silenced by the government security forces in today's iraq journalists who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten or just simply killed seems to be a high level of intolerance for dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or of particular leaders use it felt to me a freelance journalist showed r.t. some shocking youtube footage from the protests this february that explicitly show iraqi security forces targeting him because he's a journalist. he shouts which is arabic for journalist over and over again but it makes the police more violent three or four maybe five. right police were around me one of them slapped me in the had other one kicked me in the by and they kind they know grabbed me fast yousif managed to escape arrest thanks to two foreign journalists who intervened but since the arrest of one of his

colleagues he stopped covering protests altogether it became hard for journalists for example to go to tahrir square i myself i don't go there i stopped there a long time ago not because. i'm not that scared to be arrested. you know i'm worried to be mistreated we tried to speak to journalists who've been arrested in baghdad but everyone was too afraid to appear on camera so we came up here to the more peaceful kurdish region to see if the situation was any different here i met a young photographer who was arrested while covering similar protests in the kurdish region but after the interview he called to tell me he was scared of reprisals from the government and asked to blur his face and change his name after his arrest in april he was imprisoned for four days and tortured. six men came to the room and started to shout at me and beat me with cables then they gave me electric shocks they wanted me to admit that i hadn't been at the protests. when he

was finally released after four days a friend took pictures of his wounds and published them in a local magazine immediately ahmed was rearrested as a punishment for publicizing his initial arrest. came and they held me for three days and made me sign a document declaring that i would not talk to the press again back in baghdad the government spokesman admitted to r.t. that individuals in the iraqi government were indeed using their powers to silence the press not just that people been. using there but this is again is not protected by the government the government is against that and i think and you can see that there are people in the midst of interior for example they have misusing their power against the citizen and there is this year and that is they keep accountable and some of them has been fired almost nine years after the invasion u.s. troops are home but what of the country they're leaving behind with politicians using the security forces to silence journalists it appears that iraq lacks any

credible press freedom or freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer r t iraq. we're asking what do you think will happen to. iraq now that u.s. forces have left so far the sound the bulk of opinion is that the country slipping into telling us almost a quarter versus thinking it's going to end worse the same number think iraq is willing to throw us back to government and turn in their own future less than ten percent said iraq we develop into a western style democracy along on two r.t. dot com that of your points. a suicide bombing that killed up to twenty six people in the syrian capital has heightened tensions between the government and the opposition attack apparently targeted a police bus where most of the time filters are said to have been civilians becomes as are of league monitors who are assessing violence in the country due to give their first report this weekend and to government protesters rallied after the blast blaming the syrian government for the violence group international

intervention in jordan based a political analyst. says the bombing is a sign that an armed opposition is actively trying to destabilize the country. right from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful but there were many incidents of. gangs perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians and of course there were denying it the so-called opposition denying it for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terrorist acts are a clear indication that there are armed gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt life in syria they are not aiming their aggression only against their regime but against the whole syrian people against the whole syrian obviously what we where we are witnessing in syria is that their revolution but actually it

is a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the city of review before the whole area has nothing to do with democracy and freedom and that there are certain. forces international forces and local forces as well which are actually trying to change the situation in the area for geopolitical reasons. respective of the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people on the whole area. also ahead this hour the man who brings hollywood to muskat the american vineyards dolls and studios to russia that's today's pathfinder explains how the succeeding in developing the skills needed magic. to fix the economy what should they be doing. pumping more money and. pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions into really good. residence in new york to our people that would go about

fixing the struggling global economy. orthodox christians worldwide are celebrating christmas day for the julian calendar web believe us celebrate the birth of christ thirteen days off to west and worship as it also marks the end of a forty day fast and two hundred million people follow the eastern tradition in one of the oldest christian countries george anwesha began the day with midnight mass. carried branches to me and response of that christmas ritual the funds are believed to warm the community with love and to move into intolerance. of peace on a thoughtless at midnight mass at the christ the savior cathedral in moscow so. great seeing christmas that here in russia was ushered in with a traditional service here at the christ the say because the jewel in the sense that of the russian capital now that service presided over by the patriarch of

moscow and all russia kirill it's all of the russian orthodox church attended by well the great new good the dignitaries old russian society president dmitri made to get it in there as well as all the see me a pig is attending this church service around five thousand people in total crammed into the christ the savior could see more of them in fact actually taking places around the outskirts of the cathedral to just try and get a view of the church hopefully something what was going. to hear the bells that had been ringing out to celebrate the birth of jesus christ now. question it always comes up is why is christmas being celebrated in january now this is due to the fact that the russian orthodox church as well as some other branches all the docs christianity and the julian calendar as opposed to the calendar used by western christianity which means in russia as well as other countries christmas

falls on the seventh of january huge day in the old calendar and something that has become a real tradition here in russia opening in one nine hundred ninety seven the traditional christmas. christ the savior. on a festive feeling continues online on the orthodox christmas celebrations here in russia. and see the full of christmas address. also stranded in space and amateur astronomer manages to film footage of the russian probe that's stuck in orbit and which will soon for.

more now on the foreigners who are successfully pioneering business in russia today's pathfinder. used to be a restaurateur in los angeles until deciding one day to leave it all behind hollywood's man in russia has already brought scores of bands to the country. i basically ended up moving to russia all by accident in one thousand and ninety eight i was asked by a russian friend in los angeles if i could bring a hollywood studio to moscow because mayor luzhkov was interested in building multiply cinemas and wanted a hollywood studio partner i had friends that were running warner brothers they sent head of international theatres with me gosh my my first trip was very impressionable i couldn't understand how so many young people i was meeting were

making tens of millions of dollars a year and some of them millionaires before they were thirty and these were some of the things that made me realize there's a lot of opportunity here there's not a lot of people who are doing hollywood business there hasn't been a lot of contact and interaction with celebrities i love a challenge what could be more challenging than moving to russia and trying to develop and create a business here for us with a real i didn't know any actors but i started meeting them just to bring them to russia or can that project the russian comedy that's going to shoot in america steven seagal zola he told me they'll do a couple days for two hundred fifty thousand dollars bail kilmer's interested in helping out. then wealthy russians started asking for other people and i just started calling everybody i knew in l.a. who knew a producer a new a director and i called them from russia after eight years i brought over eighty

actors and bands to russia i think it's very important for you to go to los angeles with me in the next few months and we should meet with you hopefully make your goals using a different actors you would like to do cameos in this film the biggest challenge to overcome is gaining people's trust and performing one example is recently i was asked to bring john claude van damme to chechnya for the president's birthday and day or. the city and rose live music because they don't want to go through all of it in my heart. it's a place most people are very afraid to go to of course john clyde you know his expenses need to be paid and others for him to go there and it's very frightening dealing and working with chechnyan friends knowing that if something went wrong didn't come and money is paid. who are people going to come calling and looking for asking for the money back and it took a long time for me to win people's confidence that they would send money to an

actor or a band in advance russia it costs more than a lot of other parts of the world because russians have been willing to pay more willing to pay more celebrities would be coming for less but when they have people making such big offers just to get them how can you refuse so russia's been great to help push up their prices jennifer lopez gets two million dollars to go and perform you know in russia and kazakhstan and some other places if you're american in the u.s. we understand our system how to set up a business where we can easily research any product or any idea we have to find out if it's been saturated or not in russia it's really difficult because it's so hard to get to the important people that make the decisions when i have to work with a person who works for someone here i get nowhere i can't do a deal because they need to see so much because their jobs on the line their names

on the line they're so afraid that just drags on and drags on whatever i'm talking to them about when you can pick up the phone and call the head of the company or someone on the board of directors i know in a week if i can do this deal or not with them rush is just much more individual life you really need to know some important people here to have success you know i was thinking you're from year which is part of the reason i never learned russian is i just thought ok one year from now i'm sure something will come up back in the l.a. in the u.s. i'll go back i'll start doing movies but it's just so exciting here every day and so many new things and new deals and new opportunities and that i haven't been able to leave. well from making money to losing it now as we ask whether it's time to let the public take over tackling the world's debts troubles on seas or harshness to meet

people in new york to get their tips for the politicians in charge. today everyone's upset with how the world leaders are handling the economy so how would you fix that this week let's talk about that country do you think it's doing a good job. let me say. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem in greece. in greece wow. i do you don't know yet because i know i say no no no maybe that's why it's going all around a good word to fix is each of our problems personally so for all out there working hard and spending money to local communities then that's you know a way of part of building up each local community eventually the whole country gets stronger right yeah isn't it time maybe for the government to stop trying to fix it

and let people and companies fix their own wallets i think that's a good answer yes to fix the economy what should they be doing. should be pumping more money into. pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions in trillions and done a good so why is that the solution that we keep going back to the only thing we can do so they can also see just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves. people can sort of themselves not a matter of not throwing money into the economy it's a matter of living within our means if you don't have enough revenue then you have to cut spending yes so governments are trillions of dollars in debt so it sounds like they have no money right well they have to pay obviously you can't stop everything all at once but you do have to you do have to pull back and you have to come up with a reasonable plan to at least stop the hemorrhaging but we don't just keep printing money and we don't keep inflating government so that's why most of the european countries are having trouble because the government is sixty percent larger than it

should be so why why do you and i see business and government leaders. can't because we don't get paid by the people that are behind the scenes and since i'm not ready for a campaign ad campaign contributions by people that he might help to politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change the color me from an oil economy to something else we've got heaps of people with lots of brains and we need to be doing something about the environment do you think those people with brains are in positions of power. so it seems like with the system that's currently in place for how world leaders get elected it might be time for solutions to come from someplace else. as the taliban prepares to open up a political office in qatar the u.s.

has indicated it's ready to back initiative it's seen as a crucial step towards peace talks between the ten minutes long time and it's not about also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from guantanamo bay he's right a contributor who shall believes the moves could signal a major american defeat a decade long conflict. uncle sam has just recently authorizes the opening up the official office for the taliban in doha qatar for. the opening of the taliban office doesn't bode well because he effectively has been cut from this willing in dealing between americans and taliban on the other side for americans it looks like a real elopes a deal it looks like they have accepted demands by the taliban that is to keep that card as a government out of the loop and as for telamon themselves they look like one and

only winners in these shadowy negotiation game and when the taliban open out their office in doha they might as well door in it with the two nameplates with the calls from the counterinsurgency doctrine the first if we are not winning we are losing and dressed for the us armed forces and second if we are not losing we are winning for the taliban themselves. well look at some other main news from around the world now and first to the tragedy in new zealand where a hot air balloon burst into flames after hitting power lines killing eleven people on board two of those who died had jumped out of the basket in desperation before the promise of the ground was new zealand's deadliest disaster in almost fifty years. massive crowds have gathered again and capitalist suspicions grow their presence without any need for his agreement to quit the protesters also want the release of all political prisoners held since anti-government protests began

a hearing that position in this. news the country's unrest to stay in power despite signing originally back deal to hand control to his vice president in exchange for the immunity. but outspoken human rights activist in bahrain has been hospitalized after his lawyer said it was a brutal police beating at an anti-government protest will rogers was eventually hit on the head and face with sticks kicked by officers the government says police found him injured participating in an unauthorized much range shiite majority began campaigning for more rights from the city on a key ready to go. all the time to bring in more over russia close up as we continue to explore the country's far east.

they have region lies on the chinese border and is russia's main gateway to the pacific it's also a center of coal and wood exports to the heavily populated and fuel hungry asian economies but as ulti told both and discovered keeping industry alive that doesn't have to be expensive tradition. borrow street in russia's far east is becoming a growing sense for export to the hungry economies. in the south china south korea and japan increasing material exports of ward and coal are going out to the pacific and south and it's that they were looking at in my report this monster called coal stacker is the new face of russia's far east coast it can load over four thousand tons of coal an hour into ships at this rapidly expanding sea terminal this year they exported ten million tonnes of the stuff almost exclusively south asian markets but we've noticed there's

a cool boom of coal consumption worldwide has increased so this part covers almost all of asia from the count comes from some of russia's largest deposits five hundred monitors in them and he joins the oil and timber flowing out of the region in ever greater quantities tugboats maneuver the ships into place through storms and the winter cold and even the most modern tankers once on their way to helped along by a much older technology all down this vast new ship internals are springing up to supply overseas markets will all see very foundations presented by this life pass which longing for help makes a russia's gateway to the pacific hundreds of lighthouses dot the coast all the way from the border with north korea up to the arctic. victor has been manning his lighthouse for over thirty years but he's glad he's not too far out into the

wilderness more disco's are we close enough to the nearest town look at it another lie housekeepers are stuck out in the tiger without even roads sometimes a ship or helicopter to deliver supplies there's no other way to come and go big has not had a ship run aground since the early one nine hundred ninety s. using bears moose and tigers visit his lighthouse and say's he never grows board. the ever changing seas great far from feeling lonely he talks of the remand to susan being such a secluded spot on the coastline. i used to go down to the bay if i am catching crabs and snort a fine then my wife and kids will join me and we'll have breakfast on the shore and watch the sun in the summer this whole feel right on reasons in blue. to retires next year he says he's come to love the sport like robinson crusoe. and while he can remember the pristine beauty of his coastline others are seeing it sailing into

the future with his talk a little bit more about the bar often the experience of moving here from abroad is the main the holiday came here from britain. self is trying to arrange itself trying to use moving out of the soviet times and into the modern modern age with industry that also working on a new cosmodrome what you know about the new developments here i know that is very very important to local area and you know that it's improving transport links all the time people are finally investing in the far east which is obviously going to be very good for the economy i mean i'm here because my fiance is working for an oil refinery and so more investment there and this cousin jane is going to i think only improve putin said it was one of the biggest and most important projects that's happening in russia at the moment so yes i think it's up and coming this. someone who's come from a different culture from outside what would you say to what the people who are

thinking. there is possibly business which injuries but should i come here what would you say to them. i mean it's worth a try how did during your russian look at this important and very few restaurants or cafes where they have an english menu and and things like that i think when i don't speak russian people find it frustrating rather than think so i'd bet that in mind prices. sorry for us is extortionate. well you can go. of invention well there we go from someone who has made the leap out to the far east so. it's not going to get any warmer here but it seems that with future with the development of the region it is going to get more connected to the outside world. where a few minutes the screenwriter. explains how he multi-talented crip. headlines.

i had a family i lived in a fairly nice community was there which was an upscale it was just like you know our society ok then they started showing up what happened was my company decided i could get cheap labor and they got rid of us sure these are.

the rules of the eaglets legally we have to get up every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills and we have to do it and that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the last i figure. here's one of the trails into the united states. i watch and they run run down my property and about this noise. well the bowl champion the carcass from coming to the wire is protecting the country i'm the kind of guy who doesn't mind goodness panch dirty so i come out here you know we're all immigrants as well that we all care some sorry ass. the little.

subsists. spots.

recap of our top story. with american troops now out of iraq concerns are mounting the what's being left behind is proving deadly for journalists who saw the instant and tortured by police for speaking out against the government. the suicide last targeting a police force that killed twenty four people in syria's capital as western tensions between the opposition and government leaders blame the attack on terrorists protests is finding its increasingly hard to place just peaceful demonstrators. and christmas has come from millions of christians around that

point two million three hundred thousand celebrations by attending traditional midnight masses. to a director in photographer vincent perez we'll see how he manages to juggle his creativity. technology innovation all the least of elements around russia we've got the future . hello again and welcome to spotlight the interview.