a scottish m.p. is calling for the assets of journalists working for russia to be seized the media kremlin. published new documents that suggest the u.k. is funding a think tank the danes. across europe we look at the organizations and. the scandal surrounding leading journalists who was exposed. he stole many. people featured in his articles. and

a traditional danish song comparing. a teacher of broad takes offense all guests debate the issue. this song is about. collaboration. and it is a metaphor the real problem with. whether it's assimilation project where this integration project. it's two o'clock and you're watching all t international line from a moscow studio with me. to the program the alleged threat of a russian propaganda still being talented far and wide has lashed out at russian media outlets sputnik speaking to newspaper the times he branded sputnik a time when we're going to cross. who's in office that polly what

provoked this outburst. well look scotland has a devolved government so this kind of anti russian sentiment has come from a scottish and myspace and it focuses on sputnik which is an internet based radio station which is headquarters it its headquarters in the u.k. are up in edinburgh in scotland and this liberal democrat m.s.p. alex quill hamilton has said that russians who live in scotland and engage in what he calls information warfare to destabilize britain should have their assets seized take a listen to what he had to say. organizations such as you can are to pump propaganda backed by vladimir putin and have been complicit in the cover up of events from human rights breaches to the russian invasion of crimea other countries have taken a tougher line on the assets of russian nationals than we have in the u.k. the u.k. government must look again at what can be done. that's pretty harsh rhetoric and

that would have been it really but he's been quoted in the sunday times that's the system paper of the times and then seemingly for no reason whatsoever the sunday times has gone and printed the photographs over the journalists that were for sputnik up in asm breath and it reads a bit like a wall of shame editorially there's not much reason for those pictures to be in that article the article is broadly about something else and you sort of look at the pictures and you wonder why. and in this current climate some would say that there's a bit of a witch hunt on when it comes to russia printing these pictures of russian russians engaged in what basically the article is accusing them of sort of engaging in anti british activity seems somewhat severity and could almost read like an incitement

to violence against the in terms of why despite light has fallen on this radio station on sputnik in particular it appears that some of the reporting that they've been doing recently has been rubbing politicians up the wrong way in particular the radio station just like this news channel r.t. has reported on the leaked integrity initiative documents that happened to reveal that the u.k. foreign office is funding through a fig through a think tank an anti russian public influence campaign that has been quite a major story both here for r.t. and for sputnik but the times article is already written last off saying that the leaked documents come from russian hacker is. a strange story thank you paula. well let's get live reaction from a neil clark journalist and writer nail thanks for coming on to the program now why do you think sputnik is under fire again. but i think we've got to put this in the

wider context the sunday times and its sister paper the times have waged a war against russian media which is operating lawfully in this country in the u.k. for a number of years now and the intention or the aim is quite clear they want to get support nick close down and they want to get r.t. taken off air in the u.k. that's very very clear and they will do anything to try to further that and what's happened what's the latest sort of cricket but this is of course been the leaking of the documents written into the so-called integrity initiative which anonymous apparently got these documents they leaked that they published them and sport nikken r.t. reported on these leaks and this is public interest because these leaks appear to show that the foreign and commonwealth office of the u.k. has been funding an organization which is aim was to the states to be to counter russian propaganda but actually has been indulging in propaganda of its own and for

example it was revealed that integrity you know she too has been sending complaints in the off call about r.t. and was urging all requesting an investigation into r.t. which is what has actually happened has been an investigation an r.t.s. would be taken off air so it's public interest i think all media outlets and here are all proper media outlets should be reporting on these leaks but instead what's happened they're not and the times the sunday times are going after those media outlets which have reported on them so i think journalistically this is appalling yeah i mean nearly you know you made a good point you know they've reported and shifted and legitimately because the leaks have happened why why would a news outlet not report on this story is. that what i think is pretty clear if you look at it i mean this is i think just a tip of an iceberg i think that the integrity initiative another. of a very high up people are named. involved in this. number of journalists

prominent journalists are named as part of costas this phrase quest has been used at this journey's who will be helpful to kind of help the integrity initiative in their program so it's pretty clear that it goes quite deep and that's why probably hasn't had any media coverage outside i think of a russian media operating in the u.k. so i think it's a more quick question the other outlets are not really doing what we should be doing and i want to kind of if you like the. publicity about this it's got another media kind of raises questions about that media and its bias instead of actually showing the russian media bias of course the russian media report on leaks which report to show that there's an organization out there which is pretty propaganda about russia of course we're going to report on that and that seems to be a crime it seems to be no you're not supposed to be reporting about this still come on we're supposed to be in a free society with a free media. you know russian russian media is doing the job that i would be you

should be doing neal do you think because that you know we've seen an all for a lot of russian rhetoric going on for quite a while now in your opinion do you think russian media outlets are an easy target perhaps. but absolutely i mean a lot of things are going wrong in britain the moment we've got the bricks it. indecision chaos crisis what i want to call about that we've got rising poverty record numbers of people sleeping on the streets wrecking homelessness etc so i think for the establishment it's a pretty good easy target really to go at russian russian media and i think it's quite extraordinary the what you know what's been happening is it's i would good for us call it harassment i think putting the pictures of photographs of people who work for sport the on a in a newspaper like that i think is tantamount to incitement almost it might put those people's lives in danger as a russian senator has said this morning i believe and so i think really i mean i'm a member of the national union of journalists and i'll be writing to my union in

the new year to ask what the union is planning to do about this because people who work for russian media british journalists who work i think are being threatened of being persecuted and i think that you know we've got to stand up against this mccarthyism. mccarthyism on steroids really what we've got at the moment you know against russian media and what the you know you had your court about the m.s.p. the member the scottish parliament there who actually is a liberal democrat will be a liberal democrat what could be more liberal than basically saying that russians in britain who basically disagree with encounter the official line on foreign policy the british government could have their ass it seems that's what he said but he's talking about people spreading propaganda as anybody that doesn't follow the neo con line who's russian could lose all their assets that's extraordinary illiberal isn't it and imagine if you said that about other groups other nationalities but he says it about russians and it by it's fine so i think we've

got a you know this is coming to a head now we've got to take tackle it head on and to say enough's enough of these witch hunts and this. area and russian media operating lawfully in this country can report on what it wants to report on and it shouldn't be in this way ok we'll leave it there neil clark journalist and writer thanks very much for coming on to the program show your opinions thanks. that's a near. times article comes hot on the heels of sputnik publishing leaked documents about integrity initiative is alleged that the think tank is using jealous across europe to stir up russian feelings would cast their investigates. if she were an organization it would be integrity initiative lo and behold an army of propagandists disguised as anti propagandists whose job is to malign the slander be it states ideas people even

british politicians our investigation has found barring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to attack or been the labor party and therefore shells one three quoted newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral and western isn't how the kremlin course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling westminster tattle for money you can imagine the shock mr corben must have felt when he learned through these leaks that integrity knishes eve had not brazen to defame him well funded by the british government no less but slandering german opposition politicians isn't the only job with integrity initiative which is working to counted this information overseas by bringing together groups of experts to analyze and discuss the problem posed by russian this information the government is funding this

initiative with daily two million pounds this financial year but funding covers its activity outside the u.k. and it has not found any activity within the u.k. the hacktivist group anonymous has leaked details on the operation integrity initiative functions by setting up independent clusters candidates seem to be. hand-picked big plus a few influential charismatic but the chief requirement seems to be you've got to really hate russia the integrity initiative was set up to bring to the attention of politicians policymakers opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by russia to democratic institutions in the united kingdom across europe and north america now here is what's been bugging me personally if these white knights and self professed fighters for the truth of what they say they are why are they

hiding why are they trying to stay in the shadows anonymity of the team remains paramount as our activity increases we will no doubt attract unwanted attention irregardless here is how their class the system works see you have an article in the french le monde a harsh attack on alleged russian propaganda in france the author the french professor happens to be part of integrity initiative french cluster at least according to the leaked lists and gets paid to trash talk russia they even boosted their grand plans when visited by a coup found the institute of statecraft which birth integrity initiative in italy and the atlantic council published a big study and with help from an editor of less very influential italian newspaper

surprise more bashing russia it became increasingly evident in twenty sixteen that russian strategic narrative sometimes including dissent from ation and conspiracy theories were systematically spread in italy by the vast network of pro and five s websites and social media accounts not so much of a surprise it's called winnie is also listed as a member of the italian class. and also gets paid for his work unfortunately according to an internal integrity initiative memo their peers to be a shortage of russian propaganda in italy in italy it appears evident that the promotion of a strategy to spread disinformation and to influence the italian political opinions has been limited in came much more from national populist parties rather than from russia or what sort of a foreign country strange isn't it how they choose to keep that part secret we can

go on and on about other clusters but you get the point they're pretty initiative even targets are us here at r t according to the leaked documents they have people presumably who they paid to report r.t. to off gone the british media regulator ofcom actually publishes complaints statistics only if over ten complaints didn't make that list it seems like integrity initiative not audience members convinced of calm to go after c we've all noticed our anti russian sentiment in the media has soared over the last years soules still we now know one of the reasons but above all these leaks and in my view tear the masks off the bulb that fights russian propaganda as they claim and what's underneath is ugly

we are seeing a foreign office to comment on the integrity initiative allegations it told us that the claims are being spread by kenyan kremlin news channels as part of a russian disinflation campaign we spoke to piers robinson in politics at sheffield university and he says this is much less about countering russian propaganda and more about sowing and in betting narratives on into mastic and regional level. it seems to be just as much about promoting ensuring up official u.k. policy towards russia as it is about actually countering any russian threat u.k. government and other western governments in the us in recent years have had increasing difficulty persuading enough of their populations as to the legitimacy of the foreign policies that they have been pursuing and at the same time western countries have been going through a period of political crisis an economic crisis and i think

a lot of this drive is as much about trying to shore up shakey official narratives and trying to shore up political systems in a situation of political crisis as it is actually about countering russian propaganda or i think i would suspect that's a little bit of an excuse here that really what's going on at problems much closer to home. but this is not just to do the u.k. this is europe wide and there also are indications from the documents that they are intending to start to have some kind of impact within the united states it's a very wide ranging network that seems to be established reason why it needs to be covertly of course is that if a media organization or of a journalist is to let on that he or she is involved in a program which quite clearly is pushing a particular agenda then the credibility of that journalist will be damaged and this is really what is very deceptive about the integrity initiative it's about

co-opting journalists and academics into a into essentially a campaign which appears to be a propaganda campaign in order to manipulate opinions and the only way that can really work effectively is that readers and viewers don't know what they're reading is something which has emerged from a particular political agenda. the scandal surrounding one of germany's leading journalists who was exposed as having faked stories for years has deepened class a lotus who was fired from people magazine allegedly stole money donated to people featured in his articles including orphaned syrian children we're going to cross live now to charlotte to penske to talk a bit more about this now people were shocked by the initial allegations of fake news and now this how did he allegedly end up stealing donations charlotte.

well that's right not just being accused now of being a purveyor of fake and fictitious news he's actually now being accused of embezzling money as a result of his stories the story ridiculous that this relates to is one from two thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two syrian all phones a brother or sister they were living hundreds of miles apart in different cities in two after escaping syria and they were dreaming of a life together a life together in germany and he urged his readers to donate money to try and help these two siblings his brother and his sister make their dreams come true and to get them to germany where the money was funneled into his private account and while it's not known how much actually went in there this spiegel is now investigating the claims that he actually embezzled that money because it turns out according to

a turkish photographer who was working with him on this story that one of the children didn't even exist and the second one the brother who did exist was actually living with his mother in turkey and was and often so now dispy go as far as a criminal complaint looking into that basil mint possibly of money. as a reaction to that story now to speak has also used its front page this week to say it's so ory to its readers for the fake news that it's been publishing for many many years this house is shattered the worst thing that can happen to a print media outlet has happened to us for years we allowed fake reports to go to print for us it's particularly horrifying that melodious managed to deceive us for so long without being uncovered. well in the fallout of this scandal despicable is now facing other accusations notably one from the u.s.

ambassador to germany who's accused the magazine of having anti american boy yes. these free news stories largely focused on u.s. policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were told institutional bias the anti american bias at the magazine has exploded since the election of president trump. well it's all worked out just beagle for a number of years and he was considered to be such an excellent journalist that the magazine decided to make him stuff in two thousand and seventeen he's won many accolades both in germany and internationally for his work including just this december he was given through german reporters association prize and back in two thousand and fourteen he even was named by c.n.n. as being journalist of the year we just spiegel is admitting that at least fourteen all of his articles were fictitious they were fake it's now looking deeper into his

other articles and it could be that the scale of his deceit is far far deeper than we already know really is shocking is that these revelations about a classroom. reporter in paris think shallot. traditional danish song has sparked a wave of controversy that's after a foreign teacher at the danish business school was offended by a line that associates denmark with a young blonde girl the school promptly apologized with some media reports saying the song was banned by the college but indignant a danish politicians decided to take gather together and sing the song. of the schools teachers say important issues have been raised by the debate generated by the song saying it's helped danes realise how blind we are but that just enrage some danish politicians even more. this song is

about the essence of being diminished its appeal for culture we should never bow just for it. time to find out whether it was a joke unfortunately it wasn't stop it just stop if we're no longer allowed to sing more songs than the party stops it to start the way out of proportion we have come so far in the discussion of identity and a violation culture that our society has fallen apart the song was written by kylie hofmann in one thousand nine hundred twenty four and is regularly performed across the country it's not the first time a national classic has been dropped after someone took offense at school in the u.s. city of philadelphia scrapped the book the adventures of huckleberry finn due to its use of a racial slur and us radio stations refused to play the christmas hit baby it's cold outside after critics said it was actually about sexual assault i guess debate

of the issues raised by the danish. but the only one who really takes it seriously seriously is this head of the school it's a metaphor it's not that everybody here has to be a blond girl to be accepted as a person or to be a citizen in the society denmark has a real problem with integrating whether it's assimilation project where this integration of tolerance projects all the attitude towards immigrants people coming from war zones people a scaping conflict and torture and those who are genuinely not and who are generally asylum seekers refugees there's no link between denmark's ability to integrate people and this song this is a song that is hundred years old it's part of being a sculpture it's part of our cultural heritage and i think it's horrifying that we're now we have to erase our past people want to live in diverse multicultural

blended societies nowadays that nobody's asked them to. change the culture or leave their culture behind in modern enlightened societies we tolerant inclusive people should be able to come to denmark and feeling clued in so much but don't forget you're not actually allowed to come to denmark and be integrated or welcome in society unless you already speak danish this is an attack on danes cultural identity and i think this was a chance of these are the kind of these are the kind of ridiculous tropes these are kind of ridiculous tribes no no no i think you've reached your point. and he said your point your point is that these are charges. and it's a great danes called you you need to know what it's all about i tell you get your paul your horrified we're raising your culture the point is this culture change to change there are migration around migration flows around europe and ultimately you are going to have to give way to the new generations who are coming and saying we want integrated blended multicultural society they should. use of yesteryear.

the story i mean people hear a lot of larry we'll get today's nation where you have all the day's news our don't want to sing songs of yesterday i mean we have a past we have a history and to know where you are you need to know your history and what i'm we're very afraid about about this particular discussion but it will correct discussion is that a system called freedom is under threat because now you can write a song without you know trying to erase your past. in washington the national christmas tree may be closed to the public on christmas eve according to park services the u.s. government shutdown makes it difficult to repair damaged lines senate democrats are still at an impasse with president trump of his demand to fund a border security wall meaning the shutdown is unlikely to end soon meanwhile the us president assad of writing one design of what the new us mexico bio might help like. what building the wall what

building the world over played a big beautiful powerful wall a great great wall and it's going to be a real what's going to be i what's going to be beautiful it's going to be like your mission would build the greatest war you have ever see.

fit. it looked like something that was made on microsoft paint in maybe about one thousand nine hundred ninety eight when trump talks about his ideas for the country he sounds like playing the sims video game for the first time and now he's really proving me right because he you know you see this picture and it looks like something that would that a child could have made it's cartoonish it's amateurish it's amazing that a group of people who are allegedly in charge of the country saw that design and said ok the wall is a largely unpopular idea nobody knows exactly how much it's going to cost it's a total waste of resources it's a total waste of money it's a waste of time and it's based in spite and bigotry. that's a nice round up for now i'll be back around thirty minutes with more but in the meantime. going at it about it.

time after time so you know what you're going underground while we're away for christmas we're screening some of your favorite episodes of this season coming up in this show is british ahmed saudi arabia's partner in the yemen war the u.a.e. subverting the u.k. democracy doesn't run cons nuclear pakistan continues i.m.f. negotiations with the look east or west what did yesterday's remembered sunday sermon you really mean hip hop artist and activist know to be on the demise of nato power amidst the hundred year anniversary of all this just day coming up in today's going on the ground the first time with david miller of lobbyist investigated spin watch david thanks so much for going on with all being a legal activity here in britain what's in your new report concerning the united arab emirates when we look at the loping in this country which really starts as

a result of the spring where the moving slowly perhaps towards democracy they see the arab spring which promises democracy and they don't like it so they just say that they're going to set their face against them to try and undermine the possibility of democracy in their country or they would say standing up for us traditions and people will of course know the u.a.e. is a dubai is a tourist destination and so they spent a lot has been a lot of money particularly this country to try and marginalize the opposition and that country and also in this country so they try to pressurize the british government for example to investigate the muslim brothers and british government acceded to that demand they pressured them in particular by threatening to withhold b.p. contracts threatening possibility of three billion the systems contract so there was a lot of arm twisting and. bribery essentially and i think this is not standard lobbying i guess but.