hey, hello, i'm richard gilbert and you're watching a special edition of the listening post. this week. we are focusing on hong kong, the city, and it's transformation. july 1st marked 24 years since the united kingdom handed. it's commonly back to china. with that hand over came a set of promises, begging would stay out of hong kong, internal affairs, keep its hands of its freedoms, including it's free press. but for many hong kong, the question was not if, but when china's communist party leaders would break that promise. and the answer appears to be. now, over the past 2 years, bay ging has intensified the stamping out of political descent in hong kong through new laws drawn up in the name of security, the jailing of critics and the reigning in of the news media. in the 2nd half of this program, we speak to 3 hong congress whose work and lives have been severely affected by the cities, loss of autonomy. but 1st, johanna who's on how hong kong got here from a city of liberties to one that's under a songs ah. 2 don't go on, always enjoyed the most open, liberal press in the

hello, richard gilbert in europe. the listening post where we don't cover the news, we cover the way the news is covered. here are the media stories we're examining this week. uncertainty makes a comeback. what audiences need to know about the new cove at 19 variant and what they've been getting from their new sources. a russian state funded news network threatens to sue an independent media outlet in a branding dispute over a t shirt. it's called holly the so korean soft power push that's producing one block buster after another and from east jerusalem to the united nations. i do not care home this terminology, offend a journalist on why terminology matters in the coverage of the middle east conflict . and it has been 10 days now since the latest variant of coven 19 was 1st reported by scientists in south africa. the world health organization instantly labeled the strain it caused. alma crohn, a variant of concern due to questions over its transmit civility. and whether it could render vaccines ineffective, the initi