into the field and out leaders like mike hall are getting their just deserts. calling for the assets of journalist working for russia to be seized branding the media outlet a kremlin stooge it comes after sputnik published documents that suggest the u.k. is funding a think tank aiming. to mint across europe we look at the think tanks are alleged methods. and the outcry over one of germany's most acclaimed journalists exposed for having fake stories for years deepens. donations collected on behalf of the people featured in his articles.

it's seven o'clock and you're watching international live from our moscow studio with mean a day or two to welcome to the program with the threat of russian propaganda still being trumpeted across the west. has now issued a chilling threat speaking to u.k. newspaper the times. demanded the seizure of assets of russians working for the sputnik media outlet calling it a kremlin stooge polyploid is following the story. 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 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 the assets 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 the 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 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 unto russian

sentiment that is you know travel and all 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 called puck 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 makes a and under the headline of being part of a train when stooge but another hand you know that we've done nothing wrong and i would say that this very much into keys that we're doing something right here. we have sent requests to numerous international media organizations for their take on the story and whether the times article met ethical standards and list to waiting for any response 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 added that the organization for security and cooperation in europe should look into the actions by the times peacemaker prints the personal data of people it calls the country's enemies its so-called blacklist has been strongly criticized abroad after some of those named when it last month berlin called to shut down the website when it published details on former german chancellor gerhard schroeder the un says that peace maker violates the right to privacy and presumption of innocence. live now to better in israel and international journalist and we're all ran and they are thanks for coming on to the program now. are you concerned in any way that publishing data on u.k. based put nick staff appears to follow the example set by ukraine's peacemaker website. well regardless of what is

happening in the international sphere between the ukraine and russia and the american domestic political brouhaha about the sixteen elections let's put that aside there's a slippery slope here if one focuses on media outlets because of their alleged connections with certain governments then one can go from spot new canard to voice of america and israel army radio and perhaps those networks or daily newspapers are controlled by your nerves friendly to benjamin netanyahu or to donald trump and if one. has a problem with a certain story or ways the alleged ethical standards of a particular journal the store or even a particular media outlet in general then one should present the case to the.

various organs by the journalist union or watch have you but what you just described what you cited from the scottish lawmaker seizing assets this is mccarthy it i mean name calling like kremlin stooge it's nothing new and a year ago the integrity and think well you know if he has if he has any proof regarding violations of any laws or regulations certain general east according to his information act as foreign agents then he should present the thory please rather than wage a public campaign aimed at their private assets this is really. unspeakable in professional terms even in the arab israeli conflict one

cannot recall anyone going as far as focusing on people's private lives i mean i mean if we look at the kind of rhetoric that's being use the kind of language like kremlin stooge it's nothing new really because the integrity initiative think tank slammed all t. host alex salmond as a useful idiot why do you think such language is being used and is deemed to be acceptable. well because people are fearful people don't really understand what is happening in this new world of social media of hacking of trolls bots what have you and people are whistling in the dark and sometimes they whistle at the wrong targets i mean you know on this channel as well our guests are also frequently described using offensive language

why do you think that is. well one can only speak from one special experience. and one doesn't feel like in storage. one speaks one's mind freely and. it's really regrettable that people who have no idea how the media works. throw around such charges which are totally unfounded. if we look at the ethical question how ethical do you think it is to play published journalist photos especially under such provocative headlines. well again there are two sets of ethics involved you have the parliamentarian the member of parliament and then you have journalists who apparently do not act in

a way the times. of london or other papers have chosen to present themselves as photos of russian colleagues. usually a journalist is not publicly shy. the more the better if one wants to be on television and one gets his picture in the paper fine but the question is the motive and this time around. it seems to be cheating ok janice to r.n. thanks very much for coming on to the program and sharing your opinions thanks thank you. with many bashing sputnik in the times article the outlet sides ben defense fellow with the atlantic 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 are spreading anti russia sentiment and he's not alone papers from the charity has been using journalists across europe to steer a plan to russia feelings were aghast here 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 barring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to attack or been the labor party and their fresh us one three quoted newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral and best unease in 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 the only job of integrity initiative which is working to counter 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 the early 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 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 of 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 a 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. it's appears that the promotional strategy to spread disinformation and to influence the italian political opinions has been limited and came much more from national populist boxes rather than from russia what 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. 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 after tea 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 bol 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 kremlin news channels as part of a russian descent from asian campaign we spoke to piers robinson chair in politics at sheffield university he says this is much less about can train russian propaganda and more about selling and embedding narratives on a domestic 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 the 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. a

disgraced former top german journalist is alleged to have stolen donations from often syrian children details after this break. you know world's big partners. a lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made history media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be

an arms race off and spearing dramatic development the only really 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 program the outcry surrounding one of germany's star journalists expose last week is having fake stories for you deepening class who was fired from a legacy allegedly appropriated reaches donations for people featured in his articles including orphaned syrian children charlotte do 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 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 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 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 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 is

for. you. policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were targeted by institutional bias the anti american bias of the magazine has exploded since the election of prison trump so 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 route 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 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 to his deceit is far far deeper than we already know. following those accusations from the u.s.

ambassador hans schlegel is a perceived anti americanism which charlotte described in her report the magazine has apologized to all american citizens who may have been insulted and slandered by the ports spiegel however says that it does not have an overall anti us bias political commentator and publisher i can have told us washington is focusing only on the fake stories that don't fit its narrative turning a blind eye to the rest. break those stories that make america look out and jaded those john list 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 like race america is of course just taking those who don't want to stir up their their present politics policy they do the politics of america first america all 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. to most politicians have gathered for christmas to protest what they call political correctness gone mad and sang a controversial traditional tear. 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 down market with a young blonde girl leading in a verse and probably apologize and promise not to play it again although some media report that the college was not actually banned in its use regard less the case has split society. a professor at the university says important issues have been raised by the debate saying it helps de is realize how blind we are but danish officials

strongly disagree. this song is about the essence of being then it's a for gulch we should never bow just forward. 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 the song was written by kai hoffman in one thousand nine hundred twenty four and he's regularly performed across the country but it's not the first time that a cultural classic has been dropped after people took offense in a new version of the christmas carol hark the herald angel saying reference to mary's virginity has been removed sparking outrage from church authorities

a 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 debated the issue raised by the danish cell. 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 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 where tolerant and 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 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 know if you're free is your point you've stated 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

society changes there are migration there are 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 it should be done i don't. want to sit on the day of. three i mean people here 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 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. neil harvey will take over in the around thirty minutes with more but in the meantime stay tuned for cross talk here on.

popes who. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and you. want. to going to be this is what before three of them or can't be good. interested in the war. the greek riots occupy wall street arab spring these are the beginnings of the home of the protests across europe today it was all connected it's all based on the exact same concept of bankers printing too much money creating this wealth and income gap and it's a delayed or deferred right you know sure that the violence was baked into the fiasco.