this is the. tonight showing solidarity in the fight for freedom to speak your mind and to report the truth on this world press freedom. has given his annual freedom of speech award to the iranian political science professor. he criticized tehran after government protests last year in an interview with t w and he was sentenced to prison as a result there's also coming off a trial the us president did a payment to buy the silence of

a porn star despite earlier denial. to washington for the latest on rudy giuliani's revelation and what it could mean for the special counsel's investigation of the president. good to have you with us today is an important day in the calendar for the world's free media today is world press freedom day and it is a reminder to all journalists and anyone who cares about freedom of speech about how vital it is that they hold power to account. also presents its annual freedom of speech prize on this day and this year it goes to iran's sadik. he was criticized he has criticized the iranian government over the way that it

reacted to protests there last year. at the end of december twenty seventeen iran's though its biggest anti-government demonstrations in almost a decade the protests quickly spread to dozens of cities and towns across the country. just days after the unrest to rep did so dexie back alam gave an interview to d.w. far as the he characterized the demonstrators as young people disappointed with the entire political system. and sad more than two thirds of people are dissatisfied with the islamic republic those views didn't go down well with the a rainy and or thorazine they accused of spreading false information and propaganda against the islamic republic. he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and barred from social media for two years she is appealing the decision.

why should they be punished someone has expressed an opinion what she's not compact at goal which is starting line which is not in all of the answers because it got well meant open ian chillag quanties should i go eighteen months into prison . it's not the first time the academic has received a jail sentence for speaking his mind. he's become a well known figure in iran for challenging the government narrative on many sensitive issues from the country's nuclear program to foreign policy and he has a large audience online on telegram which was banned by the iranian authorities this week he has almost one hundred pages and followers. on instagram almost seven hundred pages and. sabbatical and has vowed to keep on expressing his opinions despite the official threats against him. i hope for iran is

genuine i really i sincerely hope i'm not a daydream it is just thinking because i believe that it more prosy will eventually prevail in iran. are you want to take a closer look now at the state of press freedom around the world the international press watchdog reporters without borders says that hostility towards the press is on the rise all around the world often encouraged by political leaders even in democratic countries now we classify the situation in seventy out of one hundred eighty countries as bad or very bad you see that right there in red now china and iran remain among the world's worst countries for journalists in china all media are subject to strict censorship and foreign journalists can be closely monitored it's estimated at least fifteen journalists and around forty bloggers are currently

in custody there iranian media are also strictly controlled by the state journalists can face harsh even violent reprisals if they step out of line of one hundred eighty countries iran ranks one hundred sixty fourth on the press freedom list and then there is turkey now while the state there does it completely control all media there are very few remaining independent outlets some thirty five journalists are reportedly in prison in turkey that's more than anywhere else in the world ranking one hundred twenty six on that reporters without borders index is the african country zimbabwe and joining me on the line now from the capital harare is journalist columbus columbus it's good to have you on the show you were reporting in the country when the military took over and put then president robert mugabe under house arrest the army called

a press conference and you would tended with a colleague tell us what happened. yes so when we go through to the place where the press conference was supposed to take place which which isn't on that box we had the support of the army as us to lie on the floor and say do we had been sent by my god almighty god this and this or this started picking us up me and my colleague until the tidal flow of the cannot stop and by then i was i had i do i had become numb and the values that jumped into into our car and leave but i couldn't so they told me to the car and my colleague then the window is with a broken arm gotten into the driver's seat and we left the place to watch that press conference from i'll also follow spittal beds as it was for something. we we could not walk i mean your life was in danger at that moment and

we remember how you know how scary those moments were for your country talk to me a little bit though about how things are now when you're trying to report the news in trying to get the truth al. i would say where we will have a problem is the meaning of him by in december when the coming to power that this situation will jim tools but as we speak i wouldn't say much has improved all the laws that when they did which was media watchdog say cologne not into the place of the media destined for the for the general these say those of a low end and organizations i think can think of to coming to zimbabwe it takes weeks and months to be created that's assuming i did some of the still being bought from for the cutting does and bob with bags of the lip service what they say is they want to visit the media freedom to visit but this too is for that to the

reality we have to wait for another day or maybe another month or what we know in columbus that you're dealing with conditions that you know we hear for example in europe don't have to worry about and on this world press freedom day i want to ask you what does being a journalist what does it mean to you. it's fun for me as a person some of that i want to do but i think in the eyes of some government. agency is it's it's a trying to be is in on this because we exposed the bad that this did i didn't see as the do in the country well columbus muffling a journalist in zimbabwe columbus we appreciate your time tonight and we certainly do on are the valuable work that you are doing for your country and your fellow citizens in zimbabwe thank you thank you. here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world

a powerful dust storm has left more than one hundred people dead in northern india extreme winds and rains brought down trees and destroyed temporary structures throughout the region causing many of the deaths officials have warned that the death toll could rise police in southern germany have raided an asylum seekers' hospital to detain a total ease man for deportation authorities want to return him to italy a country where he should have applied for asylum fellow refugees had prevented a previous attempt to apprehend the man written politicians have joined voters in casting their ballots in local elections the vote is being seen as a crucial test for prime minister to resign may's government less than a year before the u.k. is due to leave the european union more than four thousand seats on one hundred fifty local councils are at stake in towns and cities across england. a porn star 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 tonight porn actress stephanie clifford stage name stormy daniels alleges that she had sex with one truck back in two thousand and six a year after he married his wife melania in two thousand and sixteen daniels was paid one hundred thirty thousand dollars by trump's lawyer you're seeing here michael 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 sixteen presidential election raising questions of campaign financing violations trump has denied ever having sex with day he also previously denied knowledge of the payment to her. but trump's lawyer his new lawyer rudy giuliani says that the us president did repay his personal attorney the one hundred thirty thousand dollars the lawyer used to silence stormy daniels and that is something that president trump has now

confirmed the twitter this directly contradicts trump's earlier statements about the allegations concerning a payment during an appearance on fox news channel's hannity the former new york city mayor giuliani said that the money paid today those had been funneled through trump's personal attorneys law firm and that it did not come from election campaign funds take a listen 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 funneled through a law firm from over all over the present repaid that's what was said last night trump himself has since confirmed that he did reimburse michael cohen for the payments to stormy daniels that contradicts his previous statements that he had no

knowledge of the payment in a series of tweets today trump him for signs that the money did not come from campaign funds trump said that cohen was paid a retainer which had nothing to do with the campaign he then used this money to pay stormy daniels who signed a nondisclosure agreement this agreement trump says was used to stop the faults and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair trump said that it was a private agreement and that money from the campaign played no role in this transaction. all right we try to get our heads around this let's go to washington our correspondent carsten phenomenon is on the story for us good evening to you karsten all right the latest in this story now is that u.s. federal investigators reportedly wiretapped the phone lines of trump's personal attorney michael cohen the move was part of an ongoing probe into russian meddling

in the twenty sixteen election it's a lot to digest and yet trump is still standing tall in the midst of all of this how do you explain this. it is very hard to explain but it is a fact that actually the approval ratings for the on from have gone up over the last few months in spite of all the scandals in spite of all the controversy around him and yeah clearly hard core of his supporters they stand by their president no matter what and we we know that trump says the payment was made through a retainer not from the campaign but you know he initially denied that there had been any payment at all until mr giuliani said on television last night that he did know about it so what does that mean. so one question clearly donald trump when asked about this just a few weeks ago so after the story broke and was widely discussed he was asked by

a journalist on board of air force one if he knew anything about those payments and he said flat out no and that doesn't seem to be correct now and another thing that is also interesting is that yes giuliani and trump both said this was no complain money but giuliani himself in another t.v. appearance this morning said that of course this was connected to the election because the presidential debates were going on and mr cohen apparently was concerned this could damage mr trump's chances and so he did pay the upon actress stormy daniels and did his job by this mr giuliani said so even though this might have been campaign money it could still be a violation of campaign regulations our correspondent has a phenomena on the story for us tonight from washington on a story with more twists and turns today carson thank you.

you're watching t.w. news live from berlin i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day i hope to see you that. we make up about three quarters of that and at that time we are on december seventh this is. a month to shape the continent's future to be part of it and join the youngsters as they share their story dreams and their challenges to the seventy seven percent platform for africa stranger.