a scottish m.p. is calling for the assets of journalists working for russia. branding the media outlet a kremlin stooge. it comes after sputnik published documents that suggest the u.k. is funding a think tank that. russian sentiment across europe will look at the organizations alleged methods. and the scandal surrounding one of germany's leading a journalist who was exposed as having fake stories for you. as it's alleged money you've been collecting on behalf of people featured in his obstacles.

international. welcome to the program with the alleged threat of russian propaganda still being touted far and wide to scottish m.p.'s has lashed out at russian media outlets sputnik speaking to u.k. newspaper the times he branded sputnik a kremlin stooge well let's cross live now to ali. london office for us polly well provided this outburst. well look scotland's got a devolved government so they've got their own politicians out there and these harsh comments about sputnik sputnik rather apologies come from a scottish politician and they focus on the radio station it's an internet based radio station whose u.k. headquarters are up in edinburgh in scotland and this liberal democrat m.s.p. alex quill hamilton has told the sunday times that any russians who live in scotland and engage in what he calls information warfare against britain or to destabilize

britain should have their assets seized take a listen to what he had to say to the sunday times we're going to zation such as you can are to pump out 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 is pretty harsh rhetoric but that would have been a hit if the sunday times hadn't printed it along with the photographs of all the people that work in sputnik up in edinburgh it reads a bit like a wall of shame editorially there doesn't seem any reason for those photographs to be there other than sort of the newspaper outing these people as sort of being

involved in anti british activities it almost reads a bit like an incitement to violence that certainly seems like a rather dangerous decision to make editorially somewhat severe in terms of why the spotlight has fallen on the radio station up in edinburgh and sputnik well it appears that some of the reporting that they've been doing has been rubbing politicians up the wrong way in particular the radio station just like r t has reported on the leaked integrity initiative documents and they have been to reveal that the u.k. foreign office happens to be funding and anti russian public influence campaign through a british think tank and that's been quite a major story both. sputnik and see but the times article has

already written off these leaks these documents about integrity initiative because they say that they come from russian hackers. probably thanks for giving us an update of the flood story thank you the time to talk to on the heels of sputnik publishing leaked documents about integrity initiative these alleged the think tank is using journalists across europe to stop russian feelings when it comes to if investigates. if she were an organization it would be integrity initiative low 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 wiring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to attack or been the labor party and their fish us one three quoted newspaper article calling

corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral anti-press tinnies and how the kremlin of course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling westminster tattle for money you can imagine the shock mr coburn must have felt when he learned through these leaks that integrity knishes eve had no operational to defame him well funded by the british government no less but slandering german corben opposition politicians isn't their 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 policy may. 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 for 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 he is how their class the system works see you have an article in the french le monde 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 who 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 stump a 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 as websites and social media accounts not so much of a surprise it's called mini is also listed as a member of the italian cluster 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. and 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 arse 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 there are 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 as the u.k. foreign office to comment on the integrity initiative allegations and it told us that the claims are being spread by kremlin news channels as part of a russian this information campaign well we can cross alive and now to one of the

spawning journalists named in the times article johanna ross john the times for talking to us on this. firstly it must have been a little bit of a shock for you when you saw your photo in the paper how did you feel. well yeah initially it was it was a bit of a shock on the other hand is kind of hardly surprising given the answer russian saying to him and that is you know travel and all you key newspapers just say but it's yeah it's not nice to see your picture up there with your name makes a and under the headline of being part of a crime when stooge as i say you know it's very much part of what's going on just a n u k e we expose this integrity initiative which ruffled a few feathers people are not too happy about it and then we saw this times article carpark and make the claim that somehow this explosion of the integrity initiative by an r.t.c.

suggests that it was a russian hack of the anonymous integrity initiative documents so it's i mean it's just ridiculous it's proposed. and it certainly isn't nice to see your sales being cut there is some kind of identity curried as if you're some kind of criminals if you don't something wrong so yeah it's not great what about the reaction amongst your colleagues johannah. yeah well the reactions pretty similar i mean some people really don't feel too happy about it but another hand we know that we've done nothing wrong and i would say that this very much and to keep that we're doing something right here because for the sunday times to go show the effort just like that. you know it's shows that we have certainly made some weaves with the exposure of this initiative which is involving huge academics uki journalists is undermining jeremy corbyn it is trying to sow discord across europe and

further afield is trying to spread anti russian saying to men it's a really problematic initiative that you keep taxpayers are actually involved in funding and are not need to read it so it's certainly not going to dissuade us from . investigating this initiative more it's not going to dissuade us from doing the work that we do here in fact i would see it makes us where it's even more important to carry on doing the journalism that regime here it's been a canadian brush because it is having that came to or impact the british public deserves to know all exactly what is going on and that's what we're going to continue. you know as a journalist i'm sure you pride yourself in telling the story that's in the public interest do you feel that there should be restrictions of this kind of reporting especially in a country that prides himself in freedom of speech and telling the facts. well exactly even this is essential as an assault and democracy really calls into

question what democracy and freedom of speech we have left here in the u.k. and in the west as a whole but i think everybody would agree there was a full bia has now gone through scale it's really off the scale to gether it's rampant and there's no logic to it russia is blamed for x. y. and say it is blamed for the weather so it's no just it's ludicrous and you know that russia's certainly very much a target in this one country that you can use to essentially explain any phenomena and you can be racist towards russia as much as you like it seems to be the one country that's left that you can attack and not be reports for it so you know i think i think it's really really problematic but it's not a surprise it's very much part and parcel of what is going on just now is very much russia is perceived as the enemy by the u.k. state for whatever reason by the u.s.

it's been declared so you know we're in an information war we're probably going to see more and more off of this unfortunately in the future ok johanna ross sputnik journalist whose face was splattered across the article thanks very much for talking to us. no problem thanks very much. well we're going to get a lot of reaction from martin mccauley now author and russia analyst martin thanks for joining us here on the program now why do you think sputnik is under fire again . because putting. a radio station which had to could raise the russian point of view directly from perceived from the russian point of view. and that really jars was a lot of people in britain because they found unsettling and. very very difficult to counter and the usual accusations that it is biased and and so on

is if you like normal in the information war because they're in the eyes you're journalist said there's an information war going to press and all weapons are being used and russia is the main target in europe and therefore it's not surprising the sporting has been picked out as r.t. has in the past been picked out as well for their reporting many in britain been many in the british media and the establishment don't like the point of view and opinions which are big spread just i mean if we look at the language that's being used to name calling like kremlin it's nothing new with this harsh rhetoric and a year ago the integrity of think tank slammed r.t.e. host alex on and as a useful idiot why is language like this being the water to think.

of because this is not a normal now if you if you if you listen to president trump you will get even more extreme language and therefore in politics nowadays in the information war nowadays you have extreme language and if you find someone with an opinion which you object to and you don't agree with you then abuse them or her by causing by causing them stooges or to use the favorite expression about lenin they were useful idiots those are condemning the swift social democrats who allowed or facilitated the transfer of lenin back to back to russia they were classified by the enemies of the social democrats as usual idiots but because they wouldn't see the result of usual idiots who would say themselves i've done this one point of a conviction these are my views and i would. i would wish that you would accept and

would you please accept my views because they are different from yours because i come from a different culture with different perception of the world. from your vantage point you see the world from one point of view but we see it from a different point of view and our point of view legitimate because it reflects our national interest yeah i mean if we look at the way sputnik published those documents that was just the integrity initiative was stirring up and russia feelings using u.k. government money to do so how big a deal. if the the r.f.s. the i events have been given government money so therefore it has to come up with something which will hit the headlines and this is the type of thing would hit the headlines you can't really spend all that money and really have no impact in the media the whole idea of the i invest is to come out and spread a british point of view a contrapositive you to put make on our team in the media and give it as wide

publicity as possible so that as many people hear it they may not be convinced with that as much that's part of information so therefore from the british point of view this is government money and their job is to come up with an argument with statements and arguments which will in fact negate what's but it's put in it has said counter arguments and they're analyses and so on and they will continue to do this and one of the useful ways of doing it is to say brothers put to the people are not all that bright the stooges and so on and they're not very well informed and that unfortunately is normal tactic nowadays the information war not only in this country but in the united states and many other countries. they get that martin a call the author and russian analyst thanks very much for coming on to the program . thank you. who.

put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and. want to be rich. but you want to be close that's what before freedom or can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters of my colleagues. there should be.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. welcome back to the playground the scandal surrounding one of. was exposed as having fakes always for years as deep and rich who was fired from. allegedly stole money donated to people featured in his articles including orphan syrian children. picks up the story. not just being accused now of being a purveyor of fake and fictitious news he's actually being accused of embezzling

money as a result of his stories the story particularly that this relates to is one from two thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two syrian all phones a brother and a sister they were living hundreds of miles apart in different cities in two after escaping syria and they would 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 wasnt an orphan so now dispy go as far as a criminal complaint looking into that embezzle mint possibly of money. as a reaction to that story now to speak also used its front page this week to say its sorry 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 outlets has happened to us for years we allowed for reports to go to print for us it's particularly horrifying that managed to deceive us for so long without being uncovered well in the fallout of this scandal dispy girl is now facing other accusations notably one from the u.s. ambassador to germany who's accused the magazine of having anti american bias is for. you. as policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were told that it institutional bias the anti american bias that the magazine

has exploded since the election of president trump so 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 the route german reporters association prize and back in two thousand and fourteen he even was named by c.n.n. as being a journalist of the year we just spiegel is admitting that at least fourteen 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 the his deceit is far far deeper than we already know. the traditional dana song has sparked a wave of controversy that's after

a foreign teacher and 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 danish politicians decided to gather together and sing the song that. you. would be. one of the schools teachers says 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 then ish its appeal for culture we should never bow just for it. time to find out whether it was a joke unfortunately it was and 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 the violation culture that our society has fallen apart so i was written by 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 u.s. 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 cell. but the only one who really takes it seriously seriously if the 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 scorcher 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 where 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 against cultural

identity and i think this was the chance of these are the kind of these are the kind of ridiculous tropes these are kind of ridiculous tribes no no no that you've reached your point. and he did you point your point is that these are part of you and it's a great it is 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 this should not songs of yesteryear. history i mean people here larry we'll get today's news where yesterday's news our dollar sing songs of yesterday i mean we have a past we have a history and to know who you are you need to know your history and what i'm we're very afraid about about this political discussion but it is

a correct discussion is that a to stickle freedom is under threat because now you can write a song without you know trying to erase your past. that's our news right up to now they back around thirty minutes with more but in the meantime stay tuned for cross talk. join me every thursday on the all excitement and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you than. anyone else shows seem wrong why don't we all just don't all. get to shape out just become educated and indeed trade equals betrayal. when something

a find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. my son was doing drugs my nephews was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse we started going after the users in the prison population sewer we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill i increasingly became convinced that the war on drugs was a mistake there are true with numbers of people who are in prison for inconceivable warning sentence and this for minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in waves and say bye daddy as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. hello

and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle the u.s. senate strongly rebuke saudi arabia over the course shogi murder and calls for an end to the american involvement in the war on yemen is this a defining moment for this bilateral relationship will so-called values trump hard political realities. across liking saudi arabia.