and explore fascinating world heritage sites. w and world heritage 360 get the map now. this is to get me news live from berlin torturing fellow honors journalists around the world with our annual freedom of speech award we highlight the courage and determination of reporters persecuted for exposing the truth about the coronavirus pandemic also coming up south korea says troops exchanged gunfire across the border with north korea the shots along the world's most fortified frontier come

a day after the north's leader reasserting sortie in a public appearance. i'm michael okuda welcome to day is world press freedom day and we begin our broadcast with something we here at d.f.w. are proud to announce the freedom of speech award this year the award highlights journalists who have been persecuted because of their reporting of the corona virus pandemic well only naming 17 individuals but they represent all those journalists bloggers and citizens around the world who have to fight restrictions on press freedom to report on the coronavirus michelle bachelet united nations high commissioner for human rights paid 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 journalists 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 michelle bachelet united nations high commissioner for human rights there we have this closer look now at some of the journalists were singling out this year for their courageous reporting take a look. 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. when i 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 han. would 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 changed last 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 is strictly cattails government friendly media outlets have been spreading misinformation about the corona crisis independent journalists are feeling the pressure. and in

a minute sheena an internationally renowned investigative journalist received death threats after reporting on the coronavirus in chechnya and legibly from chechen president runs on contour of himself. the organization reporters without borders has documented a record number of 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 longoria the w.'s director general for self welcome sir it's great to see you on the set yeah hi michel must see 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 has an effect on freedoms

press freedom of expression and i think this is something we should be very careful and with and so we decided not to name one single person but to give tribute to all these journalists who are working in dangerous circumstances imagine it would be difficult given the 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 lower 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 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 which 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 were been reporting about the coronavirus and they only quoted some guy from 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 the 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 that the strong man that they have a strong state and the 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 received in russia and turkey in iran received

around the globe so that these countries which will have a very problematic. attitude on press freedom they're using this now to debbie's director peter lindbergh thanks so much for joining us thanks talking to you michael my pleasure now you saw some of this year's award winners behind me there on the video wall and you can find out more about all the winners of our d w freedom of speech ward on our website at www dot com forward slash freedom we're going on now south korea says its troops have exchanged gunfire with north korean forces along their tense border it's the 1st cross border shooting incident in more than 2 years a statement by the military said the 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 the incident comes a day after north korean leader kim jong un know peered in public for the 1st time

in 3 weeks ending speculation about his health. following the story for us is correspondent frank smith in seoul frank can you give us the latest on his border shooting. well as you mentioned according to south korea's joint chiefs of staff at 741 this morning north korea fired what are believed to be 4 shots to a south korean guard post and share one county that's along the d.m.z. border between north and south korea south korea also immediately broadcast a warning to north korea that they cease this firing and responded with 2 separate volleys of several shots on their own this violates according to the joint chiefs of staff a comprehensive military agreement that the 2 koreas signed back in 2018. now as you know the border between these $22.00 countries is the world's most heavily

fortified should we be worried about an escalation that's correct we do need to remember the d.m.z. is anything but that 3 it is an unmanned sort of buffer zone between the 2 koreas but on either side of that is an extraordinary amount of fencing within it there are a lot of land mines and there are $2000000.00 troops faced off against each other in north korea and south korea with $30000.00 u.s. troops here in south korea it is routine sort of area of flashpoint between the 2 sides including as recently as $27000.00 in november when a north korean soldier defected to the south and there were some shots fired at that time. you know anyone who watches the news can't help thinking that the shooting comes a day after north korea broadcast images of their leader kim jong un reappearing in public after a 20 day absence might those fired shots be something of

a statement. well that's entirely possible you know looking into why north korea does a lot of things this is a subject an industry of speculation here with experts a lot of times people suggest it's a message to the international community about who is in charge and certainly there was a lot of speculation about who was in charge in north korea with all the health sort of rumors that had been circulating before a north korean leader kim jong un reappeared just a couple of days ago correspondent frank smith thanks for that. to sport now and despite 3 positive tests for the grown a virus at cologne football club the biggest leaguers bid to resume matches has received vocal backing from germany's interior and sport minister hall c. hoffa anthony howard is following this story for us good to see you anthony i got to ask you what did the minister have to say stunning woods in music of years of

football fans and the clubs who want to restock quite a fund the shadow proposed by the german league plausible and supported 3 stop in my the context is those 3 positive tests the cologne football club when everyone was worried for the more he went on they will continue to be risks for the shadow of matches and for the classification if there is any further contamination he's doing 2 really important things he's backing at the spot what happened at cologne already and he's looking forward ensuring what could happen if there's going to be more positive test the saying you've got my backing it's quite incredible speaking of his backing how significant is his backing at this time the message is really important the timing is almost remarkable to be honest with you just when legitimate legitimate concerns of being asked and 3 days before they officially mading happen 16 states get to get together to make the official decision with the federal government he's preempting it and all but giving it the green light to spot positive tests who uses the minister for sport but coming up before it is

absolutely remarkable the result was what grabs you hear the words a strong but it's the result of. they were all tested the solidarity was tested of the clubs of the of the government and before the official decision has come out and said oh but this resumption is going to happen they are going to make this happen it's not official yet but if you're a fan you'd say i stuck to be a fridge. i like that and then you have a sport thanks so much as mine. most people no have to or bjornson adds the mountain one of the most terrifying and evil characters on game of thrones but now the icelandic actor is also a world record holder yes you heard that correctly the strong man lifted an incredible 501 kilograms at the aptly named power gym in reykjavik. won the world's strongest man competition and 28000 said afterwards he was absolutely speechless. i think we know who the real king of the

north is you're watching deja news i'm michael in berlin i'll be back with more headlines as always at the top of the hour we'll see that. happiness is for everyone schumann penises are very different from primates you know we have a totally ridiculous amanda sized view of nature and they're thinking that this is climate change crisis sex how to feed us and 3 books you get smarter for free t w brooks.