found how tied to. a. small 3 part documentary stories we made. for you. this is to give you news live from berlin torture of fellow journalists around the world without annual freedom of speech award we highlight the courage and determination of reporters persecuted for exposing the truth about their throne a virus a pandemic also coming up. president trump alles a medication approved for use in treating covert 19 in the united states while the

world awaits a vaccine. a michael great to see you with us today is world press freedom day and we begin our broadcast with something we here at daughter bella are proud to announce the daughter of fellow freedom of speech award this year the award highlights journalists who have been persecuted because of their reporting of the krona virus pandemic only naming 17 individuals but they represent all those journalists bloggers and citizens around the world who have defied restrictions on press freedom to report on the coronavirus michelle bachelet united nations high commissioner for human rights pay tribute to this year's award winners and all journalists going about their trade without fear or favor. i'm here to honor the

courage of the journos who despite such attacks speak up and continue to investigate and report critically without fear i pay tribute to the courage of those who have been disappeared arrested or threaten for their work my office of the united nations will continue to stand up for their rights. the shell bash let you know to nations high commissioner for human rights we have this closer look now at some of the journalists were singling out this year for their courageous reporting. threatened attacked arrested press freedom was already a contentious and often dangerous issue in countries governed by repressive leaders such as china russia or venezuela now the current crisis is making it even more difficult for journalists to do their job. in january 2020 these images were secretly shot by chinese citizen journalist pham being inside

a hospital in new han the epicenter of the pandemic his reports to 5 vastly from the image of the country portrayed on state television. there was a while ago i saw 3 corpses here he says on video now there are 8. chain krishi a lawyer was the most prominent citizen journalist a more harm. which i'm going to be the virus is right in front of me china's criminal prosecutors are behind me i'm not afraid of death do you think i'm afraid if you come in his heart your child ah it was to be chained chris she's lost video before he disappeared without a trace just like from then his last footage shows police knocking on our door. in russia where press freedom a strictly curtailed government friendly media outlets have been spreading misinformation about the corona crisis independent journalists are feeling the

pressure and then the miller shiina an internationally renowned investigative journalist received death threats after reporting on the coronavirus in chechnya and legibly from chechen president runs on country or of himself. the organization reporters without borders has documented a record number of opportunity acts of violence against reporters in venezuela that in some hole has was detained by special forces for 12 days for pushing on covert 19 on social media. and countries where press freedom is already under threat the corona pandemic is making things even more difficult and more dangerous for journalists. with me in the studio now is peter de w.'s director general for self welcome sir it's great to see you on the set yeah hi michel must see you i want to 1st start by asking you why are we giving this award to so many people this year. because it's a worldwide phenomenon which we witness the pandemic also it has an effect on

freedom of spread freedom of expression and i think this is something we should be very careful with and so we decided not to name one single person but to give tribute to all these journalists who are working in dangers circumstances imagine it would be difficult given these circumstances and how aggressive journalists have to be around the world particularly now to single out a particular number. well it is not easy yes but i think the list is not closed so we can open the list up if we see one of these cases which are really really bad and i think we picked some which they stand for fall out of in our profession and i think this is very very it's a sign i mean we hope that we can contribute something especially for these people who are working and in danger but also for the whole good cause of freedom of expression and free press we saw in that piece 2 examples of of of how to chinese

authorities may very well have quelled critical voices in that country is it your belief that if there was more open reporting in china. that there may very well have been an opportunity there to to keep the pandemic much lowered to prevent the spreading of it i think it's very likely that this would be the result of a free press in china because you wouldn't have had the government trying to to neglect any any epidemic and demick at the beginning you would have maybe now. result where this virus comes from still it's not 100 percent clear where it comes from and the chinese. communist party government authorities are trying to to avoid any any responsibility for this and they make an image of helping the world but which is nice it's good when they help like it but they should also take the

responsibility and a free press would have really helped to to find the reason and at the end would have saved lives in china you're in no doubt in contact with some of the prize winners what are some of the sort of things that they're telling you. i have one story which would really impresses me was it was not a journalist it was a c.e.o. of a jordan television station a liberal television station. forus say yak and a young guy very ambitious very very cool and trying to help his people and they we've been reporting about the coronavirus and they only quoted some guy from the street who was not happy with the government decisions which were very strict and for this he the c.e.o. and the head of news go to arrested they went into jail for a couple of days over easter and from now on his station doesn't get any information about the coronavirus anymore from the government from the jordanian

government which i think is one of these cases where governments try to also bring down liberal openminded journalists and media houses and i think this shouldn't be tolerated and really the jordanian government to change their policy on this. talk to us about how regimes that are already known for silencing critical voices in their nations are using the pandemic as a means to tighten their grip yeah it's i think something which they which at the end they really use because it gives them the opportunity to to show the strong man that they have a strong state and that journalists and some kind of way hindering them so i think they're using the pandemic also to bring pressure on journalists and we see this in china russia and turkey in iran received around the globe so

that these countries which have a very problematic. attitude on press freedom they using this know to debbie's director peter lindbergh thanks so much for joining us thanks talking to you michael my pleasure and don't forget you can find out more about all the winners of our d w freedom of speech award on our website at www dot com forward slash freedom now for a brief look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world south korea says its troops have exchanged gunfire with north korean forces along their tense border a statement by the military said north korea fired multiple gunshots towards a south korean guard post early on sunday and south korean troops responded with 2 rounds of gunfire no injuries have been reported

a cruise liner ship carrying almost 3000 people has been put under quarantine in the german port of course having one person on board tested positive for covert 19 the ship was transporting staff working for the to travel company one. the pandemic has forced thousands of south africans to queue for food residents of a township near johannesburg waited as an aid agency distributed food mass and disinfectant the government is spending 24000000000 euros on emergency aid. in the united states authorities say people have largely been following social distancing rules as more and more parts of the country reopen businesses in public spaces while the whole world waits for a corona virus vaccine u.s. regulators have approved a drug originally developed to treat a bowl for use in treating covert 1000 patients for president donald trump it's a welcome bright spot in his administration's response to the coronavirus crisis

and is the 1st authorized an american president plagued with accusations of incompetence for his handling of the pandemic flanked by pairs of good news u.s. regulators have fast tracked the emergency use of a can time file drug to treat 1000 patients called rem disappear and you know what that is because that's been the hot thing also in the papers and in the media for the last little while an important treatment for hospitalized coronavirus patients produced by sciences disappear is the 1st drug shown to help fight cope at 19 reducing hospital stays from 15 days to 11. but in 48 hours i was feeling. a lot better i think there were dems appear. gave the extra jumpstart kickstarter whatever to turn a corner critical trials included more than $1000.00 survey really ill people and

compared those treat it with a grim disappear to those who received regular care. we want to make sure nothing gets in the way of these patients getting the medicine so we made a decision to donate about 1500000 bottles of rum disappear we'll be working with the government to determine how best to distribute out over the united states. but while the world waits for a drug that can crush cope at 19 and return life to normal not everyone is calling rim disappear a game changer it doesn't change the fact that we haven't had that many people. and that it's going to affect our economy for many many months because the only real danger. no one knows yet what side effects might come with this new treatment but for now it appears the positive results outweigh the uncertainty. all over the world muslims are having to adjust to celebrating ramadan under

lockdown but in that syria's last rebel stronghold the social distancing message doesn't seem to be getting through for the high number of displaced people medics fear an outbreak of covert 19 there would be disastrous. praying close together without protection every day off to sunset hundreds gather at this mosque and it lead. during ramadan this is perfectly normal but because of the coronavirus pandemic it's highly risky. of course the infection can spread during prayer. but we are in god's hands and the prophet mohammed said that no people will suffer to disasters at the same time. one disaster is syria's war there's currently a cease fire and it led to countries last rebel stronghold much of the infrastructure here is destroyed including hundreds of clinics in the region. there

aren't yet any confirmed cases of corona virus but there aren't many tests either. many people are living their daily lives just like they did before the pandemic this could claim thousands of lives the world health organization is warning. them please and it doesn't result in a crisis zone that already has health care problems where people live very close to each other. the spread of corona virus would be truly catastrophic savalas to. pray at home or online risk free rather than in a mosque this message from the da has hardly gotten through and it. now most people know half turbulence in it as the mountain one of the most terrifying in evil characters in game of thrones but now the icelandic actor is also a world record holder the strong man lifted an incredible 501 kilograms at the athlete named thor's power jam in reykjavik joints and who won the world's strongest man

competition in 2018 said afterwards he was absolutely speechless. you're watching news i'm michael loco in berlin i'll be back with more headlines. at the top of the hour in the meantime check out our website dot com and don't forget to follow us on twitter and instagram at school c c. section. go beyond. the stories that matter to. the truth. whatever it takes. to get the running nut.