Now the ethiopian Prime Minister has shut down a Major News Network and jailed its founder rahsaan kanafani the palestinian voice that like so many authors got his start in journalism. And disney world in florida lays out the welcome mat. Through a video that goes spectacularly wrong. Polish voters have reelected their president on jury duty to another term in office but only just duda who is aligned with the ruling law and Justice Party scraped in with 51 percent of the vote in the governments control of the public broadcaster televisa port sky or t. V. Pete helped get him over the line to many poles t. V. P. Could just as well stand for television propaganda the channel backed duda to the hilt in this campaign and went after his opponent the mayor of warsaw ski privately owned news outlets channels like t. V. s and newspapers like fact have been far more critical of duda so the president and his backers have tried to deal agenda mys those platforms over their Foreign Ownership theyve played the xena phobia card suggesting the german investors in polish Media Companies were trying to swing this election and theyre not about homophobia either now the law and Justice Party government is talking about the. Reed polis a ship of the countrys privately owned media which is code for nationalizing our starting point this week is the polish capital. Holes are proud they like to remind their czech ukrainian and east german neighbors that in the late 1980 s. It was polands Solidarity Movement the will of its people that emboldened others to stand up and stare moscow down poles will accept credit for the fall of communism and the soviet bloc the reintroduction of democracy to so many countries now about that democracy poland state owned broadcaster t. V. P is sounding more and more like profit for the. Hearts of the billions of dollars complete knowledge not of god not of the sea but this movie was close canyon a bit of a dog horse of just voted in round 2 of a president ial election between incumbent and jay duda and challenger. There was no televised debate thats a 1st in 20 years and t. V. P l a v z a poor sca is getting the playing. Days are not. The responsibility for failing to deliver a fair preelection the lies with t. V. They refused to collaborate in a joint debate but this is not the 1st time t. V. Has supported the government public media has been doing this for the last 5 years but it just became more obvious during this campaign. We had this bizarre situation in which the 2 candidates both refused to attend debates organized by the media that were more hostile towards them and sympathetic towards their opponent and we ended up with both candidates holding debates someone saying yes they completely separate from one another and on their own these werent that they. Were. The. God of the president when he. Was called on the witness the president and in fact half of the audience will. Question quickly. On a piece of paper they were asking them and he was definitely. Have been dont pull the. Fun of it on the president doesnt. Constitute the fist get the program to bend on which amounted to. This campaign is being characterized by each candidate operating within their own media so there is no confrontation no debates and each candidate believes his bubble to be big however president does tend to be big enough to make him president of poland for the next 5 years. But bubble always was that the government has seen to that pumping another half a 1000000000. 00 into the state owned t. V. P. This year which due to. In 2015 the law and Justice Party known by its polish acronym took power for the 2nd time it set its sights on t. V. And transformed from a channel that tended to lean toward whatever government was in power to a virtual mouthpiece it installed a new bosses piece loyalists who were nouns to t. V. Piece journalists would have to reapply for their own jobs scores were fired forced out and were just left in the polls saw the results of that in the coverage of this election independent survey found that 97 percent of t. V. Peace reporting on President Campaign was positive the other 3 percent was neutral. T. V. Famously aired a 5 minute video on the evening news and it looked like the finale of a hollywood movie it featured. Reading people hugging children walking with farmers and Business People they were pensioners trying to touch and thank him. She she can shout at them and also slogans about responsibility patriotism and strength it may seem an extreme example but it is representative of t. V. Piece attitude towards the president. And public media would not only prize do it or they would also attack his rival. I would suggest the. Radical left wing revolution represented a powerful foreign lobby comment on dozens of. Problems i have come to that i called each of about those you know president s are going which will vote them look good a good chuckle skinny of us them from both sides of both. I suggest he was supportive of the introduction of g. B. T. Ideology is that he and president do not call it how you can be sure just put on them screen they live which was presented as a threat to the polish culture children and particular they were using dog humans. Which were ranging from somebody through homophobic nationalistic intravenous the gains germans all the good to good use of the used and it was really that it worked. Turned out and they were mostly people of 60 plus age from the provinces. This propaganda was the. Minute. T. V. Piece coverage of run. The current mayor of warsaw has chilling merits to a story last year problem adama for the mayor of gangs had similar progressive policies. It was also running against a few scandals the treatment he got from t. V. Was similar to what just cos he experienced in the selection bulls was shocked last year when at a Charity Event adama vigil was murdered knifed to death by a former prison inmate while on the inside reportedly watching t. V. B. Day in day. Nobody would have to prove that the perpetrator his mother was. Instigated by a complaint against just cause he was running the same way. He was accused of wanting to take away special benefits for the poorest and move this money to the jews every day that were new information about him you cannot even believe that somebody can imagine things like that but they were saying. T. V. Piece competition on the airwaves consists of 2 privately owned chants t. V. N. And full set t. V. And has become an unofficial opposition channel almost by default but for many poles in rural areas and small towns t. V. Is the only domestic news channel available peace pulls well with those voters t. V. s and is foreign home so is fact polands most widely read newspaper president do da quickly pointed that out when the paper criticised his track record at the content of the. Speakers even after all the more than 3 of us children got the 5 points not a body president. But a ring near Axel Springer the foreign conglomerate that owns fact is more swiss then it is german. Foreign owned news outlets are beyond the peace governments control which is why theres been talk of changing them through what force called the republican i say should of the countries news media. School has been with t. V. Peace since 2000. 61 piece cleanse the channel of potential cracks. The post covers rosko news more potent transition from communism was no one controlled the movement of capital as a consequence much of polish media is owned by Foreign Companies and says the media landscape lacked balance throughout the ninetys until 2015 naturally an injection of 500000000. 00 from the government makes t. V. Piece supreme in the media landscape but we need public media to ensure a functioning democracy. And the public media need to prosper for this to happen. But public media and only and have a legal statutory obligation to be balance independent and not to favor one side and so regardless of whether it is true that. State t. V. As balanced out media once again this is simply not permitted and on allowed to be biased in this way and there are many broadcasters on Radio Television and also newspapers magazines which are conservative and supportive of your injustice that existed before 2050 they exist now. The talk of the revolt in isolation of private media is just that talk its more of a political tactic than a real possibility eliminating Foreign Ownership of media in poland even limiting it is highly unlikely because of the European Union and its free trade rules the government knows that its leaders and their allies in the media also know that if they talk about the specter of german control even if the company in question is really swiss more gullible eyes will turn to t. V. In search of the truth the polish word for which happens to be profit. Were discussing other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers flo phillips flow the ethiopian news outlet order me up Media Network is back in the spotlight we know whats had a troubled history whats the latest oh men is an important voice for the ethnic group who make up the majority in ethiopia when we last reported on in it was the moment that they just got back into the country having been broadcasting from exile for years is it was actually one of the 1st moves that Prime Minister ahmed made hes actually normal himself when he came to power 2 years ago but on june 30th police raided their offices shutting down and arrested its founder joe on the hammett accusing the network of inciting Ethnic Violence and spreading fake news now this was related to their coverage of the killing of a famous are amazing at just the day before his death set of protests which Police Responded to with deadly force more than 200 people mostly on have been killed and the network whos all over the story the details are sketchy though since the government shut down the internet for 2 full weeks almost thought that things would change for the better under all the argument so what happened. Right abi was lauded for his reforms both at home and abroad last year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and oh man and its founder joel mohamad were both instrumental in the social movement that helped bring him into office but the tide has most definitely turned John Muhammad has become a fierce critic of the government and his large online following is perhaps no longer appreciated by the Prime Minister another country with a well deserved reputation for silencing and jailing journalists is egypts now a journalist there face yet another threat the coronavirus indeed Richard Mohammed monnier was a prominent egyptian journalist and writer monnier had long complained that the authorities were threatening him over his articles and his appearances on aljazeera arabic a month ago he was arrested on charges of quote spreading fake news and belonging to a terrorist organization which is a line that you well may recognize as weve heard it coming out of egypt many times before now covert 19 has ripped through the egyptian prison system and this past monday just days after hed been released on bail money did succumb to the coronavirus he had been being held at the notorious tora prison just outside cairo which is where al jazeera is own Mahmoud Hussein has been jailed for 3 and a half years without trial or charge ok thanks love. Some of the biggest names from the world of literature Charles DickensErnest Hemingway gabrielle got to see america as maya angelou got their start in journalism their reporting tends to be forgotten their prose is what lives on grass on kind of funny is a name you can add to that list kind of funny was a palestinian writer who threw books like men in the sun humanize the palestinian condition of dispossession and displacement but he was 1st and foremost a journalist kind of funny was also a product of 1960 s. Beirut a period when the city was a magnet for young reporters and revolutionaries migrants and misfits lebanon was also playing host to the palestinian leadership in exile at the time it was in beirut that kanafani produced us a forward thinking palestinian magazine that has been somewhat lost in the mists of time the listening posts tadic nothing now from beirut on the ha sun kind of funny and the era of Palestinian Revolutionary me. There are some who. Can take a moment in time and give its meaning. Is of clarity thats not so easily defined. The sun can a funny writer artist journalist playwright and political was one of those people surely is the middle east turmoil keeps away the video from the. News reports couch is kind of funny in the city where he made his name in beirut to new businesses develop revolution palestinian revolution. Is interviewed by Richard Carleton for australian a. B. C. News. By root leader of the popular front is gas head and kind of funny he was born in palestine but fled to 948 he puts it from Zionist Terror and the English Speaking spokesman of the popular front for the liberation of palestine the p. Kind of funny made good t. V. Which was by no means an easy interview he. Does seem that the war the civil war has been quite frankly this war its people defending themselves against a fascist government its a moment of great confidence of clarity of vision of conviction and the way of a son kind of funny speaks in clip shows all of this this and there was the whole of the palestinian revolution all the conflict its not a conflict its a Liberation Movement fighting for justice. Well whatever it might be best call not whatever kind of picks up on a very important word which for me resonated the strongest and this is the word whatever this is exactly what the problem started this is a people who is discriminated is fighting for his rights this is a story and this is the narrative that palestinians unfortunately have not been able to relate to the world that post in their it as narrated by palestinians is not something that the world wants to hear why not just talk. To him talk to the israeli leaders thats kind of conversation between this sort of then the next you mean them or because. Theyre sensitive and simple and clear language how are we supposed to have dialogue youre coming to slaughter when you put aside the sword so we can have a conversation its better that way than dead. Maybe to you but to us its not to us to leave it to our country to have dignity to have respect to have a lot of media human rights is something as essential as life itself. In the arab imagination kind of funny is remembered for his storytelling which explored the palestinian experience state thats. Separation and exile. In the west he was the public face of the leftist p. F. Lp seen as one of the more radical palestinian factions. Kind of fanning was not involved in the armed wing of the p f l p or in the planning of high profile airplane hijackings that the group became synonymous with but he was an advocate of the struggle and understood its media value. If its once quiet he writes new t. V. Network would willingly give any palestinians the minutes of coverage to express themselves. Above all other kind of funny was a journalist an accomplished one. The 2nd a funny was a multifaceted multitalented the human being he was very significant in knew the kuwaiti and the beneath suppressed in their heyday we dont about the 19 fifties and sixties ascent going to fanny was a central figure i mean he was associated with the founding of many magazines and newspapers throughout the region but you do it and 1960 s. And seventys was an extremely vibrant city it was a truly arab city and the palestinian revolution was kind of the last hope for people and so thats why arabs from all over went to beirut to be part of that last front for revolution and creativity activity and literature and journalism. After the defeat of arab regimes in the war of 967 and the disillusionment that came with it palestinians took matters into their own hand. A National Struggle for liberation took form. And for kind of funny its marked a shift in thinking the revolutionary politics of the p. F. Lp. In 1969 he was made editor in chief of ahead of the groups newly formed weekly magazine. And heather was revolutionary in fear it confirms truth its combined the p. F. Lp of political messaging with analysis human arts and calligraphy in a chronicle of the Palestinian Resistance the link to answer colonial struggles in africa asia and latin america. He made a left wing media accessible well beyond the narrow confines of the already converted he went after arguments by fellow arab journalist as much as he went after arguments by western journalists because article where an unusual combination of satire sharp wit disses them as well as information that he can imagine soviet communist literature using humor and irony and that but there was none of that and a communist were even more dollar more humorless then the soviet union so you can imagine when the center of any comes with this new form of media it was entirely novel. And heather had an open door policy that made it a hub of cultural and Artistic Exchange it was there that kind of fanny and his associates produced some of the most iconic posters of the palestinian revolution. It was a progressive magazine with an engaged International Readership but its one of the official party organs some would say the mouthpiece of the p. F. Lp. Killing with most b. S. I dont like the term mouthpiece its not true neither was it propaganda we were not spreading propaganda we were trying to. The truth to the people that was the slogan of ahead of the dread the truth is always revolutionary which is what lenin wrote these truths were the refugee camps or the truth for the palestinian situation a wonderful opens to accept all kinds of new ideas and for this reason i think the importance of literature and journalism and culture from that era was that it was the founding culture. Kind of fanning left a distinctive imprint on the our cultural and media space there is his pioneering fictional writing and then there is this huge body of journalistic work and when you look at the range of his output so you get the sense for hans that he knew his time was limited that he had a target on his back. On the 8th of july 972 kind of funny and his knees were killed in a car bomb outside his home he was 35. It was among the 1st in a series of israeli assassinations talk to palestinian leaders and cultural. And its a betrayal of kind of funny lebanons daily stuff that he was a commander never fired a gun his weapon was a ball point pen and his arena newspaper page of. Israel decided to go after all facets of the Palestinian National movement whether they were writers journalists combatants they made no distinction whatever they wanted to extinguish the flame of the Palestinian National movement in all its forms. Sent going to finally has gone through to life there was the life that he actually lived on this planet and there was a 2nd life that he has been living after his death especially in the last 20 years his iconic image is almost everywhere there are so many facebook pages dedicated to him instagram pages. Resistance for him was something that was not necessarily just an action the heart of resistance could be in the written word and this voice of hope and aspiration and clarity and conviction that we dont have anymore and thats why this resonates so strongly with us today. And finally the last thing that Walt Disney World in florida wants to be is a mickey mouse operation but it chose to reopen last week and the very next day florida set a record more than 15000 new cases of coronavirus the most reported in a single day by any us state not to worry disney world released a promotional video to convince us it was still safe showing masked employees in the theme park all saying welcome home and to the internet the thing about people speaking behind the mask is you can make them say anything which is exactly what Brendan Mckay a comedian based in los angeles to it 1st he changed the soundtrack then dubbed in a few lines of dialogue gifting the rest of us the disney world horror remakes a short but scary movie well see you next time here at the listening post. Oh geez there are we as is the government not to take the necessary action to really address some of the structural issues we listen i still think that air travel is the safest mode of travel and to spend that we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on the job just 0. He was a pioneer of the Us Civil Rights Movement congressman john lewis dies at the age of eggs. Kimbell this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. Federal agents in the u. S. City of portland the recused of to tame the black lives matter protest is without any explanation. Irans president says 25000000 people in the country have been infected with corona virus and another 35000000 are risk