A war of attrition is on the way what you call expect it to we. Heard in your at the listening post here are some of the stories were tracking this week does the case against one news website amount to the do terror take government issuing a formal declaration of war against the filipino media climate skepticism is fringe and unscientific so why is it that skeptics still manage in certain countries to get so much airtime its a fallacy. The Italian Government has a formula for taking on the fake news problem and breaking down the happy talk. For an interactive getting to the core of the facebook story through pure satire. We begin in the philippines and a Popular Online news site rapper thats long been a thorn in the side of president rodriguez to tear to rappers criticism of detailed taste signature policy is war on drugs and its investigations into his personal wealth have not gone down well with the president has long accused rapper of being run by americans which would be illegal under filipino law the site now faces a possible shutdown over that allegation rapper a says this is pure politicize ation of the press that the president now calls the shots when it comes to media regulation since coming to power in two thousand and sixteen roderigo detective has made finley veiled threats against journalists and hit them with accusations of fake news but this official move against rappler takes the conflict to another level rappler vows to take the case to the Supreme Court if it has to and should that happen were sure to learn a lot about the media politics and power in the age of two to take our starting point this week is monella. Why are we targeted because were journalists who ask tough questions. Investigative reports on key facets of this administration starting with the drug war president. And the online social. Mission that forms the bedrock of this information and in this country that really is crippling the miners what were going to do is to challenge it and we will challenge take every legal remedy that is possible take it all the way up to the Supreme Court and were also taking it to the people. By fighting the case in the court of Public Opinion believe that that. Rapper has posted videos on its own site explaining its side of the legal story rappers one hundred percent but. Theres also an f. A. Q. Section the. Dedicated to the case its editors have used news conferences and this is harassment peace and freedom of the press demonstrations began to get the word out. And they have turned to their colleagues in mainstream news outlets channels like a. B. S. C. B. S. And g. M. A. To report on the story as well those outlets might given the kind of precedent this case could set in the philippines theyre trying to test the waters if nobody will complain or protest about what theyre doing there they will go ahead with the other news organizations and in fact the president has come out with speeches against the largest being the news abroad. And he has also lashed out against the two biggest news organizations. In the end channel two and jamie seven. The. President that continued to lash out against any kind of use organization that exposes us any kind of a wrongdoing in his government. If we allow ruppert to go down sooner or later everyones going down we cannot afford to be real not alone. We have been through the markets dictatorship with. His shop. Had only his mouthpieces his propaganda most and we do the work because press freedom is is not even though it belongs to the people when you take away press freedom to take away peoples right to information. So you has democracy. The governments case against rappler is a Financial One like Many Companies in the philippines rappler uses p. D. R. s Philippine Depository receipts as a vehicle to secure foreign funding p. D. I. Hours give investors a slice of the profits if the Company Makes money but unlike shares no control of that company what the philippines financial regulator the securities and Exchange Commission or f. C. C. Is asserting is that one of rappers p. B. R. Investors the group run by founder Pierre Omidyar does have a measure of control over things like the companys makeup or bylaws thereby breaching filipino law which for bids for in control of Media Companies parry roquet is a spokesperson for president to terror. Is about. It is not about freedom what was i mean genius by the reasons that result theyre in control of by a foreign entity a media creation because the business of spreading information is visit with National Interest it should only be owned by the beatles but the thing is. Even there as you see there could be the others not those ownership but those investments and its not the leader of. The other networks and one very telling thing too is the fact that the solicitor general who is basically the governments lawyer. Against robert so its basically the government telling the securities and Exchange Commission to do something about them so that alone is a very Big Government intervention you have to look at the f. C. C. Decision in context Philippine Media has been under attack on line for more than a year and a half and just last july you tear down targeted rappler and then a few days after the f. C. C. Decision i received a cyber libel case for a twenty twelve article that was published before the cyber libel law was actually passed the government says this is pure coincidence but when coincidences happen too frequently they form patterns and the patterns very clear. That rappler and not a more conventional news outlet has provoked this kind of response from the authorities is a measure of just how far the site has come in the six years since its launch and the importance now would catch the two alternative news sources in the philippines its fairly in the over us this is the first time we have a purely online use are going to be it did not have a print version it doesnt have a broadcast satellite facility so this is the first time that we have a purely online site and a big portion of the shares are owned by journalists and so in the what they project you would like to have more rappler. Take came to power in mid two thousand and sixteen launching his war on drugs and drug users the government puts the number of extra judicial killings at four thousand. Human Rights Groups say its more like twelve rapper was among the news outlets critical of the carnage and the absence of due process that displeased the president who does not take kindly to second guessing and who used last years state of the Union Address to take issue with rappler and its ownership you know until balls will be one hundred percent really you know. The. Rapper has also made enemies in the filipino blogosphere president to territory has legions of online backers the self described d. D. s die hard to tear taste supporters some of whom can be quite vicious posting the home addresses of journalists they disapprove of threatening them and trying to undermine the work of sites like rappler that criticized for his policy we did a whole series of this in october twenty sixth and that was what made us a target of the Propaganda Machine as soon as we published that story we came under attack i was getting hate messages messages Death Threats an average of ninety eight messages per hour our best defense was to understand it so we collected the data and we processed it we showed that twenty six fake accounts can actually ripple and influence up to three million other accounts by april twenty seventh seen the key content creators in the Propaganda Machine or a point that the government its on line state sponsored he and it is meant to silence dissent it is meant to silence criticism as poisonous as the rhetoric in the blogosphere can be the governments case against rappler based on those seems downright pedantic its worth reiterating rappler is not the only news outlet in the philippines that uses p. D. R. s as a source of financing the countrys two biggest Television Networks a. B. S. C. D. s and g. M. A. Used them as well no prizes for guessing where this storys going president that while he says that hes not sending im a nice applause that the news organizations hes trying to kill them slowly constricting their economic funding their sources of funding so this is that the worst the worst is yet. Were discussing other media stories that are on our radar today with one of our producers tara naafa target the Italian Government says it wants to take on fake news its created a new online tool with which to do that what are the details and why now yes theres been a bit of a frenzy about fake news and its a day in the run up to an election and march and this all goes back to two thousand and sixteen when a network of fake news sites was blamed for influencing the outcome of a referendum on constitutional reform this time around the government has and this did the help of its citys Postal Police which is a unit they investigate cyber crime and theyve created this online portal which ask you the mental link to the news item in question and then missed any faucheux networks theyve seen on it seeming the Postal Police will then examine each case and take action if laws were broken and if not theyll try to issue official statements to dispel the false information but its not like everyone in italy sees this as a good idea no they dont because its a fine line isnt that so people are worried about online censorship and theyre also worried about giving the police too much power to decide what is true and what is not the government of the platform is a transparent and legitimate tool end up protecting citizens from unfounded needs but some argue the ruling party has politicized this issue the director of political front checking site politico has warned of the dangers of turning policeman into Fact Checkers since people could actually face up to three months in jail for distributing false information youve also been looking into yemen where a journalist has been killed apparently caught in the crossfire earlier this week a photojournalist called mohammed could see was killed in the province of tiles and one of the alleged to have been rocket fired by the rebels he worked for the private channel buckleys t. V. And was on his way to investigate the aftermath of a missile strike when he was killed a local journalist working for russian broadcaster r. T. R. Was also wounded in the same attack and look at the death is being blamed on the this was mentioning a number of journalists and also being killed and found the lead missile strikes also worth mentioning i suppose that crossfire is hardly the only danger that journalists in yemen are currently facing no its not journalists in yemen are routinely targeted for doing that work last week the National Organization of yemeni media. Released a report that detail to two thousand two hundred fifty violations against media workers and journalists finn three of these took over the country in two thousand and fourteen that includes abductions and torture but one legal case against the journalist has just come to an end with the release of her sham and our may think hes been a critic of all the parties involved in this war hes been held by the who these with no access to a lawyer or his family for five months ok thanks to our among the worlds climate scientists the number of those who doubt that Global Warming is caused by human activity is extraordinarily low fewer than three in one hundred however thats not the impression you might get from the news media in certain countries Climate Change skeptics enjoy plenty of exposure through which to propagate their theories such as Carbon Dioxide doesnt cause a greenhouse effect the planets actually cooling or the climate has always changed you hear those arguments more in some parts of the world than others much more because climate skepticism in the news media is largely confined to what is known as the anglosphere. The u. S. The u. K. Australia and to a lesser extent canada and new zealand elsewhere including the most populous polluting countries china and india such skepticism is hard to find the listening post will yong now on the curious existence and persis tense of climate skepticism in the news media. There are many questions but in the air like like what causes Global Warming is it real profound is it can you reverse it the evidence for a catastrophe is not there at the lower the historical lows for extreme weather thats all based on a fine old fundamental the fundamental is that it is the human emissions of carbon to draw Global Warming that has never been shown across the United States australia the u. K. Fringe opinions like these make their way into mainstream discussions about Climate Change with striking frequency so what weve got is a fallacy based on furlough promoted by fools whats surprising isnt just that climate skeptics still exist in the face of overwhelming Scientific Evidence its that they get so much exposure and largely in the socalled anglosphere. We look to very large number of articles more than three thousand more than eighty percent of the articles that had climate skepticism in them were found in the u. S. And the u. K. Compared to the newspapers in brazil china india and france it is quite clear that there are a strong presence of skeptics in the australian and Canadian Press as well india worlds Third Largest emitter of Greenhouse Gas emissions there was very very little climate skepticism and the prevalence of skepticism is actually right now for about seven hundred articles that i have managed to. So far but point little focus and. Even. Climate skepticism what. Ive been a journalist in china for more than ten years of Climate Change is my area of expertise and i found barely a trace of climate skepticism in the Chinese Media. And there is a funny contradiction is particularly acute here in the United States where we here are home to some of the most influential scientific organizations and here is well some of the contrary unism is most evident and most acute so whats behind the persistence of climate contrary an ism in a grocery a countrys right wing media moguls came to business to remain as usual have certainly played their part the anglosphere forms the core of Rupert Murdochs media empire and outlets like fox news the wall street journal the london times the australian and sky News Australia have long provided platforms for climate skepticism. Of these. Facts but right wing media are only part of the story news outlets with a reputation for impartiality like the b. B. C. Have also come under fire for how often they present fringe views on Climate Change alongside those of climate scientists otherwise known as false balance even if there is one and theres been no record of moving over the past fifteen sixteen seventeen years well yeah thats there is a lot of controversy about that thats a fact that the b. B. C. Has had a particular problem with for a number of years actually and particularly the today programme on radio four was kind of the main flagship Current Affairs program which is almost feels like groundhog day of probably right every year want to go have another kind of car crash where they can buy a climate skeptic on the predictions made at the beginning of the year of. Global warming alarm have so far proven to be wildly inaccurate and post exactly the same. Cost. As well which is it which is a big round of complaints the complaints about how exaggerated. And the b. B. C. Is is now even in the position of having an off color investigation into the way that it reports Climate Change due to this being such a huge problem. The notion that there is balance in the Climate Change story that Climate Science holds the same weight and significance as climate skepticism has been manipulated to great effect particularly in the United States the fossil fuel industry there has set out to so doubt about the science of Global Warming by funding like minded think tanks who make spokespersons available at the medias request to get it it simply should be now recognized that has no bearing on the temperature of the earth there are some numbers of think tanks we simply say they say they are paid to spend in one case forty percent of their their work day reaching out to the media one such think tank is the Heartland Institute which has received funding from exxon mobil Koch Industries and the American Petroleum institute part land spokespeople a fixtures in the us and other anglosphere Media Outlets we always have. Always had the same is true for the Competitive Enterprise Institute which has also been funded by oil and Coal Companies arent the director of the center for energy and environment with the Competitive Enterprise Institute one place he wont find climate skeptic lobby groups is china chinese industry just like the media tends to move in step with communist party policy as far as the party is concerned the debate around the cause of Global Warming has long been settled for almost a decade now china has. The worlds leading investor in clean energy. And in his speech at the c. C. Peace Nineteenth Congress late last year president xi jinping himself wounded the home humanity inflicted on nature. In china on Climate Change is its very important its happening and we have to do something about it and its very difficult for journalists to deviate from the official line on anything so be very unlikely that the chinese journalist the editor would stick their neck out and say actually its not happening and we dont need to do anything about it. Over the past decade or so Chinese Media have developed closer relationships with climate scientists as a result the quality of the reporting has improved considerably. For example now you often see journalists making the connection between Climate Change and local environmental disasters. India too is home to a sizable fossil fuel sector and like china it has no industry funded lobby disputing Climate Science however the reasons for that are quite different indias Extractive Industries generally get what they want from government whoevers in power pushing back against concerns about Climate Change simply hasnt been necessary climate skepticism. In that theyre not very. Business groups political party. This is from or you were very very vocal and vocal. That have been at the forefront of a lot of. The frequency of cyclonic storms and caused a. Experts believe this is a clear indication of the effects of climate. Its difficult to be blind to the effects of Climate Change and although climate skepticism has been a remarkably resilient industry within socalled legacy media in online media the picture looks markedly different one of the things we looked at was whether digital gave space and voice and time to climate skeptics and to express it simply because they didnt and i think thats to do with their audience which is very young and we know from personal attitudes surveys in many countries that young people dont tend to be very skeptical about Climate Change. The influence of online media is growing but mass media remains the primary source of information for most news consumers and in that realm skepticism still has a place however as the consequences of Climate Change creasing leah thinks the anglosphere the pushback against skeptics is growing louder. And although the carbon industry continues to pump money into not being and media messaging evidence for. Their point of skepticism is running on borrowed time. Finally sometimes political cartoonists can do just as good a job explaining a news story as conventional journalists can even when those stories are complicated such as facebooks recent announcement that its revamping its news feed by feeding you last news the american cartoonist mark fiore dissects facebooks explanation for the changes which does not even mention the sites issues with fake news and hate speech but suggests that by deemphasizing posts from news outlets facebook will be bringing people together because who needs news when you can have chipper social interactions instead well c. N. N. Here at the listening post. Hi there welcome to the better he might be your world the base if you were getting a little uncomfortable and well from all that. Well youre in. Our new basement algorithm is ninety percent more bubbly and more in the interactive on the right. Whether its real. News and smiley held versus social interactions like super duper hard for months to get rid of fake news decided to get rid of other news to you youll still be able to get news from real like journalists if its forwarded to you by someone in your warm friendly bubble of comfort you can also go to settings click source click this up having info typing news backslash First Amendment and your sim a message telling you how to sign up for news you should know though nine out of ten Research Team members agree that news may make you sad fake news real news forget about it. If youre a media outlet. Your pal. It was on which modern day venezuela was established. For over a century this lucrative resorts has divided the. Coast with the Worlds Largest reserves. Charting the impact of industrialization and the legacies of its prominent leaders we shed light on the troubles afflicting venezuela today. The big picture of the battle for venezuela coming soon on aljazeera. Hitchhiking has never been this risk. But nothing can stop them in their tracks chasing the American Dream escaping poverty but the eagle route is their only option and their hope for a better life can lead them into trouble braving tough conditions generally the more theyll put their lives in danger just to hurt in the risking it all to destroy one aljazeera. Aljazeera with and for us. We have your zip data we know the products they are buying everything that youre doing thats really where the power of the all powerful internet is both a tool for democracy and the threat do you believe that any of your companies have a den of fide the full scope of russian active measures on your platform in the echo Chamber World of fake news in cyberspace the rules of the game left changed there are no precedents people in power investigates this information and democracy at this time. This is al jazeera and these are top stories now the us President Donald Trump has delivered his first state of the Union Address to a joint session of congress it was dog trumps for