husband prince with my known cardiac intern not more. i use it with. my choice scott. was given the way to transfer the troops. and in the. end i. did come. this is d w news coming up on the program journalism is not a crime but in the philippines top investigative reporter maria teresa faces a major press freedom challenge will be speaking with her plus. japan unveils the name of a new era these characters will represent the court of japan's next emperor me tell

you what they mean. i'm melissa chan and welcome to the program it's good to have you with us we start out in the philippines where journalist and editor in chief of the rappler maria teresa has posted bail for an eighth time raissa is a well respected investigative reporter and the rappler is a news website which has recorded without fear or favor including on the current government of president rodney go to terror tape that has led to eleven complaints and cases raissa and her new face to date everything from tax evasion to libel has been thrown at them the one that's free press coalition a global alliance of newsrooms has identified racist case as one of the top ten most urgent press freedom cases in the world today and i should add that this week daughter vella joined this coalition with the latest we turn to maria teresa

herself maria thank you for joining the program bring us up to speed what's going on what's the latest. well tonight we're preparing for the first arraignment in the court of tax appeals that's four different charges of tax evasion there's a shift charge in a regional trial for it that happens tomorrow morning in manila eight thirty in the morning i had quite a weekend you know i came off of a fourteen hour flight from san francisco as soon as i landed in manila on friday morning i was greeted by police officers who showed me an arrest warrant for the for the violation of the anti-gun the law in the philippines they then took me to the station booked me and then allowed me to go to court so i can post bail i mean that would have been nice to have just posted bail without getting arrested. after we finished that on a friday three days later on

a monday i get another arrest warrant the eighth one and i posted bail right after so i spent most of yesterday it was running in and out of four different courts my hair all smiles and you are an experienced journalist you're brave journalist but i wonder are have you been scared are you scared i think right now the emotion is more anger i mean it's gone from ridiculous to the absurd how many times well you and i joked earlier in the year about collecting arrest warrants i didn't expect my government to take me seriously but you know shiling eleven charges legal cases and investigations against rappler in just a little over a year that's roughly fourteen months that. that that actually shows you in action political harassment and attempts to intimidate and silence us all this does is make us more resolute to continue doing the stories that need to get done well

that actually brings me to the next question rather has been in the global news tell us a little bit about your newsroom and what you guys care about what you guys cover for people who don't know much about the rappler. i think part of the interest in rappler and the philippines has just you know this kind of quick. chaotic descent out of democracy we we've been a robust democracy for for decades and now we're seeing this which rappler was set up it's a start up that began in two thousand and twelve and if you look at what we are weak say that we build communities of action the use technology to do that we started until szell media on facebook and it allowed us to grow a hundred to three hundred percent year on year in the beginning those are the good days but we were also the first target one social media was weaponized in two

thousand and sixteen and these are the things that we've become known for looking at digital forensics exposing the propaganda machinery on social media ninety seven percent of filipinos on the internet are on facebook facebook is our social media it is the internet. and what we've seen is the data supports the systematic rouge and. attacks on journalists and new scoops that were erosion of credibility if you cannot believe in the facts then you begin to question truth and that breaks down trust and that's what we're seeing in our democracy today polarized society we continue to report what is happening and at the same time the other focal point aside from the dissent from nation operation the information operations and this information that's on social media is the drug

war it's brutal the u.n. slate as estimate says up to twenty seven thousand people killed that's a lot the philippine police say they've killed more than five thousand people in this drug war and there are more than thirty thousand homicide cases under investigation. thank you good night and good luck thanks so much but four years social media giant says facebook and twitter has faced criticism because of the spread of hate speech and distant from asia and what some call fake news on their platforms we were just talking about that yet calls to regulate these tech companies are often at odds with free speech rights in the united states well that's less of a problem in singapore where the government just introduced a law dealing with fake news it will require media outlets to make corrections on any content officials consider fake critics say this is the state yet another

opportunity to control content earlier we spoke to journalist kristen hahn and asked her whether the law is likely to be abused and misused. it's really difficult to. predict because the power. of. this bill is not the first one to be so broadly world it is. it gives the author and he's a lot of discretion and a lot of power to selectively choose how they want to use it so they might not use it on everybody but their particular people or particular callers that they might want to be tough on and come on. we've seen that with previous in the past as well as the administration of justice protection act which deals with contempt of court which is also very broad and has been used on opposition politician and activists over the past year for things that they said on facebook and are these two men are waiting for death sentences which could be quite heavy

fines or perhaps even you know in the extreme case of imprisonment and so that that's a concern not necessary that we think they will immediately be used but that the potential is there and it just gives them another level of control over expression and simple so a lot of journalists are concerned about the potential ramifications but is there a sense do you have a sense of what's most singapore you think about this matter well it's hard to tell what most singaporeans think about this matter especially because the building just came out so i don't know how many singaporeans actually have read it and the details mainstream media reporting tends not to flag the more concerning bit that you know activists will bring up so the fear is that there would be a chilling effect in this bill because when it's so broadly worded that people don't really know where the lines are it's likely that they were thoughts and since

then and you know in my experience self-censorship is already extremely common in singapore even people who might not be able to articulate. what they feel about human rights and civil liberties and freedom of expression singapore might unconsciously also question the self sense that there's this sense that their particular lines that you don't cross in singapore. thank you very much for your time. japan's next emperor natters ito now has a name for his imperial era it will be called the rye while the designation is an important part of public life in japan affecting the naming of everything from coins calendars documents even computer software not hito we'll assume from his father akihito who steps down at the end of the month it will be japan's first application in two hundred years. scrambling to grab a moment in history crowds in tokyo rush to secure a special edition newspaper's celebrating the mark of

a new monarch. of the. game of the new era israel. it was the announcement that ended weeks of top secret meetings and intense media speculation iran names are traditionally taken from chinese classics but for the first time the government drew on ancient japanese poetry which describes the blossoming of plum flower was about. thirty five under the new era each and every japanese person can hope for the future and make their own flowers blossom. we have decided on ray with these wishes for japan. it will come in the mouth of a pony is that i think women. here in ames consist of two chinese characters the government insists re watch translates to beautiful harmony but rape can also mean order or command which some say gives the ear

a forceful overtimes. while others debate the semantics the school children adjust to the new experience. you know. i was born and lived in the hasty air at the whole time it feels a bit strange that it will become railway just like that. before. you. all go off i was guessing with my mum that the new year would start with an r. so the name is right well i'm happy that we got it right. and after. the suspense also finally ended for japan's businesses. here at the toto and company a calendar and diary micah staff sprint into action now a frenzied month begins to pump out the new products. the re what year is set to define a new cultural period in japan or at least

a period as long as the new improved rule. in japan re what down under in australia means something totally different it's the acronym for the real estate institute of western australia. and they posted this on twitter seventy percent of traffic to re what dot com today were from people in japan mistaking their real estate portal for their country's new imperial era. that story and more on our website that's dot com forward slash asia and you can check us out on facebook as well on that post script that's our show we'll leave you with not slum but cherry blossoms along the modes of the imperial palace in tokyo they've been lit up for the enjoyment of the night visitors see you next time. please.

please. please. the first. place. he takes it personally are you ready with under four months to make the game some special. treat for. more than football on line what's the connection between bread. and the european

union he knows gilberto e.w. correspondent alan baker can stretch this can line with the rules such as. the. stamping recipes for success strategy that make a difference. baking bread on the d.w. . world trade organization is. cutting its global trade growth forecast nearly. as the u.s. china trade conflict breaks it's slowing chinese economy weigh heavily on world trade. make do amends to entrepreneurs in india make a business proposition out of an old virtue of cycles fashion made out of textile

way start making an impact environmental awareness is on the rise on the. business indeed. the world trade organization says that world's trade growth is slowing rates political instability and persisting trade conflict between the world the world's two biggest economies are taking their toll britain's increasingly chaotic divorce proceedings from the make things worse than previously expected global growth could slow even more dramatic increase but no deal breaker said which looks increasingly likely. trade organization says global trade is expected to grow at a much slower pace this year than previously thought w t o analysts have lowered their growth forecasts for twenty nineteen to only two point six percent from three point seven percent. trade organizations general secretary.