German turkish journalist denis you chel was released after a year of being held in a turkish jail without charge he had germanys top diplomats campaigning heavily for him including the german chancellor who met with turkeys Prime Minister on thursday but celebration is tempered by the reality that on the very same day six other journalists were sentenced to life in prison as part of the countrys post crew crackdown on dissent which has seen an estimated fifty thousand people jailed and more than one hundred fifty thousand sacked or suspended from their jobs our coverage begins with this report. Dennis you joes last minutes on turkish soil before boarding a plane back to germany freedom at last after one year in jail earlier germanys Foreign Ministers ignored job real was the bearer of good news out of speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of dennis you just employer the german daily divel gabriele told reporters that you just release was a victory for diplomacy. We talked extensively to our partners this started with me asking former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to. Should i went at twice for. It was always of particular importance for the turkish government not to politically influence a Court Decision not to infringe on the independence of the court and it is this photograph of you joe in the arms of his wife was released earlier in the day by his lawyer and it quickly made the rounds on social media. One year ago dennis you cho was detained in Istanbul Turkish authorities accused the correspondent for developed of terrorist propaganda among other things but until today he had not been charged with any crime. In berlin friends and supporters gathered to celebrate his release but many said the news was bittersweet. But it wouldnt die today three of our colleagues in turkey were handed down life sentences Reporters Without Borders sees that as a very bad sign because there are a number of similar cases being tried in the near future that means that while we celebrate today there really isnt a reason to do so. The German Government campaign vigorously for the release of you general as well as other journalists imprisoned in turkey many civilian organizations also demonstrated through his release you joe may have been released from jail but in their indictment turkish prosecutors have demanded up to eighteen years imprisonment. And for more im joined now in the studio by Hugh Williamson he is the director of the europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch welcome and thanks for joining us this evening i mention it and if you chel now free pending trial cause for celebration it was a wonderful for his himself his family for the community for the activists for the journalists who supported his case for one long year in turkey and in germany but as you said in your reports six other journalists sentenced to life so life in prison today so that says something. About the state of press freedom in turkey tell us a little bit more about those six what more do we know about them we know for instance there were two very well respected journalists mehmet and tang who were in this in their sixtys brothers who are respected economists and columnists in in progressive media in turkey and they were imprisoned just after the failed coup in mid two thousand and sixteen. Ironically or bitterly one of them last month mehmet out on his sentence was overturned by the Constitutional Court of turkey the highest court in the country overturned his. His imprisonment and said he should be released a lower Court Dismissed that decision by the Constitutional Court which is against turkish law which just underlines that there is really no real rule of law in turkey at the moment and other people among those six now face a similar fate of life in prison and theyre so often charged with a similar targets we know that that these for example today were found guilty they were charged with aiding the plotters of the twenty sixth failed coup why those charges specifically i mean that many of these journalists who were allegedly supporters of the glenn movement the religious movement the president of the one used to be allied with and is now that its in his sights as being an Opposition Movement in a way is the scapegoat organization within turkey that the president has been targeting he sees a connection with those things these charges of terrorism a very vaguely worded very little substance weve seen in the indictment papers theres nothing in there apart from their ordinary journalistic work least people in prison face life in prison for to being normal journalists in turkey. Dennis you challenged me he was a cause celeb here in germany wasnt a as we mentioned he had the top diplomats of the country advocated on his release are you concerned now that he has been released that there will be less focus on Human Rights Violations within turkey and i am worried about that actually yeah because i think there will be a huge sigh of relief when of course we should take a day or two to mark this is important that a german german turkish journalist is out of prison is an itch its a its an important step but the the German Government needs to continue to realize theres a systematic crisis in human rights in turkey at the moment and it needs to orientate its policy around that not just focusing on one or two german prisoners in turkey but focused on the fact that theres a state of emergency in the country theres torture going on in Police Detention theres other serious systematic elements in the human rights abuse pattern that they need to address with the turkish government and only when theyve done so and relations return to normal but germany i mean when we compare it to other countries that has been quite outspoken about Human Rights Violations within the country in the one the cause is so much bigger than germany isnt it of course im in germany youre right has been outspoken when we talk to the German Foreign ministry to the chancellor for instance as Human Rights Watch they are open to our issues and they are ready to respond germany should therefore take this position and take it to brussels for instance and try to persuade other countries to maintain a Firm Position in relation to turkey as you know turkey wants to build better relations again with the e. U. Germany should be Standing Firm and saying back out happen until this this systematic crisis in human rights is is ended and turkey turns over a new leaf same with the council of europe in distress book turkey is on the watch list of this for the council of europe it should stay on that watch list until things improve and germany can influence that. Where do you see the trajectory going right now given the current state of affairs and what are your hopes for the future i dont see many positive signs as great this is happened today but the sentencing of the six journalists really shows that the crisis is continuing we also have we also have opposition politicians in prison today there was a prison ruling against the people a titian today also in istanbul very bad news for the country millions of people dont have the democratically elected representatives allowed to operate freely so im pessimistic for the for the for the long term for the long term human rights trend in the country but there is a very Strong Civil Society still in turkey there are still some journalists able to operate so we have a faith in the in the movement in the country but but unless countries like germany and the European Union as a whole continue to put pressure on the country and i think things will continue to get worse rather than better and you mentioned there the denial of bail application for one of turkeys best known politicians he is with the pro kurdish h. E. P. A. Party what is your view of the terrorism charges which are currently being brought against him you know as as i mentioned often those charges are very vague and. Lucid undefined thats the case in thats the point in this case the charges are very. Unspecified hes been in prison for some time now the case is is is is going nowhere unfortunately we think he should be released at least for to allow a fair trial and a clear examination of the evidence they should be some really concrete evidence presented if hes if he should be tried. And and as i said. People in the southeast of turkey deserve to be represented in parliament and dozens and dozens of m. P. s from a cheapie of been stripped of their mandate in parliament and. And thats a really democratic setback for the country because people cannot voice voice their views freely and feel represented in the countrys parliament and that alienates a an important part of the country as well so this failed bail application has wide knock on effects across the country do you see this as being a problem at the top of turkish politics of turkish government or is this something which has now really seat down and is a systemic issue in the country you know under president add to on the countrys become more authoritarian so it is a problem at the top in a way but its the government as well i mean the hes hes somebody whos used the state of emergency to divert away from the rule of law hes avoided the implementation of new laws and things by him by focusing on a state of emergency so there is a crisis at the top but that needs to be dealt with as well at the in the middle ranking levels in order to to turn the country round in order to give the country a better positive focus away from a system of human rights abuses turkey was a country that was on the path to joining the European Union i mean thats a long way away again now but thats so we should see a positive future for an important country like turkey so today perhaps the moral of the story is one step forward with the release dennis you chel six deaths back perhaps more to go i want to thank you very much joining us from Human Rights WatchHugh Williams and with your take on the matter we appreciate it thank you so much. The first day of the annual Munich Security Conference has seen germanys defense minister criticizing u. S. Moves to cut spending on the United Nations arcelor funded line also argued that diplomacy and Development Aid are just as essential as military strength our Political Correspondent lyndal crane caught up with the German Defense minister have a list and minister you said in your remarks that you were concerned that some countries have been decreasing support for the United Nations for diplomacy for Development Aid and you said that the Development Worker needs the soldier and vice versa one might conclude that you were sending a message across the transom across the atlantic with your remarks well i think we need a pact of comprehensive security because we know one cannot be without the other there is no security without stepping his asian reconsolidation. And Economic Development. But you know yes i want to send a message over the atlantic but at the same time i want to send a message to ourselves as the europeans we have to be Getting Better organized what the military means are concerned so we have to be more effective we have to invest more on the other side we know that we need the second leg which is Economic Development desperately the funding of the United Nations is so important and none of us is able to solve problems on its own so all of us have to work towards those two goals that is security and Economic Development concerned are you that the United States is taking a too militarily driven approach to security are you worried about a kind of a division of responsibility where the u. S. Does all the hard stuff and europe the soft. I was very clear that at that there cant be. A work share one is. Responsible for the. Military and then the other one is response on support for reconstruction none of us can shy away from both cost we have to fulfill and therefore it is so important for us to understand in reality we know this because if we look at iraq for example we know that we military allies defeated i so this is very good but we know we will only win the battle against eisel the moment that people see a perspective in their region they see a medical aid they see that theres gas electricity water we fix their houses they get jobs this will be the fight against the ideology we have to fight to weve seen it in afghanistan we know it from africa so to us the. Transatlantic alliance is so important that we know we stand on two legs. When we talk about messages across the atlantic certainly a message from the other side to europe has been take more responsibility now theres been a lot of talk here about resco permanent structured cooperation the new initiative in europe to try to integrate defense and security but its essentially still in its absolute infancy youre walking the doctor youre talking the talk but when will europe really walk the walk on this well we made a huge step forward because for the very First Time Since europe the European Union exists we have a legal frame around the European Defense union for the very first time we have a single of projects with a few countries who are willing and able to act and to move forward of course we have to fill it with life not this is clear but weve never been as structured. Within the procedures and as clear in the legal frame as we are right now and therefore the beginning of the you can Defense Union is that why. Its important for me is its no competition to nato its complimentary nato will always be a collective defense but there are other tasks if i just look at africa for example there as a tell us where europe is needed and up to a few months and who wasnt able to act at all because we didnt have neither the procedures nor the structures now we are establishing those with the military command with the European Defense fund just to name some examples so that we are able to act for our own security to a very brief last question on germany youve said germany is ready to do more its ready to take responsibility but you dont have that two percent goal in the new coalition agreement. All we have a clear goal fill the fairy first time this concrete pact for comprehensive us cunt comprehensive security which says we want to reach the nato goal as well as the old a goal that we havent yet added nations and. As i know that we will have to invest billions in the old e a quota Systems Development assistance i do know that there will be billions for the defense too because we said we gonna raise the budgets one by one on unequal ways for the for the very first time we have a very hard agreement thank you very much defense minister front of i am. The polish Prime Minister has met agel america with the aim of improving prickly relations with germany but hes also been forced to defend his governments latest policies which many see as highly controversial among them poland has advised its citizens abroad to report criticism of the country to its embassies warsaw also stands accused of white washing the role of poles in the holocaust did abuse Nick Connelly reports from the polish capital. In warsaw history is never far away. Its a city built on the ruins left by more than five years of brutal nazi German Occupation during World War Two more than seventy years on and polands present government worries that memory of the war is blurring inside and outside the country particularly when it comes to the fate of poland three million jewish dead shifting the blame for nazi crimes committed on polish soil to the poles themselves and downplaying christian poles support for their persecuted jewish battery is when president obama mistakenly referred to auschwitz as a polish death camp back in twenty twelve he is a ruin of a government sponsored p. R. Campaign seeks to redress that imbalance. You tube ads targeted it uses in europe in israel seek to open foreigners eyes to polands war record. More controversially a new law makes it a criminal offense to attribute nazi crimes to the polish nation its critics fear it could effectively criminalize open discussion of the holocaust rendering stories of individual poles collaboration off limits the new legislation has drawn stiff criticism from israel and the u. S. But for now the government seems unimpressed. By the bench of who you are this law will protect the polish nation and the polish people from false accusations its just like the laws against Holocaust Denial on the go on your holocaust. But for this m. P. From polands governing party the present lore is not the end of the line when it comes to addressing his countrys troubled past the g. A. M. To get to the present day germany has still not paid poland war reparations to poland lost twelve million of its citizens and fifty percent of the territory no one has made amends for this. Carolyn of the guru is an expert on historical memory and polands Jewish Community she says the law was rushed through in a hurry and is dangerously vague it is visible that the government did not expect such or such a reaction that the law was actually poorly prepared and that they werent able to foresee the consequences we had to warsaws only surviving prewar synagogue before the holocaust the citys Jewish Community numbered some three hundred thousand people today fewer than ten thousand remain but how is the new law being received here people do not feel restrained as such but people feel is there a place for me in poland today and its a harbel statement for me to say the poles suffered horribly during World War Two they were fed. Testicular rose of the righteous among the nations the best people in the world and you also have individual poles and sometimes even groups of poles the collaborated with the germans and led to the murder of jews all those statements are true and in a Democratic Free poland we need to be able to say them openly without any fear of being prosecuted in court. Warsaw is booming leaving ever few of physical reminders of the war on the citys streets but the memory shows no sign of fading quite the opposite as the question of who and what to remember comes to dominate potence politics. Day two of the coverage of the Berlin InternationalFilm Festival and sarah harman and david levitz are there for us as always so guys whats happening on the red carpet today. Well tell you about the big action tonight the fans were out they were screaming Robert Robert it wasnt for robert to vote it wasnt for Robert Redford it was Robert Pattinson and he and his store in the new film damsel were looking pretty sleek in black thats right yeah this is a western film that premiered actually at sundance the berlin festival showed it today and the star of the film is not only Robert Johnson but also mia was a college you know australian actress and she plays a woman who needs a lot of things but saving isnt one of them my colleague Charlotte Charleston pil caught up with me on the red carpet and asked her what attracted her to the character of penelope heres what she had to say. I just thought it was really clever like that we sort of see this idealize we have this idealized. And i think thats a really clever way of turning it on its head. Yeah it was it was really exciting i love you know i love. And that film that shes in damsel is showing now is it want to see you guys have seen it. Through here lets do this first i think the best way to describe this film is experimental as starts out as one thing it sort of morphs into another thing its a western its a comedy it has very deadpan moments but its also trying to have some deeper a moshes for me i want my two hours back i just wasnt buying it i mean its nice to look at Robert Pattinson but it just didnt work for me it was hard it was hard to really understand the emotion when it was. This is a movie that did sort of bill itself as a feminist western but it was trying to be so many Different Things at once you cant you cant be all things to all people i think if youre a fan of western genres you might enjoy this interesting take on it but for the average joe this is. Probably ones ok so Robert Pattinson needs to stick to those heartthrob roles apparently berlin alum in time criticized for an invitation it issued to a korean director whats the story there. With the story here is that. This is the first. Movement has really taken on theres a real examination of what movies they want to show and there have been a lot of male directors whove been left out because there are sexual. Abuse allegations against them and this is this is one of the well this is in fact not one of them because this korean director was invited even though there are sexual abuse allegations against him it all stems back to this directors two thousand and thirteen film its called mobius and one of the actresses in the film made two allegations against him firstly that hes actually assaulted her and secondly that he slapped her now he paid a fine for the slapping a few thousand dollars he admits that happened but he doesnt admit to the Sexual Assault that has been dropped in south korea and so this director was invited to the berlin Film Festival thats very controversial here people are saying in the year one needs to have dominated the headlines and when more attention is being paid to the role of women in film its inappropriate to have a director whos been accused of Sexual Assault here at the festivals and you can bet there that we have not heard the last of this. Ok there are men David Leavitts there on the red carpet with all of the films all of the controversy thank you so much to both of you. While the day is nearly done but as ever the conversation continues online you can find us on twitter either at news my handle is at sarah kelly t. V. And dont forget as always. The day to day will be back on monday ill. Have a great week. Youll. Youll. Get. The be. Public. In the arctic the battle for Natural Resources is well underway. When neighboring states discover new resources and may take action to exploit them in the hopes of making huge profits. But International Conflicts are looming on the horizon because many more misery arctic regions are not clearly defined cut the fight for the arctic next decoupled. From the Pacific Ocean to the atlantic. Not on but along the panama canal. By train trip to remember. With spectacular views. Across a continent. A. Lot of. Travelling by train in panama. Has flown to dublin. Barely feel. The scars on some of the pain still tangible. From her god. Four cities and. They have survived but today also have a future. I really understand people who say they dont want to stay here. But i also admire people who want to stay here and who decided to create something. In peace time what needs to happen if tolerance and reconciliation are to stand a chance darkness cities after more starting march tenth on t w. The air. The arctic is a magical place mankind has been trying to conquer it for decades. And that and devils becoming easier because of Climate Change the ice is melting faster and