Not the case our starting point this week is the kashmiri capital. Region locked down. Millions of people with their communications blacked out. Kashmir was already heavily militarized when the Indian Government sent in 10000 more troops in early august because of what it called an imminent terrorist threat it turns out the Modi Government had other reasons. Days later the media create after imposing a Communications Blackout new delhi announced it was stripping kashmir of its autonomy. Over the next few days we had our producer in srinagar film reactions from kashmiris in this is age of instant communication it took us 2 and a half weeks to get the video. Because with no internet no connection to the outside world our producer had to fly to new delhi to upload the interviews he conducted however are in no way dated because very little has changed a little bit is. Born. Of. This movement normalcy occlusion normalcy its accompanied by a blackout that means there is no night there are no bribe and so with this. Right now and you are not able to. Do it and this is not a force that they want to go to. One of the in the. No government blocks Internet Access is frequently as indias does 159. 00 times over a 3 year period far more than pakistan syria turkey iran and egypt combined according to the delhi based Software Freedom legal center more than half of indias regional internet blackouts have been imposed on kashmir including 55 this year alone what is unprecedented however is the scope of this one and the duration 3 and a half weeks and counting theyve been cut off sometimes sometimes a couple of days even if they cut off broadband they have been other ways of getting through this is the 1st time that everything has been landlines mobile phones while internet broadband. This is nothing so really what used to happen is when there was an encounter between you know pakistan sponsored terrorists and. Police or the army they used to shop in that of that particular district or that particular area but this time without. Considering that there could be some kind of violence internet was shut down forms were shut down and its been more than 3 weeks now so yes the severity certainly is massive and never seen before why ever since 947 when india and pakistan gained their independence from britain kashmir has been disputed territory in 1950 india agreed to amend its constitution to grant the part of kashmir that it ministers indias only a muslim majority state a degree of autonomy 1. 11 the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has consistently appealed to nationalists by promising to rescind that part of the constitution article 370 and allow india to take full control of kashmir modis brand of hindu nationalism gets turbo charged on the indian airwaves by hundreds of 24 hour t. V. News channels most of which have echoed the governments narrative on this story that the situation in kashmir is called and peaceful. Fresh on their streets like normal has become the key word a kind of mantra. Joe on the street just. Makes. The question. If you wanted a border for the t. V. News channel and youve been given very specific by our channel by our editors or what you can and cannot be sure youre not obviously going to dig for stories other than that some of our colleagues spoke to these t. V. Journalists and asked them if they had been to several of the areas have seen a good that we were visiting and they all said no so if you are not visiting more than a few specific areas youre obviously not going to board on the desk youre going to say that everything is normal indian media from. The time of independence was part of nation building project and has been part of indias nation building exercise all through these years all the last few years nationalism. Militarism theyre all. As one in the sea. If youre not with us youre against us. Indian news channels do not limit theyre with us or against us approach to india they use the same tactic against other news organizations trying to cover Kashmir International one so i think New York Times aljazeera and britains b. B. C. The b. B. C. It seems to be a speech simply caught redhanded. How much of it for the borders junction. And time management of the b. B. C. Should make them yet again 4 days into the blackout the b. B. C. Reuters and aljazeera are all reported that Security Forces in srinagar fired tear gas and rifle pellets at crowds of protesters the Modi Government through its ministry of home affairs called that story fabricated. After the b. B. C. Posted video of the armrest complete with the sound of gunfire the government changed its tune but only partially admitting there had been a small protest involving miscreants but that no shots had been fired. In government at the time decided to call it its a fake radio the b. B. C. Stood by the story they said this is a real deal for real protest from. A lot of the indian media especially the Electronic Media especially the t. V. Media were saying everything is normal in me for consumption of indian masses because thats what the messaging from the state is we have done this and that is not of this. This which is just the opposite as that video showed a New York Times of the Washington Post of the b. B. C. Or the others as eat up will immediately sure you were jewels while. People being debts may have its not like that since august 5th this is going to revoke article 370. 00 there hasnt been a single death due to any of the socalled Human Rights Violations of the Security Forces so how can any International Publication be didnt give your print justify their report cards. The short answer is because we dont really know whos been killed or how many thats what Communications Blackouts do they stop the full story from getting out what few images the world has seen kashmiris protesting hospitalized blinded by pellet fire put the lie to the Modi Governments normal narrative the one parroted by so many news outlets falling over themselves to support a government in new delhi they are supposed to hold to account its not just me if you will chase the history of what these channels have been feeding on significant issues in the last few meals they feel to have begun mouthpieces of the government ideology strategy. They are not any longer independent observation watchdogs or information given as you often hear indians describe themselves as the Worlds Largest democracy youll hear that from government youll hear that from me given the way the Modi Government is behaving and the way the media has basically lined up behind the the 4th stage is this really the Worlds Largest democracy is it acting like. It has never acted as a. Diverse country the size of a continent you know you made it could be it has been doing this to. See but i once read an indian writer very good and right describe india as the worlds greatest experiment where the writer also said that sadly the worlds greatest experiment in democracy is fading. Were discussing other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers tarek enough tarek anyone reporting on the media knows how dangerous mexico can be for journalists more than 150 media workers have been killed there since the year 2000 and this past month feels like its been open season on reporters there thats right richard last weekend never scorned as hard a meal was found dead in his hometown of to pelco about an hours drive from mexico city he was stabbed to death qantas ran a local news site called observatory 0 does thought he is the 4th john s. Killed in the past month one of 12 murdered this year and the oldest 2900. 00 will only 13 become the deadliest year on record for mexican this and the problem isnt just the rate at which reporters in mexico are being murdered its the virtually no one is being held accountable and punished the Human Rights Organization article 19 puts the impunity rate for crimes against freedom of expression thats almost 100 percent i spoke of on a christina a while of from article 19 on the issue of impunity. We say here in article 19 that the imbue needy. Is sad bear but to wait to go against and threat the germ is because theyre killing not only that through the journalist theyre also killing the truth about their debt and its a message of silence for all of their colleagues every day we document that at least 3 aggressions i get started at least 48 percent of those aggressions come from agents of the state the level of impunity is almost 100 percent this 99. 3 percent and these because the state is not investigating the shelves in every case of journalist aggression there is no objectivity or excess deviousness in the investigation because theres actually an investigation that is done by the sayings that went against a journalist and. While you might think that its the drug cartels that pose the greatest threats in media and mexico its often local or federal officials who are complicit in and in some cases allegedly directing attacks on reporters in mexico and the line between the state and organized crime is a blurry one and both sides benefit from financing critical jonathan ok thanks daryn. Turning now to a country that doesnt get a lot of News Coverage albania and a story published by 2 digital news outlets that confirmed what many of their have long suspected that the relationship between politicians the judiciary and organized crime is far too close for comfort the story broke this past january the balkans investigative reporting that work and voice of america published a series of leaked recordings phone calls between government officials including Prime Minister eddie rama and crime bosses colluding to wriggle actions in both 20162017 there were the kind of revelations that usually come with consequences however the ruling party has dismissed or deflected the charges and none of the senior officials implicated has been arrested let alone taken to court instead the judiciary has gone after those who leaked and published the material the listening posts johannah whos now from tirana on politics crime journalism and the few reporters who are still covering a story the albanian powers that be are trying to kill. They mean criminal network in a senior state official discussing voter intimidation or 227000 general election. The government official. Prime minister. Crime books promising the Ruling Socialist Party electoral victory. And member of the albanian mafia congratulating. Skinner connection. These are just the tip of the iceberg of a set of explosive wire taps that sent on pena into political chaos when you hear this conversation and they sound like Italian Mafia movies where of a decide who should rule the country and therefore the country should be ruled of by their people and not through fair and independent elections or. This was explosive evidence showing that criminals not only they enjoy total impunity but they are also poor both government in the sounds of helping and supporting supporters from in this case socialist who remain in power that is going to arms this illegally by criminals it was done with the cooperation of local officials and also high officials of the state which makes it incredibly clear not just how our government functions but also who is governing us never before have i seen criminal groups use such sophisticated tactics to influence the will of the electorate and thats why i and my colleagues at berne and v. O. A. Decided to investigate this phenomena again the Financial Force the store will publish focused not on the ties of this work has to politicians and members of organized crime but also the failure of the judicial system the Prosecutors Office to properly investigate this this leaves various people have been indicted which were mostly low level officials and members of organized crime but the part which involved their ties to the local politicians and lets say the 1st electoral fraud process that has now been properly investigated. The fact that byrne albania voice of america and later german newspaper billed were the ones to break this story isnt surprising these outlets. Receive their funding from outside of dania giving them the kind of editorial independence that allows them to cover issues most domestic News Networks are reluctant to touch. Us media space has opened up significantly since the end of decades of dictatorship in the early ninetys. Condit is actually rely on the mainstream News Networks for hard hitting investigative reporting especially when it comes to corruption and the intersection of politics and organized crime and wiretap story pro. Splurge of coverage initially and then most of our being. Virtually silent one of the. Terms Media Freedom there is a kind of selfcensorship about to take a job with a Mainstream Television station or it means. They know that there was conflict between the government or a Construction Company that wants to. Know Something Like this so they have to try to follow that particular its very early i stay away from such stories because they could be gone like that when this was revealed by voice of america and i think for local media its kind of easy to republish because this way they detach themselves from the contra and then just say this is what has been reported even in this case i think some of the media tried to downplay the importance of this revelation however when bill started to publish similar wiretaps that they didnt have a choice right of a hat to report this otherwise in the eyes of the public it would be very clear very are so pro socialist verma even able to through a cover of this explosive material. There are a few journalists to continue to cover criminal groups and their relationships with politicians but its become a dangerous beat and navigating the complexity of reporting. Country whose political system and even parts of its Media Industry are intertwined with organized crime scene selfcensorship is hardly journalists biggest worry. One night in august last year the house behind me the family home with journalist claudia was sprayed with bullets no one got hurt but lara whos been reporting on the relationship between politics and organized crime for over a decade says a clear message was sent that night to scare her into silence him she was injured because she refused to plan to be quite honest i find it very difficult to speak about that incident because my family and i are trying to completely forget about it i have tried to have a strong journalistic voice to investigate and expose the links of organized crime to politics and to denounce the power of 2 little groups while the authorities try to argue that this shooting was the result of some sort of family feud