the number of victims killed in the volgograd train station blast rises to sixteen as investigators search for who's behind the terrorists. as the year draws to a close we look at the impact of austerity in the eurozone with nations like greece demoted to emerging markets status while others like ireland exit the bailout program with piles of debt and unemployment us. media organizations are simply a branch of the establishment. we can leave julian assange talks with r.t. about media freedom in his organization's new film depicting challenges whistleblowers face in getting out the truth.

in moscow i match reza good to have you with us here on r t our top story this hour seven of the people wounded in a suicide blast in volgograd in southern russia have been transferred to moscow all in extremely serious condition meanwhile investigators are trying to determine who carried out the explosion that ripped through the main railway station there killing sixteen people and injuring scores are he's margaret howell has more from boulder right. volgograd busy train station that was rocked by the blast of a terrorist bomb on sunday afternoon shards of metal ripped through an area around a security checkpoint as passengers waited for their luggage to be inspected officials say the bomb was equivalent to at least ten kilos of t.n.t. and only the security barrier prevented this scene of devastation from becoming much more but it's impossible to calculate the toll something like this has on its victims many are still reeling. from i bent down to collect my documents when

i saw a flash of light and there was a blast i was thrown back by the explosion when i came to my senses a man who was carrying me only outside was i able to get a breath of air and sought to understand what was happening to my son father and niece were inside the train station when the gloss went off they're all in intensive care now they're badly injured they were headed for a train to moscow but never made it. well a nine year old girl in critical condition her mother was killed in sunday's blast also two young boys believed to be cousins they also died from the bombing of the train station one of their fathers is alive in critical condition at a hospital and a second bomb was later discovered it had failed to detonate investigators are now looking into the identity of the person or persons who carried this out it's now

suspected the attacker was male despite earlier reports of a so-called black widow suicide bomber this is the second time in just a few months that this southern russian city has been the target of extremist october suicide blast on a passenger bus which killed six and over thirty others is still raw in the memories of people here security has been tightened throughout the country but officials stressed that security in russia's olympic city of sochi has. never been in question. just about always naturally the main focus is now on the way security will be provided in sore cheek but it's worth mentioning there's a great difference between volgograd railway station and the olympic games in terms of security so worries about the safety of the olympics absolutely baseless. governments around the world are beginning to realize that finding international terror threats can only be done clovelly as both organized cells and lone terrorist

continue to slip through law enforcements nets we're talking about asian harvest movement which is linked to al qaida that is outraged not just in russia but also in other countries including in syria as we know now now the direct motive is not different from the previous attacks on moscow on other locations inside russia and i would say is not so different from attacks that has happened around the world c.b.s. against democracies against countries that they want to consider as enemies with a tragedy like this one that hit volgograd just days ahead of the new year's celebrations it's no surprise authorities thought it more appropriate to cancel the festivities and to clear the first three days at twenty point as a period of mourning in volgograd margaret how low are. one of the victims was a police officer who eye witnesses say threw himself at the bomber possibly saving dozens of lives we asked dr your from the international institute of counter-terrorism what can be done to avert such tragedies. well it's not just not

always not always easy to prevent it and there's you know that takes place in other parts of the world just the bench and the fact that the last seven months ago in boston in america again by it we generally came from. for this the top to be all such a cops to be prevented you must lead a very good intelligence i think that it just would be with the hands of the company consent or they services that they have ahead of relation between countries because sometimes and it's not just being colombian month place and thinks visit a different part of the world called me to the u.n. secretary general has called for those responsible for the tragedy in volgograd to be brought to account the terrorism was also unanimously condemned by the u.n. security council and he war activist don de bar thinks that it's up to the international community join forces against the global terror threat people on the ground who did this perhaps may be you know anonymous players just individuals who

are incited one way or another but you do not move weaponized explosives into a major city without the aid of very powerful forces state actors usually and so i think that the focus should be for the entire international community to take a look already at who are the state actors that are enabling these things and to make them the international pariah is that they should be and to impose criminal sanctions on those responsible within those governments. across latest developments and more expert analysis of the volgograd tragedy on our web site r t v dot com. we continue our look back now in our special why two thousand and thirteen matters here on r t this time taking a look at austerity that affected the entire eurozone. some of the austerity measures that were pretty draconian in places initially aimed

at containing the economic crisis within the e.u. but instead of pulling countries out of their deep recessions they produce more debt rising poverty and unemployment among other impacts one of the hardest hit of course was greece where frequent strikes and public demonstrations underline just how people have lost patience with their government's unfulfilled promises of recovery as europe is going to report their own hands. for millions of europeans it's impossible to imagine a life without things like refrigerators ac's television computers and electricity in general but no matter how difficult it may be the reality is every month more of those living in the cradle of the european civilisation are being forced into the dark. forward two years now christina hasn't been able to pay her electricity bills she can't find work and nor can her brother two daughters or their husbands. as the bills begin piling up i had to make my priorities and this is where the food comes first i want to pay the bills and i want to be

a case of the state but the state hasn't been ok with us with one in four greeks chronically unemployed christine is far from the only person who's electricity has been cut off and that's where these guys come in and young radical and very determined activists from the i don't see movement illegally reconnect power to as many as two hundred homes per month for free. the vast majority of the society is to be. sunk into poverty only a few of them few families across the world to have the ninety nine percent of the . well that's not something that. we want to bear. the reconnect the two homes or disconnect power from little songs making them free for motorists or sometimes we target the underground today the i don't pay movement has over ten thousand members across greece and it's gaining supporters despite being targeted by more than one hundred on going more seats no respect to do it you

know we say that thousands of people with no belief hated it will no electricity to feel water so this winter we will warn them because it. is very big. greece's government continues to promise you. nomic miracles despite the country's status having been recently downgraded to emerging market. but the greeks are tired of empty promises and now more and more are taking matters into their own hands even if that means breaking the law you want to spin off athens greece. greece arguably very cautionary tale of european austerity millions of people there living below the poverty line due to a barrage of tax hikes pay cuts and slashed pensions all of this while some well off politicians and tax evaders largely escaped sacrifices needed to save the country one of the journals we talked to says his good nation was being used as

a washing machine for the big banks if i had to give some figures for two thousand and fourteen i would say that we have unemployment around thirty percent sixty percent in the youth unemployment. the public that we keep skyrocketing and the poverty it will be in the warst condition for the last three generations of greeks greece was used as. laundry machine for a capital of other european countries they the german taxpayers for example they were paying huge amounts that there were coming to greece but there was not one percent of this money staying for various reasons in the greek economy that was going to big financial institutions and especially big banks in germany so what we were saying for many years now it's please stop saving us please stop

pretending that you are giving money to the greek economy. so far the only one who has managed to shake off the bellowed burden is ireland in achievement made earlier this month emerging from recession has been tough for the emerald dial it still has to deal with high unemployment especially outside the capital and needs to have up to three percent annual growth of its to achieve its debt cutting targets we spoke with a euro m.p. who thinks the troika is way of dealing with the crises is far from perfect. what what we actually like to see is more transparency and now it is in the situation in which basically the troika acts like a acts like a government. and visits its colonies in the south of europe to do the measures they come up with are not not all these very effective tools of stereotypic the reduction of the economy at the moment the troika is free to do what it wants and that is not in

a democracy the issue basically is how much time do we have the economies of greece italy spain portugal scientists growing again now i do not know how long it will take if it is going to be one or two years like in ireland it will be very good but it. is going to be very long and i'm afraid that many citizens in those countries will not accept days to take to know if this is going to be a stake nations for ten years to come i think this will have very serious political consequences. as the cuts kept coming and so too did the street protests throughout the year coming up we report on how some governments have been cracking down on public discontent and what that might mean for democratic values. but first whistleblowers face many challenges on their path to exposing suspects posing suspicious government actions but publishing the proof can be more difficult

than getting it in the first place an issue raised in the film media stand released by wiki leaks to putting a group from the organization on a road across central asia in search for a journalist willing to go public with the truth the film's creator julian a songe and its director talked with us here at r.t. . what makes this documentary so interesting is that we have different media organizations in different countries but all starting out of the same place. journalists come to them offer them the same type of material the us government diplomatic cables and then we see what the response is publish not publish censor some things document what they're thinking as they're doing in most cases. there are very significant significant strains in fact most cases resulted in publications by the organizations concerned little of it was published some materials and. do you feel like the mission you documented in media stan was

a success there were a lot of reactions i remember in tajikistan with people saying you're not going to make a difference nothing will really change if we speak about making a different story for the mission in itself was a success. obviously when the regards to actually getting the material published in the various medias it's difficult to call your great success because there were actually quite well not that many newspapers neither in central asia or for that matter here in the united states that your particular do interested in publishing the full material that they got access to some in that respect no it wasn't a success but from a broader respect of course we can see that the leaks releases have made a large impact they can see and. change the way that we interact with with media since then and i think that if we just look at the. whole affair which is has been going on for the last year or so that is that they wrecked

consequence of. releases and that is the fact that it's now a days there is no there is no direct censorship which is feasible by a particularly nations with replication that happened in different countries in different places where it is possible for them to become in afghanistan obviously the risks are a whole different kind of risk there are you going to continue your work to try to keep revealing the truth. i think this is our responsibility as journalists to reveal what's happening behind the scenes within the government and the regional level as well as international level so i have been working as a journalist since two thousand and six in afghanistan and the risks to be a journalist in afghanistan is so high in sense too since early since early two thousand and thirteen there have been sixteen cases against. journalists violation

of violence and many other cases against journalists in afghanistan so that there are there is a high risk to be a journalist in afghanistan but this is our responsibility not to give up and continue our work as a journalist edward snowden should use the media and not wiki leaks to channel his revelations don't you think that's a good sign that he was able to do it through the media. well i think it's quite sad actually it would snowden didn't go to infect the media he went to someone that's closely associated with us and specific journalist going green world another specific journalist laura portress. the most prominently a couple journalists to wiki leaks. clean green worlds for his part was then working with the guardian has lists the guardian as a result. of the censorship by the guardian but all of that material to date less

than zero point five percent of the snowden i think documents have been published. the majority of the media are still reluctant to challenge the government like you said and speaking of glenn greenwald recently he reprimanded journalists across the globe for not standing up to the government lets out so have a listen to what going greenwald had to say at a recent conference in hamburg what is that we were targeting in the behavior of the media over the past six months is just revelations have emerged almost entirely without and despite the role of the us media and their british counterparts is to be voices for those what the greatest power and to protect their interest and serve that your highness i want to ask you is it as bad as greenwald is saying generally speaking if you just understand that the powerful media institutions are part part of power rather than being being so to speak mediators of information you just understand that very idea then obviously you will start looking at media

and consumption of news or information in a different in a different respect so yes of course there is that bad. and if we look at an institution such as the washington post which was one of the first institutions that had access to snowden's documents they decided not to publish anything. i mean practically didn't publish anything and what we can understand from that is that there is a direct relationship between between the different power institutions in our societies and media is most definitely one of the most important power institutions that we have in our society three people watch the entire film any time on our website also on our t. dot com many invision section dramatic pictures from brazil suffering from what the government's called the worst natural disaster in the area has ever seen us. the latest round in the tussle for land in the jordan valley israeli ministers give a green light to the annexation of

a chunk of settlements in the area and we assess the potential dangers of that online. right. first street. and i think the church. reformers twitter. and instagram. could be in the. he survived trial cities. to make cycles a solution. has changed his life and the world around him.

by giving. hope. children. nikolai the lyrics work on tape. millions around the globe struggle with hunger each good. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge they carry said they can the very strong position against g.m.o. and we think that. the genetic anymore the right products are precise due to. there is no. evidence that there is any problem with genetic engineering when you make a deal. or is free cheese always in a mouse trap i don't believe that. and that free. enterprise

is profit. for social justice golden rice. was staying with us twenty minutes past the hour now democracy campaigners say freedom of expression is a risk in many countries that profess to be big supporters anti-government protests intensified throughout the year and were often met with a heavy hand as artie's marie if an ocean or reports. from the u.s. . canada. brazil. to as far as thailand. and much of europe basically the large group of protesters that people protest. definitely on the street to show show show they

are unhappy they're furious with the stereotype policies in europe the n.s.a. surveillance and drones in america and a wide range of concerns like freedom of the press and the loss of the secular state in turkey. disenchanted disagreeing and desperate to be heard. people have their backs against the wall they're being squeezed economically they're seeing all of their dreams collapse around them and when they go through the usual channels of electoral democracy they just have a feeling that the governments aren't representing their interests so they feel they have no alternative but to take to the streets and express themselves in a way that the governments cannot ignore them and the governments haven't ignored them. there is certainly a problem in many of these places in some sort of distinction some sort of gap between the popular feeling and the way governments react many of the protests

sparked on different continents and in different countries these here and up these clashes between protesters and authorities the greatest fear the government has is that people will feel protest is fashionable is that people will feel that democracy is fashionable some decided to use the law to protect themselves from these risks in chicago and come back and in spain and to protest laws that heavy fines or even jail sentences for demonstrate. dissipating in allegedly violent protest democracy is not just an elected government it is also being able to. listen to and incorporate many different voices. and it seems that democracies are under threat governments around the world face a crisis of legitimacy what's being passed off as representative democracy but

which is actually government by corporatist globalists they make some minor concessions hoping that the protests will dissipate and then they can continue business as usual. which was probably just now becoming a more poor people form of dollars with authorities it will hardly be in the easy thing to do. they protest different things they protest what they see is a police state they protest against the persecution of whistleblowers not only know . that you know exactly that that it would be a. regional shock. protesters from the occupy movement in the u.s. have been among those keeping up the pressure on government and businesses investigative journalist amber leone says the demonstrations have managed to bring change against the odds protest is the common denominator for change and has been throughout the history of the us and as a journalist i saw that the mainstream media in the united states is really censoring the protests on the ground we've had many protests we've had

a historically high amount of protests on the streets of the united states and many of these protesters are winning and gaining their rights getting higher wages gaining their homes back some some protesters have been protesting against militarized police and the really having to change on the streets of the u.s. . seven time formula one world champion michael schumacher is in critical condition after a skiing accident in the french alps the sports legend was skiing off piste when his fourteen year old son with his fourteen year old son who witnessed the tragedy schumacher fell and hit his head on iraq suffering a severe injury despite wearing a helmet he's now in a coma and in the hospital where he received emergency brain surgery we'll update you on his condition as details emerge. and other world news these crowds gathered in madrid for a special mass in support of moves to tighten abortion laws tens of thousands of catholics called in authorities to go further and impose

a complete ban on abortions the prime minister nilda to church pressure more than a week ago announcing amendments to a two thousand and ten law that allowed women to freely get abortions within fourteen weeks of pregnancy. the charity is warning that thousands of south sudanese children are likely to be separated from their families as a result of the conflict raging across the country save the children says scores of infants are left unsupervised with parents killed in homes destroyed ethnic violence broke out in the capital of the world's youngest nation and spread to other areas and so far it killed at least one thousand people as a defense minister for the world's second most expensive country you have to have everywhere but the man who used to be in charge of cabinet is military isn't concerned about threats from land sea or air he says especially about what's coming from space and says he has proof in today's edition of so if you go. four different species at least have been visiting this planet for thousands of years some people who report

u.f.o. sightings and alley an abduction said been shown to make things up and they can make things up to be famous to make money are just for a prank how do we tell fiction from a fact you have to spend a lot of time trying to find we used to say separating the wheat from the chaff and takes a lot of effort. when i was minister i got sighting reports there's been a lot more activity in the last few decades since. we invented the topic bomb and they're very concerned about about that and it affects not just us but other people in the cosmos there are a very much afraid that we might be stupid enough to serve using atomic weapons again and this would be very bad for us and for them as well do they actually tell you what these aliens look like i mean you know everyone's interested there are what we call the nordic blondes and also the tall whites. who are actually working

with the united states air force and the veta the they're able to get away with that. get the lowdown on e.t.a. here on our team in a couple of moments stay with us. the beginning of the long politic night moxon the face from island life. in sanaa enough temptation. to douglas last for six months. there are more polar bears than people. and it's as easy to hire a rifle as a scooter. because the island is so in a special there are no indigenous people but there are all those who do choose this

frozen life. this is this could be right about if you are. such a pall mall of the twenty fourteen olympics what's this place like the law is is so special as the russian resort prepares to welcome the world power of the games shaping the city's present and future life so it will bring you this is the moment they're reporting from a very cold snowy windy mountainous stuff yet beyond the olympics but come on say. on our team. right down the street. first street. and i would think poachers.