image that's being projected by russian president vladimir putin. zalinski is often seen in the social media video is unshaven, he's wearing green army t shirts. sometimes he's among his advisors. other times he's out on the streets. then you see putin and it's very different. these are the official videos,
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were often he is alone or seated very far away, even from close advisors. has that helped zalinski and if so, how much? yeah. in fact it has helped him a quite a bit. if you look at how the narrative has been shaped and framed from the ukrainian side, i think they, they do it very well. i'm not saying they do it just all always by purpose, but i think they know how to play social media. they know how to, i'm, they narrative and message. and i think what we're seeing here is basically a new kind of modern version of it, david against go, we're kind of story. you have this, this ukraine, the country of 40000000 fighting and overwhelming military power. russia and you have healed this guy will loaning me as a landscape standing up against against him. and i think the images are really
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telling on the one hand you have put in sitting on a long table, kind of being untouchable and is basically behind the walls of the kremlin. wiley on the other side. you have the lensky who was somebody who was just among, among his people and he's looking tired. he's looking worn. he's just dressed in the military shirts and he's not making things up. and so it, when it comes to authenticity, i think that's clearly on the side of the ukrainians. oh, go. what do you craniums by enlarge? think of how president zalinski has been presenting himself before and throughout this conflict. how much has he been able to transform public opinion through his style of war time leadership? while we are seen from the walls, the popularity and the support of citizens to brandon, the lanky had grown sharply. recently
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a wall was conducted indicates that above 90 percent of the granular support the actions of the president before the war. and that percentage was around 25 percent . so he's showing himself, you know, eventually there of his people, a very person who is close to his citizens. cool, you know, doesn't keep a distance, was speaking to them directly, recording video a statement several times a day. speaking in the language that people understand address and not the ukrainians, but in fact, the direct and russians in their own language, calling on russian mothers, you know, to take their songs away from your friend calling the russians to go to protest. thank in russian journalists or propaganda media workers or former workers was standing up and saying that you so, you know, blanket communicating very efficiently and his rally and the people around him. but i would also say that, you know, it's not just the the lensky who is leading the country and who it's kind of
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inspiring ukrainians. it's also the other way around. if you crania who are with their incredible courage and determination, are inspiring the landscape to leave the country and you know, to speak for all this be. but we hear that also. his speech is in just a today speech of the us congress. he said again, but i'm speaking here on behalf of the ukrainian people, and this is something that, you know, i think a lot of ukrainian kind of share and the appreciate that, that he's not detached on his people who speak and, and the whole country speaking in one voice, nikolai, there are surveys that have been done in russia that suggest that a majority of russians support the invasion of ukraine. but can this polling actually be trusted? is it independent? ah, well, there are no independent of these days. first and 2nd, we should have in mind that the reason why it weighed 4, ah, well,
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of korean. so answers in many cases, different reasons. the problem is of that. nevertheless, i do fan that majority of fractions being somehow rain war feeds only focus on the fact that they had gone in deep lay and thus laid a fascist against masses. and this is all the story is presented by russian media. well, they use of what they in residence. and so in my view, we discussed with this one in 76 didn't sound like the roles of getting us been so gentleness, speaking with his special way of love to have in mind that the empties and then in long minority protested against it was. and who are still protesting against the
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wind by the there is a least ration. many of them didn't lead from the mark is, you know, president putin has, for quite a while now, several years. he's had this reputation as a wizard of information warfare. he has a reputation as someone who has successfully been able to weaponized social media and other types of information. is it surprising to you to see how this is playing out thus far? yes, you know, right. he has successfully actually and interfered in the elections. he has tried to turn public opinion, also in germany, also in the united states, but he's failing here and i think one of the things that probably are not playing out very well for the russians is the use of a certain language,
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a certain narrative. let's take a look, for instance, the use of hash isn't and nazis. i mean, pooty was saying, well, we have to go into ukraine to kind of di, not defy ukraine. i mean, the, the president of ukraine is of jewish origin. so how can you actually be a nazis? i mean, you see a distortion of all of the terms and the notions. we used to know and i think this narrative is not playing into his hands. now, at the same time from the west perspective, probably we can see that this way, it doesn't really mean that russians are going along with that. i think he still has a lot of support, and i'm not really sure that the majority of russians are looking through this maneuver. olga, you spoke in your previous answer about the fact that from your perspective, it's not just the lensky president lensky who's been inspiring the people, but it's also the people of ukraine who been inspiring president lensky. i want to
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ask you if you think that in the lead up to the invasion in the lead up to the war, if the reporting from foreign countries was mostly accurate, do you think that ukrainian voices were really being listened to? no, i don't think so. in fact, you know, this of course, the rise from one country to another, but in some you know, major players in some major countries of the european union. i can speak for you to lead because they speak, it's at it and they can monitor the information space there. but i know it is also the case in germany from some other big country, very often, you know, people who go in the media and speak about your brand in russia, those experts, those analysts, those, you know, deal politics expert. they have never set foot ukraine, and they very often described the situation and spoke about your brain in a through, you know, for the russian optics using some sort of russian imperialist narrative about
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ukraine. very often denying the agency to brain. yes, it was very rare. and need to feel quite rare in some countries to hear your praying invoices in mainstream media. although, you know, there have been some improvements in the war started. and the been more attention to what you actually have to say. but i think, you know, a big problem is that in the last 8 years since russia person by didn't in 2014, very few in the west, listen to what your brains were saying. but if you listen to cranium warning, expect if you know with them is not stop, the rush is not funny with really funny sanctions. if there is no some reaction from the west, which will last stop and will on the escalate, he's aggression now. the same people will some of them and leave you know, who didn't listen to brand. yes. and all the central and eastern europeans and people from the baltic say, i finally meet them that we were right. but even sick too late, nikolai, you know, he's spoken a lot about the clamp down on, on independent media outlets in, in russia. just this week there, there was an incident,
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there was an interruption of a news broadcast on russian television by an editor who shared an anti war message . and, and i want to ask you, if you think that this would have made any kind of an impact with, with viewers who have really been inured to the official russian line about the invasion by people who only been watching russian television at. and that particular narrative would, would they have, have found this surprising, would it have helped to change perceptions in any way i cindy thence was standing re action from the side of friday and i've sent you a. busy name and so of course it's very important not only to demonstrate that a lot of gentlemen. busy and some of them designing as of last week of journalists are not being seriously. they demonstrate that i can for
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russia to channels. so somehow we can send the signal to those watching. but as i did already see, the problem i see is not that much connected with the fact that there is a layer of. busy alternative information alternative. busy channels, it's possible to find everything in these days. the every say a lot of the plans to keep in order not to feel themselves in an extremely uncomfortable position. it's changing and strange, you know, the only gives you a sense not job to the fact that the one that's on the scene public, the scene against bonsa, is you the fact that russians feel in their usual lives. then the situation is changing to. busy us, and that's why they should change their minds. they true change their hygienist.
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this means that it is very much limited time. you should do something like that so well, spot, the situation, the theory inside 3. and this means that, well, that's the of the 3 weeks children's form, asian use, wait a, it's mark as for those who believe that president zalinski and therefore ukraine are that they're winning this information war. does that also create a perception that ukraine may be doing better on the actual battle field than they are? well, i mean the, if you, if you believe what military expert the thing then i think you can, is doing very well on the ground when it comes to making, making the advances hard for, for the russian military. i think that's, that's
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a fact and that's not really that much influenced by the media appearance. i have to admit, actually from, from, from the perspective as a jose professor. i mean, what is the little bit striking it was probably a matter of concern is the fact that jonathan doesn't really play that much of a role. right now. we get footage, we get videos directly fed in actually into our, our social media. and twitter recounts which come right out from the president's palace and the kid if or right from, from, from other places without any journalistic kind of assessment and orientation. i mean, this is not a new problem, but it's playing out here. dr. try the bids. so we are seeing things and we have to we have to make up ourselves what we're seeing. it's, it's my guess context now cuz i'm sorry to interrupt you, but may i ask you, you bring up an interesting point. may i ask,
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is it actually harder now than it was a few years back to, to pass off false information or effect videos. i mean, has online birth verification of footage, you know, has that entire the entirety of that been strengthened of late? absolutely. it has become so difficult and as much as we sympathize with one side or the other. i think for jonas, they are required to take the footage into a checketts and to try to figure out whether this is true or not. but by the way, please allow me just to say one word on a do you all got, i mean, be having been the journalist and still am a journalist myself and having recorded from moscow, i can tell you that at least the german media is reporting very quickly, actually about russia, which is always what was, it was a very muted fact. so i, i think when it comes to german media is very critical and not the pro proper
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routine. olga, from your perspective, how prominent a role have disinformation fighters online been been playing and all of this? well, you know, i think with this war, many people in the west who underestimated the prominence and the impact. and you know, this cobo fresh propaganda ended information. i finally starting to realize that and the case in point is that pregnant woman from mario will marianna, who was filmed by associated with the group for after the bombing of the hospital. and then we have seen the attempt by several russian embassies abroad and twitter to smell of her, who said that she was a crisis actor and that she was wearing makeup. and she wasn't actually pregnant in fact. and you know, in twitter to down those balls and we've seen the new footage from or you go several days after that that she actually gave birth to a baby. and i also was in touch with her relative to confirm that they sent me the
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photos. and i think, you know, for many, that k was something an eye opener because many people didn't believe that russians could be a lie. and that you know, that march and the russian officials and their officials are lying on the higher level. and those, the russian propaganda and information machines consist of. so many a layer, you know, started from the troll and bought farms on the social media, which is twitter and facebook. and, you know, russian stake media side, russia, russian, stake media are, you know, broadcasting for the audience. there's a role such as our team and a lot of also conspiracy. propaganda is information web site in many, many countries. sometimes the not, you know, brad, just news about russia, ukraine. they might be sharing until you've exceeded information or different conspiracy theories. and hope, you know, the war is kind of bring more awareness and the level of the,
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of the governments in the world and level of the media also was bars. but did information sometimes find it hard to, you know, establish what is and what is wrong with what is to and what is knock olga? and so if i am a owner, i'm sorry to interrupt. if i could just ask you just have about a minute and a half left, but i also want to ask you the way that has been playing out this for, has it defied your expectations about how online warfare typically plays out? well, a, you know, this is, was not something new for me because i've been researching his information for melvin ben. 2 years might actually career in journalism. brought me to this because i encountered as a journalist so much this information and how we actually affected people's lives. on the ground. and so i started to research it, and i think you know that this is also goal now for many journalists across the world and for many media to focus on that more to understand how this information works and what a real life empathy can have and how it can also you wars because 8 years of
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propaganda, russian devi contributed to this war as well. all right, well we have run out of time, so we're gonna have to leave the conversation there. thanks so much to all of our guests, olga, to cardio nichol. i petrov and marcus xena and thank you to for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com, and further discussion go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also during the conversation on twitter, our handle is at e. j inside stored me how much am june and whole team here, bye for now. ah, misty nami of mud, barry, 16 indonesian villages submerging the homes and livelihood of 60000 people. years later, local inhabitants still fighting for justice from the fracking company. they blame
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them. the hot sludge continues to flow. great. a witness documentary on al jazeera with some of the world's largest reserve needs. yeah, provides much of the uranium that fuels year. it's nuclear power. but at what cost people and power follows the uranium trail from these add to the source of the mediterranean and investigates the devastating effects on the planets and all those who inhabit the industries part because of uranium part to on al jazeera b. ah, ah,
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ah. the highlands of valley have long attracted tourists. visitors come here for the cool climate and to see barley's famous rice fields. but these fields and farms are more than just a tourist attraction. they provided a lifeline for the thousands who lost their jobs when the travellers stopped coming because of coven 19. pandemic restrictions brought financial hardship to many here valley. now as the island reopens for international travelers, some say they wanted more just to return to the way things work before. community groups have how to form a tourism workers learn how to cut it used to be a tour guide now. he farms, cabbages said that the,
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i don't want to go back to tourism. i want to continue to be a farmer. as the island prepares to welcome visitors again, many say the pandemic has told them valuable lessons. never forget, ah, this is al jazeera ah, hello, this is in use our on al jazeera. i'm fully backbone, live in doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. russia is accused of destroying a theater building in a besieged ukrainian city of merrier pole, where hundreds were sheltering more anti aircraft systems and jones for ukraine. the white house announces additional military support after president zalinski
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