this is news live from berlin fighting to keep the media free of censorship on world press freedom day asks journalists why honest and accurate reporting is so crucial we take the pulse of the media around the globe. also coming up a white house legal aide confirms that president trump did know about a payment to buy the silence of a porn star despite an earlier denial will cross to washington for the latest on rudy giuliani's revelations and what it could mean for the special counsel

investigation. and a powerful dust storm kills more than eight hundred people in india extreme winds smashed walls and tariff trees across the northwest. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program today marks world press freedom day and d.-w. is taking a closer look at the state of freedom around the world the international press watchdog reporters without borders says that hostility toward the press is on the rise worldwide often encouraged by political leaders even in democratic countries it classified the situation in seventy out of the world's one hundred eighty countries as either bad or very bad and you can see the ones with those that are very bad situations that they are in the regions that are colored. in our map china

and iran remain among the world's countries that are worst for journalists in china in particular all media are subject to strict censorship and foreign journalists can be closely monitored it's estimated that at least fifteen journalists and around forty bloggers are currently in custody meantime to iran now which you see pictured there in orange iranian media are also strictly controlled by the state we have the wrong country highlighted there but i think you can see where it does on the map journalists can face harsh and even violent reprisals if they step out of line of one hundred eighty countries around ranks one hundred sixty fourth on the press freedom list and then there is turkey while the state there doesn't completely control all of the media there are very few remaining independent outlets some thirty five journalists are reported jailed in turkey more than almost anywhere else in the world well given the situation we asked a handful of journalists from around the globe to explain what press freedom means

to them here's what they said. freedom of the press may seem like an abstract concept something very vague doesn't really mean it means that you have the information to make up your mind and to speak out first we don't protect journalists like me that is true i was actually so much more than that because this . is your freedom let me tell you why freedom of expression is one of your fundamental human rights written down in the united nations universal declaration of human rights it says everyone has the rights to freedom of opinion and expression this right includes freedom to all opinions without interference and to seek receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. and let me tell you about my country in poland we have a limitation of press freedom the governments to control the states media and shout

broadcast pure propaganda and private media and political economical pressure by discover much in two thousand eight hundred within a month six hundred forty eight people who already tamed over social media posts criticizing government's policy and military operations in syria and they were not only journalists the constant harassment of nigeria is for doing. this and to civil society and it limits the ability of society to order government to account here in the united states the freedom of the press means that if you work for taxpayers chances are your work emails are public records. and that has enabled plenty of journalists to uncover areas of corruption in conflicts of interest that never would have otherwise been discovered here in kenya press freedom allows the citizens to make informed decisions especially during elections this march three

indian journalists covering sound mining. were run over by a recruit they were murdered and they were murdered because they were exposing their. illegal extraction of sand from which many people profited and those people did nor want the public to know that the public's money was being stolen i didn't want of the most dangerous countries to work as a journalist around the world. and i have witnessed how self-censorship and the lack of justice in our institutions have cost many grads and many of my colleagues. and journalists here in europe also face an increasing threat to free reporting investigative journalist john could siac was shot dead in slovakia in february he had been covering corruption and the mafia's role in the country and in

malta anti corruption blogger daphne carr want to go was killed when a bomb placed her under a car or rather placed under her car was detonated just outside of her home in october of two thousand and seventeen she had been a longstanding critic of the government three men have been charged but authorities have not identified who ordered her murder reporters without borders says that her death lifts the veil of judicial harassment and intimidation that journalists face in malta. and the council of europe has recently appointed a special reporter to monitor the ongoing murder investigation. andrew says that malta has escaped scrutiny from the european institutions for far too long. the response from the european commission on more to offer example was much weaker than the response towards ward's hungary and there are many reasons for this the first is that hungary governments are less sophisticated in the rhetoric they're more

conservative they target minorities sexual minorities ethnic minorities refugees the movies government is more sophisticated than the other fields if it somehow sticks to. european refugee policy liberal rhetoric then into the scape much of the scrutiny that's directed towards the eastern european countries if you look at the smallest member states get away with this level of impunity this level of institutional failure and he said you're sending an extremely negative example to larger member states which might be tempted to stretch the limits of acceptable behavior within the. call to action there to protect journalists freedom from the son of daphne cohen of the other murder journalists in malta where they get a quick check now some other stories making news around the world britain's politicians

have joined voters in casting their ballots in local elections the vote is being seen as a crucial test for prime minister teresa mayes government less than a year before the u.k. is due to leave the here opinion here more than four thousand seats on one hundred fifty local councils are at stake in towns and cities across england. and the international red cross has called for the immediate release of a german nurse abducted by armed men from its compound in somalia the group said that it was in contact with the various agencies in the somali capital mogadishu to try and secure the women's freedom. a pornstar a president and his lawyer there have been more twists in the stormy daniels scandal surrounding the u.s. president before we bring you the latest let's take a look at what we know so far porn actress stephanie clifford stage name stormy daniels alleges that she had sex with donald trump back in two thousand and six a year after he married his wife melania. and twenty sixteen daniels was paid one hundred and thirty thousand dollars by trump's lawyer michael cohen cohen she says

it was hush money to keep her quiet about the alleged sexual encounter the payment was made just days before the twenty six thousand presidential election raising questions of campaign financing violations trump has denied ever having sex with daniels he also previously denied knowledge of the payment to her. but now one of trump's lawyers rudy giuliani says that the u.s. president in fact did repay his personal attorney of the one hundred thirty thousand dollars the lawyer used to silence stormy daniels something that president trump has now confirmed on twitter so we're getting a different story here this of course directly contradicting trump's earlier statements about the allegations concerning a payment during an appearance on fox news this hannity show giuliani said that the money paid to daniels had been funneled through trump's personal attorneys law firm and that it did not come from election campaign funds having something to do with

paying some stormy daniels woman one hundred thirty thousand i mean which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money sorry i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know it's not campaign money no. campaign finance violation so they form a look through a law firm for move through over the president repeated so let's get more on this trying to help us make sense of it we have carson fundament standing by with the very latest from washington so our stand me in just is this is just the latest twist here what are we to believe because donald trump has now tweeted his response and it's different from what he was saying before walk us through it. yeah absolutely donald trump the president this morning treated quite a long statement over three tweets and in this he did acknowledged in

a very formal language looks like his usual tweets or probably his lawyers looked at that but he tweeted and acknowledged that he in fact did repay his personal lawyer his long time personal lawyer michael cohen for dealing with the storm then the affair that. giuliani as we've just seen came all it's to present this new version of the story so this seems to be a concerted effort by trump and his new york to clean up this mess because really no one here in washington ever believed that michael cohen just made these payments to sun and stormy daniels and her allegations about an affair just out of the kindness of his heart expecting to be reimbursed by the president and let's not forget the offices and the private. apartments of mr cohen had been raided by the f.b.i.

so maybe mr giuliani and mr trump expected this to come out anyway so they wanted to get their version of the story out first mr trump also once again in those tweets. that actually geishas by. actress were not true so but ok russian of course remains why was the money paid and they said well this was of course because of the complaint going on but it was not campaign money so let's drill down then a little bit deeper into this newest version that we're hearing because you know as you mentioned trump saying that the payment was made to a retainer not from the campaign however he initially denied all knowledge of the payment now giuliani says that he did know about it what are we to make of it carson. well the bottom line is that the president's clearly didn't say the truth when i asked about this just a few weeks ago while traveling on air force one

a spy reports whether he knew anything about the payments the president said flat out no and even though giuliani is now trying to say well the president didn't know all the details and there was no direct reimbursement but this was done through a month through the retainer it's not what the president said carson phenomenon with the latest from washington thanks so much a powerful dust storm has left more than one hundred people dead in india extreme winds and rains brought down trees and destroyed temporary structures throughout the northwest causing many of the deaths officials confirm that more than one hundred other people have been injured and warn the death toll could rise as the storm rolled in the dust and winds were only a portent of the violence to come. it wasn't until nightfall that the storm movil to its full fury. battering residents with rain hail and

unusually fast winds the storm caught many by surprise as indeed and will months one season is still weeks away. as the winds begin to subside victims were rushed to the hospitals in the states of roger stone. which bore the brunt of the storm's power. many were injured by falling debris as the winds uprooted trees and toppled buildings. district we have information of five deaths due to a high intensity thunderstorm at least twenty two people are critically injured and are being given treatment at a trauma center of the district hospital. it was only as daylight came that the extent of the damage began to become clear dozens have already been confirmed killed and authorities say the number of dead and injured is likely to rise as they continue their search in the region's more remote villages. you're watching.

on the program analyst questions as its price or outburst. shares. and as that story and a whole lot more. coming up in just a few minutes i'm sorry. so much for watching. the people of the world over facebook and twitter. to date and in touch. full also for. dorothy and despised. karl marx boycott.