More from interests in which the incident happened in 2 villages at least 2 villages in northeastern nigeria in borno state in particular. And one surprising thing is that the attackers, according to sources, came on motorcycles, and there has been a ban on the use of motorcycles in that region for at least 6 years now. So its surprising how Security Forces couldnt identify or discover some people illegally using motorcycles. They carried out their tax when these farm workers were busy harvesting rice in the fields in bed, as well as a bit of money where we saw today. A funeral for 43 of the victims were, was held u. S. , president elect. Joe biden is being treated for a fractured foot a day before he is to receive his 1st president ial briefing, also wisconsins 2 largest counties, a finalize their recount of votes, and they have confirmed biden as the winner. Irans Top Nuclear Scientist who was assassinated on friday will be laid to rest in the coming hours. Memorials were held on sunday for most and for their irans blamed israel for the killing and to retaliate. The top Infectious Disease expert in the u. S. Does want americans to brace for a surge upon a surge of covert 9000 infections during the holiday season. The u. S. Reported more than 150000 cases on saturday. And 13 parties have been charged in new zealand over the deaths of groups of tourists and the guides during a volcanic eruption last year. 3 people 10 organizations facing fines of up to a 1000000. 22, people were killed in the white island eruption. Those are the headlines on aljazeera. The listening post is next. On counting the past president , xi extends his grip across china and hong kong could taiwan be next. A failed decades old policy of unfettered, free Market Economics and the people of chile redefine capitalism plus taxing the rich to pay for the pandemic in argentina. Counting the cost, ill just see a promise to come in iraq. Cool. Cool. And come on almost every western democracy restaurant for all the American Fiction for the house of representatives from the Prime Minister. Hello, im richard burton. Youre at the listening post. Here are the media stories that were focusing on this week. In australia, 2, former Prime Ministers joined forces to take on the power of Rupert Murdochs media empire. The debate in france over secularism and free speech president macro doesnt like some of the coverage of pradesh. The biggest state in india is a dangerous place from which to report and give us this day. Our daily coronavirus briefing, announcing and forgive governments their trespass. No country is more familiar with Rupert Murdoch and life under one dominant media player in the land of his birth, a stroke, politicians there have come and gone, but murdochs influence over how the country has been governed, has been a constant for nearly 6 decades. The year 2020 has brought this issue to a head about 65 percent of australians print outlets belong to Murdochs News Corp astray and the coverage that the company has brought to the pandemic. Those huge bushfires, as well as the Climate Change issue, has outraged its critics. More than half a 1000000 australians have now signed a petition, demanding that their governor investigate the murdoch media empire and the influence it has on their lives. Theyve been led by 2 former Prime Ministers who have turned on the current pm. Scott morrison has it so no one expects him to approve the formal inquiry that his predecessors want. Still this petition may just be the beginning of a reckoning. And the way that News Corp Australia has responded, suggests that the Company Knows it has a problem on its hands. Our starting point this week is the land down on Rupert Murdoch and the journalists who work for you have never faced this kind of scrutiny before. Not in a stream to former Prime Ministers from rival political parties. Just joining forces calling murdochs brand of journalism propaganda. A cancer on australias democracy, a petition signed by more than half a 1000000 citizens demanding their government, investigate the effect that corporate concentration in the media has had on the way the country is governed. Rupert murdoch has been in the News Business in australia for more than half a century. Hes proven resilient, but the year 2020 has produced some momentous news stories that are taking their toll on news corpus trail. Yeah. And its reputation 2. Things that have led to this great need that were staying at the moment of the middle comedian part astray of one is donald trump and the other is the coded. Pandemic strains have been much more aware of the impact that fox news and made us advocacy for trump has had in the United States how its led to american democracy. Looking in absolute disarray. And the other major factor has been the way in which the middle chris and major outlets in australia have reported the pandemic in victoria. Particularly there was this huge 2nd way in the labor premier ban. Interiors imposed a strong law and its been very successful. The Murdoch Press gave him a very hard time every day they were front page headlines against him. And this actually put many members of the public off. But its been his long term growing dissatisfaction, especially with his coverage of Climate Change. And that was huge in australia last summer where we had a terrible season. And there were articles in the australian, which is that they dont like shit, news type in australia, strongly suggesting it was due to asa, the intended plight down the road. Climate change, which was pretty outrageous, and in the press is pato the environment, which is an idle account and still not really have a comprehensive energy policy. What has changed now from the way that murdoch and chris wielded this influence in the past is that before there was a kind of people, a fear of finance and that has gone, its become much more virulent. And there are some former politicians who i would do, i think youre right, the kind of fed up in that many other people instead of the society and not just any politicians, former Prime Ministers, both kevin rudd and Malcolm Turnbull spent about 3 years in that job. And have since blamed Rupert Murdoch and news corp astray for their subsequent falls from pot. The company certainly has the clout, roughly 2 out of 3 newspapers sold in the country, including the australian, the only National Paper or murdoch own, as is the 24 hour news channel, sky news, a straight. The petition for a full scale Royal Commission investigation into the murdoch factor in australian politics was kevin rudds idea. Right, however, has some history. He needs to get past as the company put it to us. Its also important to remember mr. Rudds disproportionate and unseemly efforts to ingratiate himself with news corp this trail. Yet when he was labor party leader, both in opposition and government just because youre a hypocrite, doesnt make you wrong. He had no choice. Be the label of power, especially by the history of the mint that he could either try and get an unfavorable treatment, get a 5 or he tried to get a favorable one and how to be pushed back to the right age. That would seem very, very good. He was still was ultimately down in power, if not by made up at least with linux systems. And you say that the current 2 Major Party Leaders and not talking much about the position all that us ability of the Royal Commission. Theyre avoiding that conversation because its too provocative in strange politics to take on the middle comedian and thats absolutely the best system and it has been for quite a long time. No one really expects the Royal Commission inquiry to happen, but thats the governments call. And the current pm Scott Morrison wont risk alienating murdoch. But morrison does not control the upper house of parliament, the senate, which will conduct its own inquiry into media. Diversity in Australian News corp astray will be a key Media Company in focus, but not the only one. And the inquiry will lack the mandate to subpoena witnesses. The way a Royal Commission can news corps initial coverage of the petition story was to ignore it. Let it blow over. As the signatures piled up, it changed, targeting kevin rudd, with some questionable stories that some of the petition names were fake, produced by bots in bangladesh, attempts to tie right to the disgraced american finance. Jeffrey epstein, the pedophile, who rudd says hes never met the Company Also Named one of its newspaper editors, paul kelly, available for a televised encounter with former pm Malcolm Turnbull. It turned into a confrontation. How offensive, how biased, how destructive . Does it have to be poll before you will say, one of our greatest broad isnt journalist . Its an awful amount of and i mean, how long would you have, hey, im not here, but when i asked the head, tell me, i decided how to make sure there were in terms of mark kelly is one of the meeting political journalists in australia has been these essentially what youre doing is youre transferring your own political 5 years and you wish into blind act company for these become a sort of college just for the militant groups, which is a shame because he had a very distinguished career, but it was quite breathtaking television and it was lucky and thats are trying to be a propagandist for one side. But if one is a critic or skeptic about some of these issues, thats not our current. And the thing not surprising was that he was presenting at the you and other media workers. It is a propaganda organ. And therefore, there was no problem with also presenting it and turnbull said the company you work for and its friends in politics like trump and others have turned in this issue of physics into an issue of values or identity. That was a powerful exchange. Theyre obviously feeling much more able to talk about these things and they were obviously when theyre in power, news corp and murdoch have done an enormous damage to western democracy and in particular to the United States in this trial. And theyre now determined sames to point the manners very publicly, which is new and must be very confronting for the made up media because part of its power has been that politicians day and speaking against it. Controlling 65 percent of the print media market in australia. Actually represents a step back for Rupert Murdoch and his company that figure used to be high between selling some papers off and the digital diversification of journalism. Every news corpus trail you is not as influential as it wasnt. The Upcoming Senate inquiry will examine that and could well shed some light on the dark side of media. Murdochs politics in australia. What will really be fascinating in history is this would be an occasion in which people can appear before parliament and give evidence about the made up media. Empires influence on them. So politicians form a coalition will talk about what is happening behind the saints. And thats very important is too much fear of speaking out against the so when i was asian, its have powerful, its been over many decades. So i think would be a very important moment for a strain its being given excepted that you could not win in australia and less, murdoch was on side. The roar that pulling patrick Murdoch Press has largely gone. And this is partly a story about the decline of one string, maybe or not only there is still a game to sit and pal and so its still got power, but its not. That was the power but certainly and you know, the level of possibility. And sometimes mysterious properties, and the mystery or trade shows that they are really worried about this in terms of maybe this time im going to want to its been 6 weeks now since a schoolteacher was beheaded in france after he showed his students cartoons mocking the prophet muhammad, during a class on free speech, the political response, including from president and then, you know, not cross continues to make headlines. I just touched off a major debate in the country turk, nasa has been following that story for us. Tarek. Michael says that International Journalists have got france all wrong way. As you mentioned, richard, this debate is taking place and the aftermath of the killing of samuel potts. He was a schoolteacher who used cancer to make a point that were at the center of another attack back in 2015 on the magazine charlie hebdo, after parties, my president , my con, called for the need of and then lights and islam and condemned muslim separatism in france. And the government is ensuring here with voices on the far right who are calling for a more assertive defense of life city, which is a form of french secularism. Intended to separate church and state, but which many say disproportionately impacts french muslims, more concert foreigner porters who criticized his policy towards french muslims just dont understand like that. He singled out political and Financial Times to newspapers in particular that he should print retractions, didnt stop there. Did he then does an interview with the New York Times and in particular, with their media columnist dan smith. And in the interview, he said that english language media biased and said some of them were, quote, legitimizing this violence. He says he doesnt care about color or religion. In his words, a person is 1st and foremost, a citizen. Now, many french journalists and voices on the left would beg to differ. They say front, his current troubles are at least in part to do with inequality faced by fringe muslims. Those voices have been dubbed traitor by others on the far right and for more on the limits of french freedom of expression. So you can listen to this from the interior minister, speaking on your one at the french channel. The power given in your project was that it did our senior legal. You get your letter today and that is useful to take some of the she was a tory, did go under the assiduity. Notion that ok, thanks to our you wont find a media landscape bigger or more complex in india. There are 22 official languages there spoken across 28 states and hundreds of news channels along with thousands of newspapers and websites. Assessing the state of the media, there is no easy task. You have to zoom right in. So were focusing on indias largest state, hooter pradesh, or u. P. With a population equal to that of brazils 200000000. 00 plus u. P. A. Has been the tory yes for its dirty politics. And the brazen intimidation of journalists over the past few years. Conditions for the media have grown much worse under a chief minister who wears the garb of a hindu month. And this from indias far right aligned ruling party, the b j. P. The listening posts in actually ravi now on journalism under dangerous trying to missions in uttar pradesh. It was mid september. And in india, in the state of it there pretty in a village called hotness. A woman was gang raped, she was found in a black. The victim was a doll in part of a community of people deemed to occupy the newest, drunk in the hindu caste system. That pervades india and defined social politics in a typically midnight when they would need to put is covering the story of the city, knew going in that that was the context. The hardness incident is a very straightforward one of the gang rape in the lead. Marginalized woman by allegedly upperclassman up press gang rape, which was given no dignity in death. She was appointed ready to when she was the light. That somehow this case because of the element of cost domination, politics by the state, government has become this bizarre turn. The police would try to deny that theres gang rape even now. Theyre awful. This and there was no reap the police all saw what to stall. The dead body kidnapped the dead body from the hospital and 2 kids 3 from a hospital in delhi to heart. You can see one body has just the police, lots of the family in the house and burns the body, the bullets without even letting any Family Member know they have point the body. Now, what was the guy and how did the dying . How did it was that the Police Wanted to prevent the morning which will give the cremation . They want to prevent the family protesting with the dead body. They were trying to prevent the bad guy would have won at any point in the morning or whatever. Not only did they not avoid bad press, heavy handed efforts by authorities in the case just created more headlines and your list, you must ask questions of the sort of outcomes of certain we dont know about the british government, but it catered that religion would for the opposition parties and for the members who are not good enough to cut, it will take a good decision. So clearly the authorities were very scared and hell bent that the media both locally and from outside does not report this yesterday. Ever since this government has come into power, it has seen every attempt at critical out Investigative Journalism as an enormous attack. The government has a very clear agenda, media, the media, the barn, and many other. Gov to suppress the media, suppress the media, suppress the media. The way the media has been gagged here in u. P. Is tantamount to an undeclared emergency. And yet that i think horses are different is hugely significant in indian politics. Its the most populous of Indian States with more than 200000000 people. Thats more than most nations in the world. Its excessive state governments have intimidated and sought to control the media. And journalists have seen that pressure get significantly worse than they see. The shift came in 2017 when seen years after the right wing, the kind of digital fighting b. G. P. , one national elections. And little modi became Prime Minister. The b. G. P. Swept to victory in state elections and took power in the be among the new challenges for reporters. B g ps, appointment of a chief minister who goes by the title of you, i think, you know, which is for starters, tired of the world to solve this makes no bones about the fact that any reporting out of the official will be treated as hostile will be treated as per the lack, particularly reports that highlight costa cost because an important part of the p. D. P. Is political narrative, is that they speak on behalf of him. And how do you speak on behalf of india . If the system oppressors people of socalled lower castes, the so much government of session managing them out of control in the now preventing any incident from coming threatening phone call, the sense of the sense of fear and paranoia among european journalists. Despite this, ive been reporting for the past 35 years and substories attract a lot of negative attention. In march, a colleague, i went to a village called good repute. In the absence of any other nutrition children there were being fed a type of wild grass. As soon as we posted the story online, all hell broke loose as if i had committed a heinous crime. The Regional Administration said the story was fault. Ratman though, by the way, at the district magistrate in violation of law, pulled the villages out of their homes and tried to pressure them into changing their story. The magistrate even ordered some of them to collect the wild grass. And the next morning, he and his son before the graft, eating the grass. He issued a statement saying that these were actually a kind of lentil crop and that we had since it is the story i was served in order to attract by peace. Instead of dealing with the issue of starvation, the authorities were solely focused on killing the story. On a path out i am here at home is such what about the environment as such on the ground that no matter what you do, you are going to face some kind of consequence for being one of boarding. The most basic board there have been cases of joined who were caught by the rain because they were reporting about the bad conditions of the rita. And that john is this beaten up, was taken to the police station, 2 hours. I mean that john is also says that the body is youre an intern, as he got in touch with the u. P. A. Governments department of information, which in the wake of all the bad press following the hottest gang rape has had new officials appointed to it. Our interview request was declined, as was our follow up request for jordan responses to questions. In april this year, the committee to protect journalists published a report on the media climate in uttar pradesh. It documented cases of brutal beatings of journalists and even the killing one, just months after youll be added to not to power in 2017. That report came out as the u. P. A. Government kicked things up a notch by taking on National Journalists in june supernational editor in chief of a news website called the school dot reported on extreme hunger in a village in a district in interpretation called vidana city. Which happens to be Prime Minister made in the movies constituency. Youd be police began an investigation into her for defamation and the spread of misinformation. Just a few months before that siddharth varadarajan, editor in chief of a news outlet called the wire, was issued a police. Someones put a report he did without a story. Just from the back of it was taking all about how much the 1st of a corporation actually attended a religious event on the 1st day of the lockdown in defiance of the promise. So case was filed against us for that report and for another treat in rich, a court had been misattributed to the chief and so on in the middle of a pandemic. You had a posse of police work over the summer to answer questions. And then we were able to get at this bitter bitter protections of the law, but i got, but other journalists are not so fortunate. Its been nearly 2 months since the gang rape and murder here in new to predation, became national news. Amidst all of the negative coverage, the demands government has gone on the offensive hiding in mumbai based p. R. Firm to send out press releases saying the victim had never been raped in the 1st place. Dozens of Police Investigations have been opened into journalists, activists, and opposition politicians. And the government has said, there is an International Conspiracy to defame the british and stood up communal tensions. You know, what worries me about u. B. Today, you could always be bad, but law and order and crime and cost one is not certainly up there with the big but what is the about you the sense of i think if it means politically, its a model that we will see more and more of the best of it. And that really what it is. And finally, must watch t. V. That many people just cant bring themselves to watch the daily coronavirus. Like many governments, the u. K. Is, provides regular updates on the numbers, the social distancing rules and takes questions. Theres a theatrical aspect to this and what you may not know about politicians reading off teleprompters the way i am is that sometimes it isnt just a script up there. There can also be suggestions about the way a line should be delivered, which words should be emphasized, the placement of the parts. Thats what a couple of british comedians, larry and paul from the city of leeds, have focused on in this next video, the staged manner of the delivery. Not that we dismissive, tone, whatever do that was the next time here at the us. Just the motion is creasing announcing a vaccine, selfsatisfied grin, claiming all the credit, bizarre pursed metaphor, we are injecting hope into the arms of millions. Pols, proud of that. Confident look, stating the vaccine will be 90 percent effective. In the one percent of people we successfully get to taking question from members of the public who social class i have never encountered in real life. Clearly about must tested follow up question about government could option and nepotism around p. P. D. Contacts blindsided by intelligent question from pled, stalling for time. Understanding that there are question marks over Companies Getting millions in public money announcing a full and thorough independent public inquiry, which will be led by my wife. In afghanistan, the taliban is renowned for its violent repression of women. Now a new deal with the u. S. Could see the group return to power one, o one, a still best to gates of afghan women who paid the price for pace on aljazeera played an Important Role in the face. Iranians prepare to farewell their Top Nuclear Scientist who was assassinated last week. We want to come all santamaria. This is the world news from aljazeera to in forces that say they have shot down an Ethiopian Military plane a day after the Prime Minister declared victory in the region. Also in the news, u. S. President elect joe bidens fractured his foot hours after another contested state confirmed him as the winner of the election