machine, you still need to go to set the i said that the mary, you pull a story of resilience rushes more. you crazy. one years since the invasion began, we take a look back and into the future in the new building. slowly, in february on d, w with this is did up the news asia coming up to date, democratic freedoms under attack from governments in asia. beginning in india, where government offices search the premises of the b b. c weeks after a documentary question, prime minister, the inter mall these role in community riots in 2002 plus the press freedom under threatened cambodia as well as the government shot stone and independence read your

outlet for allegedly slandering the prime minister suddenly and the clock is done, tightens already stringent blasphemy laws. critics are pulling the new legislation barring ah i british manager, welcome to d. w. news asia. glad you could join us. indian tax authorities have been searching the offices of the b, b. c for a 2nd day in the cities of delhi and mom, by on tuesday, police seemed off the british broadcasters, deleon moved by offices, preventing anyone from leaving b, b. c. employee said forms were being confiscated in a statement. the bbc said it was fully cooperating with authorities. the official action came just weeks after the b. b. c. s. a documentary, critical of prime minister, read the movie that police prevented from being shown across the country.

the deb lose all the pot, spoke to canal amazon dot india representative of the committee to protect journalists for a response to the such as quite frankly when i heard about the rid on b, b. c. i was shocked because i never thought that the government of india would go after our international outlet and that to a public broadcaster up a major european country. maybe nothing comes of it. that is this whole argument that sometimes the ruling party and politicians generally any. i'm not specifically related to just be to be this always have nothing to hide, then watch what's the problem. but people don't understand that a journalist job is not to be sitting down and answering questions and helping. you know, i feel food shows and cops scanned their computers, their job is to do journalism. and when you are bringing in these kind of harassment into the news room, you are actually hampering and you know, hindering of free flow of information and press freedom. and does this is actually

a part of a larger trend that we already observing in india. and it's a very, very disturbing trend, and now we taught, i mean at least as journalist, we always thought that government would never go off to international publications . but now they have, we don't know the searches are still going on. we still don't know what's going to come of it, but as far as we know so far, it does not based. it's almost seems like quite frankly, it almost seems like a fishing exercise because the government doesn't have any specific allegation against bbc pound indian media being subjected to div back searches in the past as well. unfortunately, in the last couple of years, we actually do, we've been documenting that how this broadly becoming a trend. you know, we recently had police going to the offices of wire before that we had the same id service taking place in the offices of news, laundry news, click, and the one common factor among all these organisations have done some of the other

critical work on the ruling party and their policies. so one has to see this in that context and it's not just one off. it's not that in the last, in the since 2014 who's the 1st such read that's happening on, on our, on an institution. and interestingly, you know, the income tax laws have been amended to bring about these different phrases, you know, soviet is and then a searches and read. they seem to have different meanings, technical meanings. but at the end of the day, when you have bunch of government of officials entering into a news room and spending or whatnot, almost 48 hours, going to be 48 hours in a couple of hours. it disrupt journalism method of creating harassment and intimidation into the journalists and kind of that is also kind of signaling like, you know, if you do things against, i'll against us, i'll give the ruling dispensation will find, you know, some of the other technical loophole to come after you, meanwhile,

in cambodia the government has shut down a well regarded media outlet voice of democracy radio. with what human rights activists are calling and outrageous and ridiculous order. the opposite was shut down after the dryness story, alleging that long time prime minister who sent son had signed a donation on behalf of his father for earthquakes relief in turkey, hans, and called the story slander, the outlet acknowledged and had made a mistake. but who said it hadn't apologized properly. the old be shuttled, rang the headlines and cambodia on monday proposal. the flee already found themselves overnight without a license to broadcast. and without a job. they feel like go with lee has been playing a payroll on important on the community and bringing the boys to that was nice and also wonderful. but before and by bringing all the issues a government. so we

w b, we just read that this could be a big step back. oh, oh press speed along. the cambodian government has said it cancelled. we'll do to protect the dignity of the government. in july there will be fresh elections. and prime minister consent is expected to hand over the reigns to his son. hon. manette . the yo dee on occasion, has been critical of both. they tried to attack me and my son, whom my met both photos and viewers of rio. d came out to protest. gentleman, if apple i'm in really with it, i get only your di speaks about the truth. i am like them. i'm young, your mom. i want you to continue in cambodia. know what this my thought get my i need beauty. obviously the government must not shut them down ma'am. um, but, but uh huh. what, what, what a, as

a family can pick out what the closure has sparked international concern, especially as this is not the 1st newsroom to be shut down in the country. well, i think a number of the journalists here actually are perhaps in their 3rd news room that's been shut down by hans. and because some of them are former journalist from the pump and post and from the cambodia daily. so what we're seeing is a persistence by some very brave a journalist to continue their work. ah, despite all the obstacles at once and is trying to throw in front of them. but it's certainly discouraging. the united states has called for the decision to be rolled back and the decision is particularly troubling due to that shilling impact it will have on freedom of expression and on access to information ahead of the national elections in july. for more than 20 years, v o d has provided objective back based reporting on issues that serve the interest of the cambodian people. we urge emani authorities to reverse this decision.

cambodian authorities, i get to respond to that. but to journalists of free or d, it seems pretty clear that it is time to find a new job ah, to pakistan next for last month, parliament tightened already stringent blasphemy laws. the new laws prescribed punishment for insulting any one connected to the prophet, muhammad capital punishment is already in place for insulting islam or the prophet muhammad, sometimes merely being accused of blasphemy, can lead to mob justice. as was the case last week, a mob descended on a police station in non con our district in eastern punjab province and lynched a man detained for allegedly disagreeing to put on at least 50 suspects for subsequent arrested by the police. and the double report opinions, java jones been up for more context on this finish. just at the outset. what happened in this present instance british, according to the police,

they had in custody. a man named la, much by this, he was accused of death to creating the features of the holy book of flimsy could on and for the state the news of his custody spread at under 80 and hundreds of men gathered at the police station. the jack, this man out of the police station, stripped off his clothes, jagged him on the streets and beacon to death. ah, now the prime minister of the country has condemned. the incident has asked what an investigation. police say that they have splendid. the senior officials who could control the mob. and if they also have reduced 50 men, arrested who they suspect were involved in the act. i mean, it's just the brutality of the crime is shocking. and it leads one to think that merely being accused of blasphemy in pakistan is extremely dangerous in its own right. yes, it is extremely dangerous. so if you are accused of last from me,

that is a high risk that you could become a target of lob justice and past been have been incidents where people who were accused of last from me were gone down, were burnt alive, torture to death in 2020 a pockets on the american was killed, was shocked in a courtroom. and in 2021. a good man who was a manager at the factory in pakistan was also tortured by a lot because he was accused of me. no human rights defend us. see that in most cases, blasphemy laws are used to integrate bit and target minorities and also used to 2nd people. one person been data and they don't. scores hasn't always been like this when it comes to blasphemy laws. and so glad for me. last day, back to the colonial era, but they were made much more strict under a military dictatorship in 1900. it is. but the number of extra judicial killings

have increased in the last decade. and to understand that we have to go to 2011 when governor, out of pocket, most populated by john province, was shocked by his own police security guard to use table a him of blasphemy. not the governor to month. i said wanted to change a block from, you know, as an under block, if any noise be charges, you can fix that penalty if you're charged under blasphemy noise. and he also took up for a christian woman. ultimately, the security guard was hand to debt, but his big recreation led to creation of an extreme right wing of art being pockets and on there said he can be the has since then become a part of focus on wanted to consider them, could dictate that money and speeches by leaders of this are the inspired people to take law into their own hands, especially when it comes to black from civilians. for this being the background vide parliament need to further tighten these laws. despite the fact that

human rights organizations in august and want the government to use these laws, we see that the government is for the trending these laws. now, number one, reason if no one wants to touch this topic, because politicians and bucket on fear that they will have, they will feel the same feed as those politicians who spoke about this issue in the past. so there is a real fear and even making proposing amendments to the dog and put your life at your just having said that human rights organization do say that it did ultimately the responsibility of the government to ensure that these laws are not weaponized against minorities. and also that has been criticism that, that the establishment in the country has used extreme a writing these and that from the noise to divide the work back of political parties. and even political parties have used last, i mean doors and religion to undermine each other. and discovery,

it's the environment for right we parties to to ask and demand for more strict laws finish of it. thank you very much for bringing us a context and that does it for today. there's more stories from the region on our website, the dot dot com, forward slash asia. and as always, you can follow us on facebook and twitter back again at the same time tomorrow. so you've been with come have a g t v highlights you every week in your in box subscribe now. several did in wide wing extremist women's rights regression again, world might be a couple of rate and burned in south africa. people with disabilities more likely to lose their jobs. in the pandemic, black lives matter, protest shine

a spotlight on racially motivated police violence, same sex marriage is being legalized, and more and more countries, discrimination and inequality are part of everyday life. for many we ask why? because life is diversity to make up your own mind. mm. d. w. lead for mines. ah, china and iran meet invasion to strengthen economic ties. well, get analysis on what the deepening alliance me but for the global economic order. also coming up, trade data reveals, have chinese businesses are aging. the russian military defies at western function with how norway is planning to make the most of

a treasure trove of rare are discovered on if the bed this is dw business, i'm paid ferguson welcome. iran sent abraham racy is in china for talks with his counterpart. she's paying, it's the 1st visit of its kind in over 20 years on comes of both countries experienced tension with the united states. right, is traveling with a large delegation which includes several ministers as well as his central bank chief. the 2 leaders will be fine tuning the details of a 25 year to teach the cooperation agreement. as well as being around the largest trading partner. china has a big investment in the country and is a major fire of oil. now to find out more about this visit on the economic ties between the 2 countries, let's bring in t w correspondent totes on in type pay. so what factors of the iranian economy is china i'm most interested in.