founder julian assange came to an abrupt end today british police officers hauled him out of the ecuadorian embassy and extradition to the united states on conspiracy charges seems almost certain and with that the stakes just got higher for press and internet freedom and what about the u.s. president now when he ran for the white house donald trump said he loved wiki leaks today he said i knew nothing about wiki leaks i'm berlin this is the day. no one is above that all julian assange is no hero is asylum is unsustainable i'm no longer bold i'm pleased that president moreno has taken this decision and i extended the u. case thanks to him for resolving the situation he's hidden from

a truthful he is and he is. like to a student who tries to look for his belief in freedom of speech mr saw a stroll down house the opportunity to contest the cianci case to the pope he wants to thank all of his supporters today ongoing support and he said i told you so. also coming up tonight the biggest act of democracy at the ballot box in human history is now underway nine hundred million people are eligible to vote in india have a first time for the first time and this is a very good experience my life and i'm very excited to get there is that yeah i'm voting since. i've been. doing that. every day because it is my. i am happy to be

a part of this democracy and they want that it should continue yet after the. p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day asking what will tomorrow bring for julian a songe and the rest of us today in london the wiki leaks founder was hauled out of the ecuadorian embassy the small piece of real estate that had been his home for seven years his future is unclear tonight but we know he is wanted in the u.s. on conspiracy charges and could be extradited but the fate of us could have a chilling impact on journalism freedom and on internet freedom as we know them today just try to answer these questions with a simple yes or no is wiki leaks a media outlet is julian a songe a publisher and what about the trump administration's view when secretary of state was head of the cia he said wiki leaks was

a non-state hostile intelligence service aided by russia president trump has often praised wiki leaks today he told reporters he doesn't know really what we. are coverage begins tonight in london. though weary looking a songe finally leaves the embassy where he's been holed up for the past seven years this video shot by ruptly part of the broadcaster russia today. is the standoff began in twenty ten when he was accused of rape and molestation by two women after a conference in sweden that same year his wiki leaks website a whistleblowing platform became a household name after it circulated footage of an american air strike in baghdad the attack killed two journalists the video appeared to show troops firing an unarmed man and washington was investigating the leaks when sweden issued an arrest

warrant for the alleged sex crimes a songe surrendered to police in london and was granted bail. the following year a british court ruled he should be extradited to sweden but a songe feared this would be used as a pretext to extradite him to the us. i have not been charged with any crime in any country. despite the european arrest warrant is so restrictive that it prevents u.k. courts from considering the facts of a case. in two thousand and twelve he applied for and was granted political asylum at the ecuadorian embassy in london on human rights grounds. i think president correia for the courage is shown in considering ending granting me political asylum fast forward three years later when swedish prosecutors were forced to drop the molestation charge after running out of time to question him in two thousand

and sixteen a united nations panel ruled that assad was being arbitrarily detained but britain refused to budge on its stance the next year swedish authorities also dropped their rape investigation but vowed to reopen it if they got access to a staunch meanwhile his relationship with ecuadorian officials in london was deteriorating in twenty eighteen of the accused to songe of violating the terms of their agreement and cut his internet access hasn't retaliated by threatening legal action against the embassy saying his fundamental rights and freedom were being violated on thursday afternoon a british authorities were able to enter the building and arrest him assad is now facing extradition to the u.s. he calls the situation a witch hunt. well this is truly an extraordinary development in what continues to be an extraordinary story but the most important chapter will be written if and when julian a songe is extradited to the united states what happens to

a songe there will impact journalism freedom not only in the u.s. my first guest tonight is author of wiki leaks news in the networked era one of the first books to lay out the changing nexus of geopolitics the internet and the media he's also founding director of the london school of economics international journalism think tank polis i'm happy to welcome to the davis evening charlie beckett's mr beckett joins me tonight from austin texas it's good to have you on the show mr beck and i want to pull up a tweet that you have seen on earlier today you said that the most serious issue here is a songe being extradited to the u.s. and facing prosecution there why. well because i think it's not so much the fate of that particular individual i think it's as you mention that this may have great residence for journalists of freedom will generate because

what's own trial if you like was that moment in two thousand and ten when there were those extraordinary revelations about. american military policy in afghanistan in iraq and everyone thought not everyone but the york times the step the guardian other very respectable. because aisha's this was in the public interest and not it was in a sense a classic act of journalism honest. now if that becomes the speech and that sets a terrible precedent setting that it sends out a very very bad signal we did in a world where there are all fair tarion leaders from china to that pizza rusher and beyond. king at the news media trying to use. time terrible to be free expression so it's just a terrible message to cross where you speak of you know authoritarianism the trump

administration and its justice department with the attorney general where your bar i mean they are not some people would say first in line when it comes to protecting the first amendment of the u.s. constitution do you see the the rights of a free press being threatened if and when assad goes on trial in the u.s. . i think it's one aspect of it i mean in the american context where i am at the moment there is this whole debate it's about what donald trump is delayed by attacking the media in general and i think this i don't see this is donald trump trying to attract someone to weaken leaks directly because at one point it was terribly convenient and this is the problem this is why it is so cool that the rule of law exists and why it in america the first amendment is respected and because

that's the defense it's not whether the president should be allowed to succeed you know to do your journalism it's that unison and the right it's really important to write the journalists sometimes to break the rules even separate the law or if it's in the wider public interest and that's kind of a paradox which you know the courts are there to try and tussle out president trump was asked today about the arrest of julian a songe i'd like for you to take a listen to what he said and also to the statements that he gave about wiki leaks when he was running for the white house take a listen it's been amazing which coming out on wiki leaks and by the way wiki leaks just came out with a lots of really unbelievable things so we kill each document showing. how the media conspires and collaborates i almost delayed this speech by about two hours it's so interesting i know nothing about where he leaks it's not my thing. i mean

mr breckon when you when you hear that how do you interpret that all of a sudden the u.s. president knows nothing about wiki leaks. well i think all politicians. love journalistic freedom till it's turned on on them. so i don't think it's entirely surprising and i think donald trump is quite clear he does have a strategy of sometimes cozying up to media and it's to his advantage to sort out say continue with fox news overseas well even to attack and the whole thing with this songe case at the moment you may well not like him you may disagree with some of those revelations in the political impact or only at the democrats were very or liberals in america were very happy when songe was exposing regimes of

stakes in the iraq war they didn't like it when he was exposing what hillary clinton the story and i think and that's obvious on his problems well now that aids in the last few years become a kind of political act you know he's cozied up city slightly shadowy people and that has come back. to haunt would you agree with me that reporting on this story particularly if the extradition takes place that this is going to be a test for journalists. indeed i think there's a lot of shock in florida going on here and perhaps envy you saw that when wiki leaks made the original revelations there was a lot of jealousy a lot of competitive. jealousy around germicidal so we could takes you know when it worked well it was a challenge to mainstream journalists said look why you guys not revealing these

things why you guys not challenging paragraphs. i think that a combination of sunshine is very unattractive egocentric martyr complex is distasteful and it's easy to attract that but i think this is a moment when journalists have to think about what is really at stake and i'm not saying they should blindly defend somchai but i think they should think seriously about what's at risk. professor charlie beckett joining us tonight from austin texas talking about the stakes involved in the next chapter of the julian songe saga mr beckett we appreciate your insights tonight thank you. what tonight the army in sudan is in control of the country earlier today they ousted and arrested president omar al bashir dramatic developments which bring to

an end thirty years of all the cry to rule in a televised statement the country's defense minister announced a two year long transitional government run by the army he also declared a three month long state of emergency and said that bashir is being held at a secure place in the capital khartoum has seen months of public anti-government protest it remains unclear what protesters will do now that the military has imposed a curfew. to talk about that and more i'm joined here at the big table by next of a bird she's an expert on east africa at the german institute for international and security affairs it's good to have you back on the show omar al bashir is gone but this is not the real regime change that protesters were hoping for is it no it's not the protests of a clearly hoping for a civilian government not a military government but the backing of the military and what they see right now is basically the same same old people the old structure in being in play it's

minus bashir so nothing really substantially has changed and i think this is what we will see for the next couple of days that they will not just think that they will continue district curfew that's now in effect i'm wondering are we likely to see more protests if we have you to the authorities right now clamping down the way they are i think they will test the authorities i think they will continue the the protests for sure and then see if really either the army and the government forces . will enforce the fourth year or if they will be pushed towards opening up this transitional government for the next two years what about the way you. the world sees this the european union have given him money the united states has done business with them in terms of fighting terror. what are they thinking tonight i'm going to show that nobody is really crying tears for bashir. and i think what they

saw and what they still see in sudan is of course you know a country that is placed in the middle of africa between the side hell and also the red sea so very strategically located and of course it's a very important country. to keep you know to keep on doing business with sudan will continue in the course of those who they call for it is on with on counterterrorism and it will basically more the intelligence services rather than him. his departure will not impact that you think no actually i think it makes things more easy because you know he had the arrest warrant of the i.c.c. on his it and dealing with him of course is you know was was critical and impossible for the west in countries because they couldn't is he an example though of leaders you know there were lots of reports recently about abuses of human rights in sudan and yet the european union the u.s.

government they have worked with him to see an example of the west's critics would say hypocrisy we preach one thing but we do business with leaders who do something very different well i think it's much more well the next i would say because of course there is the arrest warrant and of course you know there is there's a lot of critique and a lot of well known dealings with him for example germany had you know develop an operation so it's not like that there was a lot of money flowing into these properties from from germany from germany are from western countries but of course one would have wished that upholding the rule of law and human rights this for is more strictly you would have would have set the tone early on and of course that's also some. thing that i think is necessary no with the transitional government with the military trying to keep to give pushing on you know human rights and the rule of law rather than having stability is what

is going to happen to president bashir now. well a couple of scenarios he could just stay there if the military stays in power he could to stay there he could go to a friendly country. as well then gulf states there are a couple of countries a place where not signatories to their own statute might you know offer him refuge . but i think it's early too early because we still don't know how things are transforming if there's a clampdown on the demonstrations that could escalate massively sudan and then this would eventually also determine his fate so i don't see him and me up in prison and you don't you don't sometimes you don't see him ending up you know on trial in the hague not now it really depends on who will be in the government in sudan and you know if it's the military they they don't seem to find there's important to

push him around and do you see after all that has happened do you really see all of this leading up to real change in sudan is there reason to think that things will get better yes i think because the masses the huge huge number of young people of women of everybody who is on the street and who will not stop demanding for real change and also i think in terms of the capacity that sudanese have you know civil society is strong they do have good people who could take overs i am still hopeful and that's a vaporous always we appreciate your insights thank you thank you very much. in india voting is underway in the biggest parliamentary election the world has ever seen nearly nine hundred million indians are eligible to cast their ballots voting will take place in seven phases across different regions from now until the nineteenth of may a mammoth one million polling stations are being set up to reach even the most

remote areas of the election is said to be closely contested the party of the incumbent prime minister narendra modi versus the opposition party which until landslide win five years ago had governed india since independence. for many in india the elections are of referendum on this man prime minister narendra modi. modi came to power in two thousand and fourteen after a landslide victory but this time around things might not be as clear cut. although polls suggest the fiercely nationalist modi will hold on to the premiership the main opposition party led by rahul gandhi is in the ascendancy. after a disastrous general election result five years ago gandhi's congress party was jubilant recently after winning back three key states from b j p in regional

elections. and they have promised to prioritise the single biggest issue for voters the lack of jobs there schmidt in this country in every state young people are searching for jobs wherever you go and ask a young person what they're doing they reply i'm not doing anything that they look at the question he got there. it's a giant challenge while the indian economy has gathered strength under modi and has struggled to generate enough jobs especially for the country's young people. more than half of indians are aged twenty five or under and some twelve million enter the workforce each year. the recent spike in tensions between india and pakistan in kashmir however has put another issue on the agenda national security and that may well play into the hands of naren drug and his hindu nationalists. the prime minister has started himself as the watchman protecting his

country by being strong on defense tough on tara in the army no longer to be bliss in the brig got down on the seas on new india this. dark place returned the damage done by. rebuilding theirs. if the pool of nationalism proves strong enough in the senate action supporters may well be celebrating come the twenty third of may. and for some analysis on this election i'm joined by or has worked with both the indian government and at the united nations he's currently an analyst's specializing in public private cooperation he joins us tonight from london of course welcome to the day i have judged your age correctly you are part of the millennial is much like a significant number of india's population you're smiling i think i did a good job there eighty five million dollars first time voters are facing record

unemployment in india how can this not hurt modi and his party at the ballot box. yeah i think you hit the nail right on the head i mean india is a very very young country and nine hundred million people who are little to this. almost a combined population of america and europe about eighty five million people often mindful to sixteen million of who are actually about eighteen to nineteen years old . but i think before we go into the unemployment like we need to ask who the indian voter young indian voter is and what they care about. the young indian voter is someone who is competent and progressive and what they care about most is is jobs and economic development you know unemployment has reached the highest in the past forty five years and when educating young people off or to compromise promising

career so what does it mean been for modi and his party does election i mean what can they lay out on the table and say this is why you should vote for us to spite record unemployment. well that's why i see everything getting quite. everything going again because on the economic front the current government sort of five year performance on the issue is is inconsistent at best and incoherent at work you know the g.s.t. which is that which was meant to turn in the federal system and think the market should a new era of business some certainty and the monetize ation kind of policies that he made a crack on that money and disrupted a home that. it contributed to a slow growth. and sort of propaganda on this issue really has succeeded in hailing india as a rising economic powerhouse a lot of people young people within the country still believe. writing economy.

unemployment statistics speak for themselves and i think the government just. declaring employment statistics as well. what about india's place in the world with the backdrop of this election i mean pakistan and china they could become huge headaches for india how has the how has its place in the world changed in just the last five years. i think sort of. to keep a balance. modi has definitely put india on the map just his political stamina of meeting with world leaders and brokering deals across the was put on the map and it has changed our relations with dr sun and with china but i do think. india's place in the world has also become the main rhetorical of this election. and this is a real trend in this election you know sadly social economic realities of the nation

have taken a complete back under the eclipse of national security and the impact of polarizing rhetorical. raritan to scratch they have been completely shunned for a national security. which which might even. and may even be entirely concocted. out of time but we appreciate you joining us tonight and giving us your insights valuable insights as this election gets underway a poor group in london thank you. well the day is nearly done the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter in the ready news you can follow me a bridge go off t.v. and don't forget to use our hash tag day and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another to see the typical.

quadriga international talk show for journalists to discuss the topic of the week coming up on talk radio there are some one thousand battle hardened islamic state fighters and their families from germany or now heading home after i s's collapse what should germany do with them and how dangerous are they all that and more coming up. quadriga next d.w. . in africa. coming presidential

and i had a modern major noted from chico tiny the rebel army and in the one nine hundred ninety four genocide wasn't when the i know there wasn't when the us to be used in trot out me to reinforce the controversial leader who success is beyond question in quick time coming and they wanted tragedy in forty five minutes on d w. possible chain reaction the press. began around six hundred years ago. in the renaissance.

architects. scientists. and artists. to conjure up the darkest middle ages to. the renaissance five. stars of the route twenty seven on t.w. . hello and welcome to the international talk show quadriga where today we're talking about the one thousand battle hardened islamic state fighters and their families from germany some of them are now on their way back home many are already here following i.