Hes since been in Police Custody accused of corrupt land deals at least three hundred Seventy Eight migrants have been rescued in libya after three boats were damaged in the Mediterranean Sea the Mission Carried out by the libyan coast guard took about seventy two hours the u. N. Says more than thirty three thousand migrants have died at sea since two thousand as are the headlines listening post is a. Witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time and. Military has carried out a crime against president coming. All. Right. Thats. Right. Thank. You. Hello im richard just reading your at the listening post here are som of the media stories weve been tracking this week zimbabwe thirty seven years in power ends in a week of confusion we examine the coverage of Robert Mugabes downfall ugandas president has been in office for a mere thirty one years i know journalists there are more and more fearful of the police in india a yet to be released bollywood epic has sparked protests and led a politician to place a bounty on the heads of the filmmakers and. Steve minucci playing the bond villain for all its worth. With the raising of a hand and the taking of a no its a zimbabwe got a new president and the International News media lost a bogey man emerson went on god what is in Robert Mugabe is out the transition began when tanks rolled onto the streets and a man in a military uniform appeared at the anchor desk of the state on Television Channel assuring everyone that what looked sounded and smelled like a coup was in fact not a coup the army was clearly calling the shots but the ninety three year old head of state seemed to stray from the script during a live televised speech in which he failed to deliver the resignation that many had expected forty eight hours later though that resignation became official the proceeding power struggle had lasted seven days and it caught zimbabwe and their media included by surprise for a while there are journalists many of whom have spent decades preserving mugabes unimpeachable integrity werent really sure where the story was going and more to the point who they were taking their orders from our starting point this week is the capital harare. Behind the story of what happened in zimbabwe this past week lies a significant media story that has gone largely unreported one of the reasons Armored Vehicles rolled onto the streets of harare that day. And the general took to the airwaves that night may have been that the day before this in baba in military held a press conference expressing concern over the state of the countrys democracy the hijacking of its government that story was ignored not a word of it was reported by the state owned newspaper or state controlled broadcaster loyal to Robert Mugabe for the generals who tried to send a message the conventional way through the news media only to be thwarted that may have been the last straw. This press day that was not covered at the time by the herald. And this import is about costing corporations however a debt circulates on social media through whatsapp through facebook was uploaded on to. Them for the following day images of tanks rolling into iraq are also circulated via social media only the early hours of the wednesday morning our main broadcast. Operation and they had no way to publicize the situation in our country. Decided to broadcast a televised address where an army general was addressing the nation of course also covered widely in the International Media. Over the next forty eight hours even stayed only to news outlets could no longer ignore the obvious at least not for long but spare a thought for the editors in charge of the herald and said d. C. T. V. For almost four decades those outlets were dedicated to propping up a mugabe government is if they were not in the space of a couple of days the rules changed now what do you think. The state. Herald newspaper found itself in the an enviable position of having. A front page story denouncing the generals after their press conference. I mean the paper was published at midnight so in the morning they had to produce another special edition with a completely different message praising the military intervention was a spectacular you. Guys were running with this. Story. Working with and now they have to report on the developments. This is they doing the. Reporting. From. The from field. Then its probably shocking for a lot of zimbabweans watching. For the past thirty seven years the same broadcaster have been singing the. Praises at what point do you suddenly realize that mugabes ninety three you cant be telling me those in the state media realize mugabe was ninety three this week a lot of people in the state media simply. Whatever the water is flowing to. Thats where you find. Four days after the military stepped in zimbabweans heard from Robert Mugabe for the first time knowing his speech was coming many western Media Outlets citing Anonymous Sources news alerts of a pending resignation they would be proven wrong the choreography of the televised speech was telling among the military men looming behind the president was Constantino Chiwenga the same general who had placed him under house arrest. So do you then started with an instinct. To president Robert Mugabes address to the nation like we were about to watch a hollywood movie so sit back relax and switch to the footage of sitting in the room surrounded by Army Generals and i was a bit unclear whether. I had just changed his speech or whether there was some something fishy going on there with the speech and we had that bizarre situation with me general had an eagle eye looking at what mccurry was reading. Appeared to miss a page and the general was kind of like. Nicely tell him that you skipped something. People are still debating to say long speech or wrong speech. The theory was that the entire. Suite speeches and give him a speech where he was resigning or that he was meant to resign and simply skip the page where he was supposed to to resign if the president. Resign sounded by many in uniform it would simply be again. Who we. Talk about. Out so the military way. Including the media. From the moment Robert Mugabes resignation became official the picture is driving the coverage of the story looked like this celebre tour but should that be the case his successor emmerson. Is not exactly a fresh face free of back. As mugabes former head of National Security he takes office with a reputation for crushing dissent then theres the military having entered the political fray and intervened once how long will the generals be willing to remain on the side for all the coverage of zimbabwe inside the country and out plenty of stories are going on top including what lies ahead for the media. Thats been very problematic for the International Media to reduced as a story to the actions of one individual in the picture is more complex it wasnt just. South africa and it wasnt only the actions of. The supposedly destroyed but when you look at power relations between the different parties within factions within the party the story is. Mugabes past what is it going to be like if this is really in military relations Going Forward how is the post to me got this scenario going to be a desirable out. If. The product of. Doing charge of the events zanu p. F. Is still in charge this is the equivalent office naik that is simply. Because we have no idea as im doing this interview with the new information minister is going to be with the oppressive laws like the access to information and protection of privacy act that has been used to muzzle the media in zimbabwe we dont know whether that is going to be scrapped so let me say a tyrant has been removed but has the tide and gone. For zimbabweans leery of being overly reliant on state media for their news and information more and more alternative sources have presented themselves in recent years most of them accessible on mobile phones two six three chat is a news service it gets its name from zimbabwes telephone country code its a website with a weekly newsletter delivered via its Whatsapp Group founded in two thousand and twelve by a former accountant nigel moved to sixty chat has almost a quarter of a million followers on twitter more than almost all of the countrys mainstream outlets. Open parly is a politics website set up by the mcgann but network an activist collective trying to open up democratic space in zimbabwe the site provides real time coverage including facebook a live streams of parliamentary proceedings and breaking news updates on twitter and on the airwaves as well as online is the podcast politics and beyond its broadcast on a privately owned Radio Station called capitol twenty six free the shows host analyze news events and interview politicians from all parties including those who dont usually find platforms elsewhere. Other media stories that are on our radar this week the Us Federal Communications commission has planned to repeal Net Neutrality laws has critics warning this could be the end of the internet as we know it Net Neutrality is the idea that all internet content should be free from interference by the middlemen broadband providers the current rules prevent american firms like the rise and a t. And t. Arbitrarily blocking or slowing access to certain sites and charging others for access to a premium fastlane the f. C. C. Chairman paul i was appointed by President Trump he says lifting these regulations will encourage broadband providers to invest in expanding their Networks Internet companies and experts alike have condemned the plans with pis predecessor at the f. C. C. Calling it a sham and a sellout the f. C. C. Vote in three weeks time looks certain to pass with republicans on the commission outnumbering democrats but Net Neutrality campaigners are saying they wont give up the fight with the tussle that has the u. S. Government and its Tech Companies in one corner and russia in the other escalated this past week eric schmidt of Google Parent Company alphabet in announced that google was reducing the prominence of r t n sputnik news outlets funded by the kremlin in its Search Engines to curb quote misleading and exploitative content russias media regulator ruskell nab zora neale. It responded with a letter seeking clarification and raising the prospect of retaliation the us congress is investigating allegations of russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen president ial elections and some u. S. Tech companies have been accused of rolling over for Russian Media providers and social media propagandists last month the department of justice in washington for starting to register as a Foreign Agent in order to continue broadcasting in the u. S. Which the Russian Parliament followed by passing a law allowing its own government to do the same with foreign media in russia in a separate move late last month twitter banned r. T. From advertising on its platform. In india the imminent release of a bollywood film and historical epic has provoked an extraordinarily hostile response with a politician calling for the heads of the director and the lead actress involved padmavati tells the fourteenth century story of a fictional hindu queen from the ravaged with cast and a muslim came. Rumors of a romantic scene involving the two outraged many rag puts and other hindus who want the film banned. The filmmakers insist there is no such scene and theyve been backed up by several journalists who have actually seen the film nevertheless the rads put cast association has held demonstrations protestors have burned effigies of the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and vandalized cinemas showing the trailer a Media Coordinator for the ruling b j p party in how to. Went further he offered a reward of more than a Million Dollars for the beheading of the director and lead actress to pick up the two coney police in how to say theyve booked and the under section five zero six of the indian penal code criminal intimidation the maximum sentence for that is seven years in prison. Having been in power for more than thirty seven years Robert Mugabe was africas third longest serving leader number four on the list at thirty one and a half years is the president of uganda youre wary to seventy in his early days in office to seventy oversaw the opening up of the countrys media space the arrival of many new news outlets both broadcast and print however the seventy three year old has clearly grown less tolerant of a free press is government has passed some problematic laws that have had a Chilling Effect on reporting ugandan journalists have long faced political intimidation and harassment however over the past few years some things have changed and now the people reporters in uganda tend to fear the most where Police Uniforms the listening posts Nick Muirhead now from com paula on media laws and the way they are for in. First when journalism in uganda crosses paths with policing. On the surface the media in uganda looks fibroids dozens of papers populate the newsstands there are numerous news channels on t. V. And some two hundred forty Radio Stations on the ugandans can also get online with relative ease however speak to journalists here and many will tell you that reporting the news can be risky and a Police Presence is often not a reassurance but a threat to me from. My. Experience. But. Thank you. I went to see andrew long the journalist who was assaulted by a senior policeman while covering a protest in two thousand and fifteen and its act he says has left him with permanent injuries and january twelfth two thousand and fifteen you went out to cover a group of young ugandans were protesting against unemployment in the country what happened next. I happened to be behind. The fast then i am. Here. I put the camera heated. It was. But so he to me then i walked out it was rushed to hospital there was real free wristed by the police and the Wonderful Team in the state of health would be to be at least it went to the hospital to ask for the medical team and the hospital our National Reform hospital to give do atoms with the use of god but then again i was discharged and you know luke plotted to kill with sticks and the next day when he came over to the police to record it at maty collapsed i was admitted in a speech but i woke up up up. Up on the floor i could not feel myself from the worst of to do exactly. What was. Before about. Twenty seven days. The day after the assault a group of ugandan journalists and media activists organized a protest march as they neared Police Headquarters in central kampala they were blocked by Police Pepper sprayed and arrested overwhelming evidence of the assault on the one go by District Police commander drama subject got him suspended and charged two years later in a case for the delays irregularities and claims of witness intimidation c. J. Was found guilty of assault he was dismissed from the force and find a nominal one thousand four hundred us dollars the longest says that his medical bills have come in at around sixty thousand dollars we spoke with a son kissinger the assistant Inspector General of police he says that his forces taken the appropriate action even if the courts have not let this available this officer was that listed by the police. The d. P. P. Advised the police and which i just said. And he was taken to courts so if courts of law gave a punishment that in a Public Opinion its not what you would have done we have nothing to do that that was an addict. Not to be judged for what courts of law in the eye wisdom. But. We say even if courts of law have made this kind of judge me this officer cannot walk in the police we wanted a message go out to the other Police Officer agents who are. Dissing. What is just make that point very strong we achieve but. Why we are referring to it is because he was. White but there are so many journalists that have been written out of. And this is just. One of the only Police Officers have been convicted of assaulting a journalist despite the alarming frequency with which it happened according to reports released by the Human Rights Network for journalists in uganda h r n j the Security Forces especially the police are the worst offenders against Media Freedom of the one hundred fifty five violations against journalists last year eighty three were committed by the Ugandan Police thats more than sixty percent. The police have consistently been the worst perpetrators of violence against the media in uganda h r n j ust finding shows that over the past four years theres been a spike in Police Aggression and that should come as no surprise because exactly four years ago a controversial new law was passed called the Public Order Management act that many careworn with but the opposition act. Of us protesters and journalists on a collision course with the authorities. The roots of the Public Order Management pomo can be traced back to two thousand and eleven as the arab spring unfolded with uprisings across the middle east and north africa authorities in kampala made moves to boast the legislation that would stand simply help them maintain order in practice it would seem they were creating a Legal Framework to crackdown on dissent and depend if five or more ugandans want to form any kind of Political Assembly and they need Police Permission to do so which opposition members were to tell you its hard to combine as a consequence police are breaking up more and more gatherings of a political nature like a handful of ugandan youths protesting against unemployment and when journalists turn up to cover the story then all too often and through no choice of their own they become part of the story we know this period behind but she. Was too. Critical voices. Was to deny space to the opposition and. The media is the last months time be it to give a platform to those that are not allowed to assemble it wasso shit and talk with themselves through Public Forums and meetings which media now is being im interested to discuss things in. A way that tends to be friendly to the region they have already stopped opposition their worries britain media their voracious britain be a citizen of the standing up for their rights but they have no legal basis so their Public Order Management act was passed yet a basis for the bad acts of government but also its important to underscore the factor that is being implemented alongside other broken down laws the Communications Act they made the africans act this cyber crimes act so it is not just that is used that the media. Have already determined for example that it is a political contestation they already have you can tell. Whether it is that. Whether it is by whether it is expressing a point on t. V. And once you have what the police think that you are somebody from that kind of perspective this is going to be a problem. That are perceived media bias from any kind of justification for Police Brutality is the problem and it demonstrates that uniforms and you can serve those in power and not the people and here is just one are. Forced to live at home with retired mother the journalist struggles to make ends meet and is unlikely to work in the field if not the profession ever again the policeman has sold to them free. And finally a couple of weeks back Donald Trumps treasury secretary Steve Minucci and took advantage of a photo opportunity showing himself with a sheet of newly printed one dollar bills the first to feature his own signature the resulting image went viral but for the wrong reasons someone made the point that mr secretary and his wife resembled a couple of bomb villains which actually took as a compliment or at least try to and that got one twitter commentator thinking historian kevin am crews concluded and wasnt the only member of the trumpet ministration with an eerie resemblance to bad guys and bad girls from films featuring secret agent we leave you now with a little selection of those and well see you next time here at the listening. When. With over forty thousand People Killed under his rule it took twenty five years to bring him to a court of law. But why for so long with such a brutal dictator considered an ally of the west we were reporting to the congress that to the rest they were engaged to a clandestine aljazeera unravels the history of chads notorious former president the same habit a dictator on trial at this time on aljazeera. Africa going through seismic changes country stands out because its considered so successful why is the. President of ghana nonna. Talk to all jesse. At this time. Egypts military no inches strikes against fighters it says obvious