so five thirty pm moscow time you're watching our top stories for. a russian court has found members of the controversial punk band pussy riot. and given the. move by ecuador's acceptance of. political refugee. the country. and the road. behind the ongoing attack against the web site. julian assange. concerns among journalists and

activists who fear being prosecuted just for doing their job interview author and journalist wolf she says the u.s. government is especially tough on those exposing officials wrongdoings. naomi wolf author journalist activist thank you for sitting down with r.t. today it's always a question when i first question for you recently u.s. defense secretary leon panetta announced and ordered pentagon officials to begin monitoring major news stations in the u.s. to see if any media outlets are disclosing classified information as a journalist and as an american what is your take on this i mean you know my immediate take is a profound feeling of nausea and its sense that somehow the united states has collapsed into you know the soviet union circa sort of mid thirty's. this is

horribly foreseeable but i can't believe it's come to this. the bush administration began this trajectory. seven or eight years ago by saying ok we're going to start to react to be the espionage act and they threatened to go after the new york times you may remember when they broke the swift banking story about how at that time it seemed so quaint how the government was monitoring people's private financial transactions. but what's so dangerous could have been warning people about for years is that a journalist's job is to publish classified information journalist like first of all this is a white house now to weigh houses obama's and bush's which is systematically overclassifying everything especially wrong doing it specially anything related to what whistleblowers want to release specially you know torture that they've engaged in methods of torture fraud corruption they're classifying it you know i've had

conversations with representatives legal representatives of people who want to know who tell me that they can't tell me how their clients have been tortured because it's classified and they would get in trouble because of the way the government is over classified it's not national security information it's the government you. using classification as a way of protecting its own corruption and fraud but what's so scary about this is that anyone who's a journalist who tells the truth and there's nothing wrong with. their jobs will say and i said this when julian assange was arrested that up and down the eastern seaboard in dinner parties and cocktail parties the elite media stream all we do all day long is talk about classified information and trade classified information share classified information and kind of show how when we have information because it means we are being effective at our jobs that's not the same as leaking it i do agree that someone who actually leaks classified information knows that they're

breaking the law you know i'm not saying there's no reason not to have classification in a working democracy but the job of journalists is to publish classified information that is brought to them that's in the public interest and so now if you've got the government saying they're like literally it's like mafia tactics employed it's come to this the government is same to journalists everywhere in america. we're going to intimidate you and we're going to threaten you and we're we're threatening you with with serious legal penalties like prison time if you do your job and i mean it's like that's what they do in china you know i mean i just can't even believe it's come to this obviously journalists publish classified information because that's how we know we're living in a democracy you brought up joining us on trying to avoid leaks what do you think will happen to him if he ends up in the u.s. i mean in an ideal world obviously i believe in the rule of law in an ideal world

you know he would go safely to sweden and you know the women who have accused him would have their day in court he would have his day in court and justice would be impartial i don't think that's what's happening in his case i think that it's a global. kind of. manhunt to. punish and silence a whistleblower publisher again not a leaker publish a publisher i just want to stress this bradley manning leaked the material allegedly you know and so he has to deal with whatever he's going to use you joining us on the party is the publisher like the new york times exactly it's dan ellsberg is to bradley manning as the new york times is to julian assange much. and so i think that. there is no way that he can. have an impartial trial in sweden but quite apart from that i think i'm very

concerned that there's sort of national pressure on britain and on sweden by the u.s. there's some evidence of this interim creek has a really good investigative citizen journalist has document a lot of the seventh that demonstrates that the intent is to extradite astonished us and then have him be the highest profile you know journalist in guantanamo and. you know where where you go from there people have been there for ten years without charge or trial and i think that that's not just to silence him again i think it's also to send a message to anyone else who might leak you know compromising or embarrassing or problematic material about the united states government earlier this year you threw your support behind a class action lawsuit filed against us president barack obama and his defense secretary over the national defense authorization act when you were reporting about the bill you said in quote included powers that could bring the authorities of

guantanamo to america's courthouses streets and backyards in may a judge suspended section ten twenty one of the n.d.a. you were actually in the courthouse it's it's quite amazing in this this judge more than anyone so ok the national defense authorization act is absolutely terrifying piece of legislation so section ten twenty one was the section that explicitly said this gives the president the power to round up anyone without charge or trial and hold them forever. chris hedges a very brave journalist brought this forward as well as many activists including an occupy activist from london and. the president's lawyers were in the court and i was there. listening to this and to my shame there was like there were like one and a half reporters and in the room you know none of them from each or u.s. news outlets well the most important thing ever to have happened to that point was happening and the government's lawyers basically confirmed that chris hedges could

be detained forever for reporting on the taliban or reporting on people who could be classified as enemy combatants they confirmed that that was indeed the case or if someone wrote a book about you know enemy combatants that in any way was sympathetic to the point of view that you know the u.s. had too much power in this part of the world or you know crazy examples of sweeping powers to detain american citizens and to criminalize dissent criminalize journalism and so this very brave. judge listened to the evidence which was hard to miss because. it was so confirmed by these lawyers that that's what this would do and she suspended that part of it and so saved you know the constitution where the due process clause is which guarantees everyone in america the right to a trial i still can't understand why this story specifically the n.d.a.

has not been a bigger story in mainstream media in the us this was a huge huge issue and this bill was signed into law when people are celebrating new year's eve new year's eve and then somebody heard about it i mean as you meet it why do you think that at least you know i want to i want to ask you that what when you talk to journalist guy friends who are journalists you know senior people who are running major news sites and pins i'd say did you know that the due process clause was suspended on new year's eve and they're like what no surely not and they don't believe it because they didn't see you know a wave of coverage any coverage would be buried obfuscated and no one's giving these people orders to not cover it i was listening to these historic arguments of the american presidents lawyers saying yes we have the right to round up journalists that journalists have the right to hold him forever and there was no

a.b.c. no n.b.c. no n.p.r. no c.n.n. no fox news nobody was there you know and the best explanation i have is like denial you know let me be it's such a huge story that no one can really believe this is really happening so we can't cover it but i do think that what we're seeing right now and i predicted this would happen in november of last year is that like why the violent crackdown against occupy why the violent criminalization of dissent why the bullying of journalists now. i think it's linked to what we're seeing in the news right now of this huge fraud being uncovered in the banking sector h.s.b.c. you know billions of dollars in fraud bank of america wells fargo barclays bank of england fraud fraud fraud not like marginal fraud but clearly systemic and i just wrote a piece about this for the guardian you know clearly systemic tim geithner finds out about in two thousand and eight you know writes an e-mail doesn't leak the news

doesn't call a press conference and then you know becomes treasury secretary so it's clear that you know there's a small group of guys and girls who are in on massive massive massive fraud and. so the occupy movement journalists you know threaten to uncover a lot of crimes if the books are ever opened in an e-mail world in an electronic world these crimes are forever last forever so that now is my working theory about why we're seeing such sudden violent crackdown on reporting on dissent on whistleblowers that otherwise a lot of people would go to jail for the crimes that they've been committing occupy wall street is a movement that really raised awareness and pointed attention to the fact of money flowing from wall street to washington influencing policies the economic problems have not gone away since the fall of two thousand and eleven they've only gotten worse occupy wall street though has sort of died down

a bit why do you think that is well in the fall of two thousand and eleven you know american citizens gathered together and spoke up and protested in occupy public spaces and they were shot with rubber bullets they were given you know lengthy jail sentences they were arrested for staying on the sidewalk as i was and my partner was you know lawfully obeying the law were arrested oh yeah. yeah i was arrested for standing on a sidewalk telling occupy protesters what their first amendment rights were to protest. you know and that we were facing fifteen days in rikers island which is a violent prison yeah it makes you think twice about going out to use your first amendment rights i mean occupy protesters were you know mazed they were power hosed they were. they were locked up for seventeen hours and you know for britain to use the bathroom they were tortured you know as much as the civil system allows you know every activist you know assumes that their e-mails are monitored their phone

calls are monitored i mean it's just a complete sense of big brother is a hair's breadth away i think i am frightened seeing countries like britain sleepwalking into okaying legislation to institute. this kind of surveillance but really in europe people still feel they have some privacy they can go to march and they can go home. i'm sorry to say that when you get this matrix of surveillance plus police brutality. plus laws that the system due process it's very effective at breaking down protests now let me flip it around and say having studied closing societies and societies that we opened democracies mass protest is the key to reopening democracies and we will thank you very much missing don't think things.

should be good laboratory here mccurry was need to build the needs most sophisticated which fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything. to teach music reason why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are all today.

the. members of the controversial. guilty of religious hatred of course the following protests. are given asylum but. moved by. political refugee. will not be allowed to leave the country. now with all the action from the world of.

hello welcome to the latest sports to that aligns. dynamic boss former cuban coach dunga trust who has become the new manager of the now i want to go on a three year deal. done deal robin van persie completes his thirty eight million dollar move from offshore to manchester united on a four year contract while you come out rich he said to lay on the trail. hundred feet and the big champion andy murray crashes out of this is nothing on the leading three while number thirty eight if you're even sharper. but first a football way down but rescue has become the new manager of the number moscow on a three year deal after leaving his role as kabongo john cheese day the former chelsea right back left his job as head coach because of the side this three years he took the side back to the premier league in his first season in charge and followed that up with successive six and placed the dishes the forty four year old

sanctions for much of their fans for their support but said he's looking ahead to a new challenge the new club did i'm not going to force last season though i currently languishing at the bottom of the table after four matches having failed to score a goal however they are through to the playoff round of europa league seven two aggregate thrashing scottish side done during the night it. was staying with football and robin van persie has completed his twenty four city as a thirty eight million dollar move from austin to manchester united after signing a four year contract the twenty nine year old neverland strikeout had spent eight years with the gunners winning the f.a. cup in his first season and he finished his last campaign with a league best thirty goals and overall tally of forty four in fifty seven games for club and country to those coming against united or meanwhile his new manager sir alex ferguson says he's happy with his strike force for the fast approaching new season but persie joins wayne rooney and others danny welbeck and she can go up front as the red devils prepare for their season opener at everton on monday. if

you go back to the season when i had to. take is in europe so i think i'm going to. have a poor quality is committed to this cause is the moment. meanwhile another chance when you say we saw are assigned to sunderland on a one year deal the thirty four year old former left talked about the end of last season and could make his debut at arsenal on saturday while frail madrid are finally close to signing top of midfielders they come out rich after increasing their offer to forty seven million dollars the twenty six year old is expected to hold talks with way out officials to undergo a medical and within the next twenty four hours you spurs manager says the club

which try to replace the window before the transfer window closes in a fortnight while focusing on saturday's tricky here at newcastle. going to newcastle is not an easy trip. to draw. a difficult game as well. leading. to the final minutes ago of the game so. you know i think it's it's two teams that want the champions league qualification you could say that fighting for the same objectives we want to make sure that this year we can push through it further than that and we will have to see if we are able to do that progressively. now on to tennis and with ten days to go before the start of the u.s. open the final grand slam of the season and then pick champion andy murray has crashed out of the cincinnati last as the briton surprisingly lost to well the thirty eight is jerry mitchell of the mary had cruised toss his opponent on the

four previous times played this time in the third round the french made it only two sets to claim a six poor six four victory and a place in the quarterfinals. so critically well. you know broken three times in a second which isn't good enough and. you know broken a couple times a second i love close games on this first and second. chances. and next up the shark the is juan martin del potro as the argentinian soar off viktor troicki in three sets to victory boost the world number nine's record against the server to six wins from six. meanwhile roger federer had no ground problems as he beat nineteen year old australian bernard tomic six to six for what number was on the take on american modish. the local favorite out to john

runner up that beat radek stepanek also in straight sets six three six three for his first victory over the czech in five match thank god also through a second seed novak djokovic the serbian was handed a passage into the last eight as they collide i think a retired cop losing the first that six love hard times continue for the russian who's been without a title after more than fifteen months while djokovic is hunting for his second straight and fourth of the season. members are. standing in his way is twelve seed in chile which the crowd advances after beating public and the heart of spain and. thank. god on the inside a limbic champion serena williams beat. poland it was a back and forth match in form serena only needed just over an hour to book a berth in the quarterfinals the american is looking for her fourth consecutive

title and lifted her fifth wimbledon trophy the last. one was also a joy for serena's elder sister venus as the olympic doubles champion dropped only three games on her way to beating italian sora irani six three six i. was bored with. it it's been almost two years now playing football in jail we just play baby football and not every day so i need to work and work hard make sure i'm fine physically technically and we. moving on the seven time moto g.p. champion valentino rossi has defended his decision to return to yamaha next year the italian rider is preparing for this weekend's indianapolis grand prix in america with his current team getty the thirty three year old has now signed a two year deal to rejoin the japanese manufacturer following a disappointing two year stint with the italian outfit this means rossi will once

again join rival and current standings leader for gay runs over the switch came under fire from former duke county rider casey started out but rossi has explained his u. turn. so it's a change of t.v. rossi but it was a change of sport for some of his fellow riders as the likes of danny but those are in better speeds enjoyed a very american day out ahead of the race with a baseball lesson to take their minds of their motivation to tears while colleen edwards and the physio so were among those who were practicing their swing on the years. as a game of golf fuelled old rivalries away from the tarmac. we're moving on to ice hockey west siberian u.s. team the colts are looking to have a russian team and second straight victory as the city host the junior club well come from on closer every points it might be more difficult this time around. stands up between russia and canada the certainly one for the ages but this year

the world cup which will be held in russia for the second time is another great ice bucket for the sion playing for the genesee was a year ago it was russia's read over me the early days the inaugural trophy following a confident win against the czech side energy the international ice hockey federation was so impressed with the introductory tournaments that it decided to award the junior club world cup a permanent place on its calendar all the fischel events the unprecedented decision by the i.i.h.f. to sanction it tournaments in only the second year of its existence generated huge interest from the world's top junior leagues with ten teams from europe and north america jeter story the battle for the world's top globe trophy in siberia next week but for now they are in moscow embrace in their first international experience my first time playing an attorney like this you know so far away from home and you know i'm very very excited we don't really know what to expect so far that's kind

of why we're here watching this game but but yeah we're really excited and we know it's going to be a tough tough tough and now we're just going to interrupt as well as president go across to the news desk so it's back to more. like a mosque at this is our rory sushi i do apologize for interrupting kate sports there but i was you know we've been following the verdict on the sentencing all the ongoing trial of the all punk girl band pussy riot they were found guilty of hooliganism incited by religious hatred i now understand the verdict the sentencing is two years to everyone let's cross over to art he's pretty proud of. and you can delve deeper into this breaking story for us right here on r.t. no i apologize no we lost him now we have him with awesome power we have it all the speed all of us standing by outside the courthouse as cross over now live and get the latest from peter so you know if you can hear me a little point do tell us what the maid as we know. will be the judge has

sentenced a whole three members of pussy riot to two years in prison that is just filtering through to the crowds that have gathered outside here right now be able to hear they haven't taken that news particularly well the majority of supporters people out here at the moment who are supporters of pussy riot there is still a large number though who are opposed to the girls and their women and their actions and the judge in delivering her guilty verdict said that the three had committed a gross violation of public older and had clearly expressed hatred based on religious affiliation she went on to say that the the choice of christ the savior russia's main cathedral is the the site for that demonstration was clearly intended to heighten the insult that they wanted to make towards the the older docs church in knots why she found them guilty of hooliganism with the intent to incite racial

hatred now backing up the point she cited as evidence that was found on computers videos that showed the women preparing and rehearsing for the performance of punk rock prayer in christ the savior where they called on the virgin mary to read russia of blood in me and putin knows videos apparently in the words of the judge and showed say a clear hatred of the religion of all the doxy on an intent to to it to insult the real issue while the the crowd as you can hear is this now shouting free pussy riot. that's not going to be happening they're being sentenced by the judge. there has been a very tinderbox not disappear here throughout the day we've seen over thirty people detained by police this was following basically the the both sides both those four and those opposed to pussy riot essentially breaking out into the series

of heated arguments occasionally those arguments spilling over into small scale acts of violence a few punches thrown around well over thirty people have been detained by the police the police have now cleared the road just to my my left here in an attempt to gain some semblance of order again here but as that news filters through the crowd that pussy riot will spend these three women will spend time in jail will be keeping you abreast of what the reaction is from here outside the court all right indeed and he's up there all over their life outside the courthouse in central moscow just to go in for one more time peter the all girl punk band pussy riot guilty of hooliganism incited by religious hatred all of them sentenced to two years in prison. so i don't have control of the thank you. part well it's certainly there we can only imagine there's going to be comments coming from all over the world regarding this the sentencing just announced the all girl band pussy riot all three members now sentenced to two years in prison it's exploding on the

internet let's talk now to. the host of the host of the website program why you should be now in the program here what do you what are you thinking the reaction so far that you're seeing in just moments now of the internet oh there's definitely some negativity here know when you look at the internet like i've been saying it's been talking if there's. a lot of the more liberal people the supporters of course they're going nuts and they're posting everything that this is awful and on the other side of people who have a more religious take on things i think feel very justified my personal opinion is to be honest usually for the thing they call hooliganism you get fifteen days from what i've heard so i really wish they were. i've got fifteen days to more standard punishment but the court didn't agree with my position. but as we know i mean this is just come out moments ago here where we actually showing live pictures from the courtroom at the moment the girl sentenced to two years in prison they don't frankly look terribly down about it although some smiles there are indeed.