the time is now watching for watching. the scottish m.p.'s calling for the assets of journalist working for russia's sputnik to be seized branding the media outlets kremlin stooge it comes after sputnik published new documents that suggest u.k. is funding a think tank aiming to foster and to russian sentiment across europe we look at the think tanks alleged methods. and the outcry over one of germany's most acclaimed journalists exposed for having fake stories for years deepens as is alleged he stole readers' donations collected on behalf of the people featured in his article. it's five o'clock and you're watching altie international live from our moscow

studio with me welcome to the program. with the alleged threat of russian propaganda is still being trumpeted across the west a scottish m.p. has not issued a chilling threat speaking to you can use paper the times alex cole hamilton demanded the seizure of assets of russians working for the sputnik media outlet calling it a kremlin stooge is following the story it's an internet based radio station whose u.k. headquarters are up in edge him 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 rule fair against britain or to destabilize britain should have their assets seized take a listen to what he had to say to the sunday times. 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 b.r. sets of russian nationals than we have in the u.k. the u.k. government must look again at work to 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 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 c but the times article has already written off these leaks these documents about integrity initiative because they say that they come from russian hackers we spoke to a producer at sputnik u.k. also named in the times article who says that such accusations against sputnik mean that they are doing a great job. and initially it was it was a bit of a shock on the other hand it's kind of hardly surprising given the and russian sentiment there is you know travel in or you key newspapers just say 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 not nice to see your picture up there with your name except and under the headline of being part of a crime when stooge but never hand we know that we've done nothing wrong and i would see that this very much and accuse that we're doing something right here which sent a request to numerous international media organizations for their take on the story and whether the times article met ethical standards and we're still waiting for any responses the russian embassy to the u.k. says that the times is following the example of controversial ukrainian website peace maker in publishing journalist data the embassy as that the o.s.c.

should look into the actions peacemaker prints the personal data of people it calls the country's enemies its so-called blacklist has been strongly criticized abroad last month germany called to shut down the website off and publish the details of a former chancellor there and says that peacemaker violates the right to privacy and presumption of innocence. live now to independent journalism they are for more commentary on this thanks for coming on to the program now. do you agree with the russian embassy that publishing data on u.k. based but nick starr follows the controversial example of ukraine's peacemakers site. i think that the publication of these four shows lee that archie is going to go to the british court i'm sure they would win because the scandal the pride of any press anywhere if you don't do that to people there is no reason that way i was personally involved as journalists on this for this integrity

initiative own kitchen or inquiry into the details and i've looked into a gentleman called hallam as of some of the sites names out all allison he's an m i five for a lot of eggs if you tiffs and he's now leading for integrity initiative. being how most go he's changing german minds and in history what charles putting an archie everybody because what i call the different professors academics that were all consulted by this m i five gentleman by the way i'm sure he has a high five different sources education that. monstrous awe some months out from the door she says that show us the obama told me yes i have been contacted by them but i refused to work with them and it was then for two other professors one in kiel and one in another university so it is true what has been revealed by our

teams both me and that is the role of the press even if the government or the like of the british government sponsors stooges into the institute for states craft so it is a war between secret services at best or a forest so what's wrong the russians that well good how dangerous do you think this is neat. but i think it is very dangerous for for the press and you know because you've heard mr michael say that sport make him and our team work bad press you know they speak a think use but if you think the lives devon's for those among your listeners who he was who were not familiar with british politics the lived then the equivalent of the greens are just parties of europe that specialist stuff they use in their you know favorites are probably on a machine about energy issues about clean energy about the new boss the policy of

renewables so they spread all the time and these guys the extreme left so deep in the center you have to do to say to do what they say of course not so this m.p. is somebody who was not bottled i mean it's not acceptable to have these remarks made about people and say of acid should be used and while they should be sent to prison i mean this is a ticket that is not democracy i mean western europe was proud of its democratic status especially for the press it's not the case in your reporting l south how ethical do you think it was to publish general photographs especially and such provocative headlines. this is totally unethical hackery and you know we all know that the press in every european country has its own organization and indeed looking to issues like our hope the british press is going

to look into what the times are because this is not acceptable this is not acceptable these people ever done nothing wrong but their work and they've done it because they have put their finger where it hurts and. by hussein because they show that they said boy just british just to do horse reports to spread use a toll oh please it is sponsored by the navy sponsored by the television services and by other ministries in the british government this is not acceptable or at least the british citizens should norgaard it now they know thanks to the russian media established you know the bro. if i were a british it has a s f o your appeal to them are not ok they are they independent journalist thanks very much for sharing your views on the program on this issue thank you. and many bashing sputnik in the times article the out that science been in their

defense fellow with the atlanta council who calls sputnik an instrument of russian state power not an independent journalism outlet but the name is not a new one in the integrity initiative scandal already appearing in released documents showing his alleged links to the group spreading anti russia's sentiment and he's not alone the link paper suggests that the u.k. funded charity has been using generous across europe to stir up anti russia see things where gas death 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 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 oils one three quote a newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral anti-press tinnies and how the kremlin course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling weapons to 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 the integrity initiative which is working to counter disinter mission 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 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 and 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 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 narratives sometimes including dissent from asian 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 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 the who it appears that the promotion of his. strategy to spread disinformation and to influence italian political opinions has been limited and kay much more from national populist barters rather than from russia what's the 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 gritty initiative even targets are us here at r t according to the leaked documents they have people presumably who they paid to report of course 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 off to sea we've all noticed our anti russian sentiment in the media has soared over the last years and saw as still we now know one of the reasons but above all these leaks and in my view tear the masks off the bol that fights russian propaganda as they claim and what's underneath is ugly. reality u.k. foreign office to comment on the integrity initiative allocations it told us that the claims were being spread by crime news channels as part of a russian disinform ation campaign we spoke to robinson

a chair in politics at sheffield university he says this is much less controversial propaganda and more about assuming and inventing narratives on into mastic and regional level. it seems to be just as much about promoting insuring up official u.k. policy towards russia as it is about actually countering any russian threat the u.k. government and other western governments in the us in recent years have had increasing difficulties 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. 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. and disgraced former top german journalist as alleged to have stolen donations from off and syrian children those details up to this break. lead. to.

join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. i certainly don't expect very many people will choose to be biologically. move your body isn't working for a while it also means your mind isn't working so well so i believe we will have pretty much no biologically old people even though of course we will have a much greater number of callers we'll be able. to track down the outcry surrounding one of germany's star journalists exposed last week as having fake stories for years is deepening class who was fired from beatle

magazine allegedly appropriated readers donations for people featured in his articles including orphaned syrian children charlotte penske has more 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 bytecode that this relates to is one for she thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two serial all things a brother. they were living hundreds of miles apart in different cities into 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 this 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 also used its front page this week to say its sorry to its readers for the fake news 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 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 these free. us policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were targeted by institutional bias the anti american bias that the magazine has exploded since the election of president trump. a worked at dispy goal 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 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 only those accusations from the us ambassador perceived anti americanism which i described in the report magazine has apologized to all american citizens who may have been insulted and slandered by reports spiegel however says that it does not have an overall anti us bias political commentator and publisher i told us washington is focusing only on the fake stories that don't fit in start of turning a blind eye to the rest. they change those stories that make america look out and jaded those journalists who are more scripted girl do not care on those people and those journalist who did fake stories about syria and most of the stories about syria and this war there were faked and were lies america

is of course just taking those who don't want to stir up their their present politics policy they do with the politics of america first america only america great and whatever and they don't they just don't care anymore whether it is very obvious or whether it is not obvious. days politicians have gathered for christmas two in defiantly saying a traditional songs which they say are under attack by political correctness gone mad once again in particular about a young blonde girl is sparking the most controversy. the. the the. the politicians took action after a non danish teacher at the copenhagen business school complained about on campus singing of the song which associates denmark with

a young blonde girl leading university probably apologize and promise not to play it again although some media report that the college was not actually banned its use regardless the case has split society a professor at the university says important issues have been raised by the debate saying it helps danes realize how blind we are the danish officials strongly disagree. go on this song is about the essence of being then ish it's a pillow for gulch or we should never bowl just for it. to 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 all songs then the party stops. it is totally 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 kai hoffman in nineteen twenty four and is regularly performed across the country but

it's not the first time that a cultural classic has been dropped after people 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 said baby it's cold outside after critics said it was actually a sexual assault our guest debated the issues raised by the danish song. 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 escaping conflict and torture and those who are generally 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 feel included in society 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 danny's 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 i think you've reached your point. did you point out point is that these are charges.

and it's a great it is called your you need to know what it's all about i tell you get your pulled 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. so most of yesterday or. today our history i mean people here larry we'll get today's news where yesterday's news hour don't want to 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 will correct discussion is that a to stickle freedom is under threat because now you can write a song without you know trying to raise your past. and i'll be back in around thirty minutes with them but in the meantime stay tuned a full set him co here on r.t. international.

what politicians do. they put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected . so when you want to be president i'm sure. more some want to. let you go on to be for us to see what before three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters of our. friendship. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy on sunday shouldn't let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat somewhere i would sleep. i'm facing christmas alone out on the streets of london well you know not to be on. the lorry load of those you know to snort it still give out food for the store. clerks. because you don't really feel like a human being in that. and then. the guy just came over smithsonian gave me no change of this book.