The good and the bad. Next week, russia will be hosting the world and the global news media at the Winter Olympics in sochi. Consider the cost. 51 billion. Then compare it to what came before. Vancouver in 2010 at just 8 billion. It has been a huge endeavor for the kremlin that amounts to a Public Relations megaproject. In the News Coverage may well determine if the russians get value for money. Journalists in sochi are using these games as a news peg to get at other stories about russia. There is the contentious gay propaganda law, the Environmental Impact of the sochi Development Projects and of course, the enormous costs to the taxpayer. Most of the russian news media havent waited for the torch to get lit to declare sochi a triumph. Step by step through the putin years, the Russian Media particularly on the broadcast side have been brought to heel. The president and his inner circle can manage the message through media through directly or indirectly controlled by the state. Journalism can be a dangerous game in russia. Pushing the boundaries can get foreign reporters expelled and get russian reporters killed. These are the olympics that the kremlin wanted. Now, were about to find out how it likes the News Coverage that always comes with hosting the games. Our starting point this week is sochi. The 22nd olympic winter games in 2014 are awarded to the city of sochi. The main target was to show the kind of new face of russia. Because cold war stereotypes and negative attitudes toward russia are still ripe in the west. There is a blizzard of allegations of unsavory ties. State television, the games are presented in a positive light and putin is the star. You have immense political pressure to you, the progovernment line. [ speaking Foreign Language ] and they dont have to be reminded of what that line is. To be fair to president putin, there isnt a political leader anywhere who, when the olympics come to their country, doesnt try to transform the games into personal political capital. But Vladimir Putin has taken that notion and run with it, skied with it, and skated with it. Always with a dutiful russian cameras in tow. Putin is everywhere. We see him visiting the venues in sochi. Inspecting the area. We see him skating with president belarus and former nhl stars. Hes in the heart of the action. These are his games. We see this in a positive light because this is his project. It is time to show the world that russia is a strong nation. It is a modern one. That it can win on the International Stage as well as at the rink and on the slopes. [ speaking Foreign Language ] for moscow, for president putin and for the russian people, it represents amongst other things, the opportunity to show what the country has achieved in recent years. To demonstrate, once again, russias influence is growing. It would be good to ask the residents of sochi what they hardly likely to find coverage of that. The reaction has been unambiguous. For them, to call it Natural Disaster would be too much but they see it as Something Like that. Especially the people who are evicted from their homes and who, if they were paid any compensation, it was almost nothing. Complaints over olympic Grade Construction projects are not unique to sochi. They come with the games wherever they are held. But official russia is not interested in the reporting of that story. Over the past three months, news crews from norway and the Czech Republic say theyve been repeatedly detained in sochi and threatened with jail time. And back in 2010, ntv, a channel observe owned by the energy giant, tied to the kremlin said sochi residents critical of the games were malcontents out for some of the olympic money. Who owns ntv . It is clear if this had stood out as the only program of its kind, perhaps it would have generated some surprise irritation or even protest. But it is by no means the only such program on the channel. There is a whole brigade, a whole part of ntv thats long stopped working as a news outlet, as journalists but are now instead propagandists of the very worse sort. They want to show to the audience, which still has faith in the staterun media, that there are no legitimate objections to what theyre doing. Anyone who complains or raises issues connected to the olympics is doing so either because theyre being paid by foreigners or because theyre malicious. All of these people are legitimate targets in the eyes of the regime for defamation and discredittation. David satter would be in a position to know. He recently became the First American journalist expelled from russia since the cold war. The Authorities Say it was over visa issues. He says he was told his presence was undesirable. Between last years riot and greenpeace story which led to the jailing and release of groups critical of the government, the kremlin is taking a hard line with its political opponents. On those stories and the gay propaganda law, the bulk of the Russian Media have backed government. When russia one invited an american journalist to discuss the law on homosexuality, the moderator sounded considerably less than moderate. [ speaking Foreign Language ] Russian Media has taken something that was not necessarily an issue and made it an issue. He said that hearts of homosexuals who die in Car Accidents should be burned and buried in the ground. You have the homophobic comments from stateowned media and actors who supported it, thats when it becomes problematic. The statecontrolled media is important because it reaches to all parts of the country. It reaches out to outside moscow and leningrad. It is important because russians get their news from television, not from the press or the internet. Something like 80 of russians get their news overwhelmingly from the statecontrolled national media. Television media. So it is very powerful instrument. The listening post contacted the creme lib and four other government offices for comment on this story. None replied. And neither the state owned russia or tv made anyone available. We did get interviews with journalists at two outlets. The editorinchief of russia direct. On government control of the media in general and sochi coverage in particular. I myself as editorinchief of russia direct have never experienced any form of pressure. Ive never been told what to write or what not to write on the olympics. Weve just published a whole series of articles, a special issue about sochi. Safety, investment, the cost and the benefits to russia in the long run. We found experts and we put the questions to them. We didnt tell them what to write or what not to write. Probably half a year ago, there were a lot of criticisms regarding preparation to the games but i think that the games focus of Media Coverage has started to shift toward people always want to hear how miserable the process of preparation is and they want to hear more, some success stories. And thats what the Russian Media both stateown and nominally independent will give them. In a few short days, the world will tune into the Winter Olympics. It will be a tale of one city and two stories. News narratives that, like the athletes, will be in competition. Our Global Village voices on the News Coverage of the upcoming sochi games. Olympics in sochi, seen by many in russia as an opportunity to effect the conditions. The olympic chapter actually mandates that the International Olympic committees and the whole cities ensure the full range of Media Coverage. What will be interesting, however, will be the social media outpet from the people on the ground. And with that comes the increasing realzation that the spectators are reflecting their problems so it is an issue in things that theyre seeing with the olympic movement. So the games are being more and more coauthored and coproduced by audiences. Every sunday night Al Jazeera America brings you controversial. Both parties are owned by the corporations. Entertaining its fun to play with ideas. Thought provoking get your damn education. Surprising oh, absolutely . Exclusive oneonone interviews with the most interesting people of our time. Youre listening because you want to see whats going to happen. I want to know what works what do you know works . Conversations you wont find anywhere else. Talk to al jazeera. Only on Al Jazeera America. Oh my no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. Opening doors. Opening possibilities. Taking the impossible from lab. To life. On techknow, our scientists bring you a sneakpeak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. Techknow ideas, invention, life. On Al Jazeera America audiences are intelligent and they know that their needs are not being met by american tv news today. Entire media culture is driven by something thats very very fast. There has been a lack of fact based, in depth, serious journalism, and we fill that void. There is a huge opportunity for Al Jazeera America to change the way people look at news. We just dont parachute in on a story. Quickly talk to a couple of experts and leave. One producer may spend 3 or 4 months, digging into a single story. At al jazeera, there are resources to alow us as journalists to go in depth and produce the kind of films. The people that you dont see anywhere else on television. We intend to reach out to the people who arent being heard. We wanna see the people who are actually effected by the news of the day. Its Digging Deeper its asking that second, that third question, finding that person no one spoken to yet. You cant tell the stories of the people if you dont get their voices out there, and Al Jazeera America is doing just that. Time for listening post news bytes. At last, some clarity on the legal status of al jazeera journalists held in egyptian jails. The news is not good for them or their colleagues. Five al jazeera journalists have been behind bars awaiting trial and now the Authorities Say arrest warrants have been issued for another 12 unnamed employees who they say either currently work for al jazeera or have done in the past. The prosecutors have said the al jazeera staff had undermined National Unit why i by broadcasting false information. Most of the accused are said to be egyptian nationals charged with membership in a terrorist organization. The muslim brotherhood. Al jazeera said it had no journalist reporting from egypt since the day that Al Jazeera Mohammed facny as well as correspondent peter were all arrested. Two more employees from the networks arabic language channels, have been in detention for more than five months already. Al jazeera calls the charges absurd and continues to demand the prisoners unconditional release. The network has been backed on that in a petition signed by nearly 50 journalists from International Media outlets. Media watch organizations have condemned the Egyptian Government over the allegation that al jazeera is colluding with terrorist groups. Edward snowden, the former nsa contractor who blew the whistle on mass surveillance by u. S. And british spy agencies has taken a bruising in the meed ya, particularly the u. S. Snowden used an interview with the new yorker magazine to accuse the u. S. Mainstream media of abdicating their ability to hold power to account. He was talking about interviews done january 19th by mike rogers and dianne feinstein. I believe there is a reason he ended up in the hands the loving arms of an fsb agent in moscow. The two had congressional intelligence committees both muse allowed on the possibility that snowden, exiled in moscow has been working for the russians all along. Snowden denies that and says it is not the smears that mystify me. It is that outlets report state. S that speakers themselves admit are pure speculation. It is interesting the institutions dont have an editorial position on this. These are pretty serious allegations. The Associated Press says it will no longer work with an Award Winning photojournalist after he admitted to digitally tampering with a picture taken in syria. Mexican photographer contreras was one of five journalists awarded a pulitzer prize. The photo was taken four months ago in the northwestern city. It shows a rebel fighter ducking for cover. The original shows a camera in the bottom lefthand corner but in the image contreras submitted, the camera had been removed. It breached aps editorial policy. Its director of photography said aps reputation is paramount. Deliberately removing elements from our photographs is completely unacceptable. Contreras eventually admitted it saying he did it because he felt the camera would be a distraction. He said i took the wrong decision when i removed the camera. I feel ashamed about it. I have to assume the consequences. When someone says the word drone, it is usually followed by the word strike. Given the stories we keep hearing out of pack stab and yemen, weve become conditioned to think of drones as weapons of war. Theyre becoming tools of the journalistic trade. Whether you realize it or not, more and more news stories, particularly those on television include images shot by drones. There are still a lot of issues to be worked out. Some technological, some ethical. However, drones are becoming part of the news gathering process. And because they can provide a different perspective and theyre not as expensive as one might think, you can bet theyre here to stay. Will the isening posts will young on the potential and pitfalls of the medias unmanned eyes in the skies. November 2013, typhoon in the philippines. A camera carried by an unmanned vehicle floats overhead. High enough to capture the scale of the destruction yet close enough to convey the detail and depth of the tragedy. It seems obvious at the moment that if you want to show widespread devastation after a fire or environmental problems, drones can help illustrate that. If youre at a protest and you have a drone, you can, for example, put a drone up in the air and see the tactics the police are using and really give a whole different illustrative angle to the coverage that youre trying to produce. And it is a political protests where drones are getting closest to where news is breaking. A drone shot the demonstrations that shook bangkok at the end of last year. The footage quickly became part of the mainstream Media Coverage. But it was at the occupy protests of 2011 where journalists first saw how a drone could help report times of civil unrest. Ive known about drones and remote controlled airplanes and blimps and all of that stuff but it wasnt until there was this particular protest in boston where the police formed a line and they were blocking the press from being able to film the arrests happening behind them, that i started to think what can i do thats legal to circumvent their blockade . A friend of mine suggested we grab a couple of these drones, well have an aerial shot, totally legal. Well get a better vantage point. How can we incorporate this . In the park protests in turkey, when tens of thousands of people were clashing with police, the whole time i was there, i did not see a single news camera flying over the place. There was another guy, goes by the name of jenks, online, who used a dji phantom like this where he flew around protests in istanbul, turkey. And was actually getting some really amazing shots of confrontations between the police and protestors. So in that case, the aerial shots from the drones were the only ones we got of the whole park. And they were as far as i know, they were put on youtube and websites. I believe on the second day that he was flying it around, police shot it out of the sky. You can hear semiautomatic weapon fire and then it just falls to the ground. The park showed how contentious journalism drones can be over politically sensitive situations but the Technology Better known for its military applications in the world of commercial photography and footage, the argument has been settled. Drone pilot toby pocock has never flown his helicopter to cover breaking news. He puts cameras in the sky for corporate customers instead. Weve got quite a varied range of clients ranging from the likes of rollsroyce right through to when it comes to drones, they want to put a camera into a position which hasnt been possible before. Helicopters are restricted to how low they can fly and obviously because we make a lot less noise. It means that were much more responsive. A lot of news organizations will pay for exclusive access to the roof of a building or sending up a helicopter could cost thousands of dollars. Drone technology is tremendously cheaper. The model i use is only a few hundred dollars. It can be flown with a mobile app. So the point of entry at which a journalist can figure out how to use it is very low and the cost is very low. Journalists armed with easilyavailable drones, have already run into the long arm of the law. In june 2013, a South African filmmaker was arrested after flying a drone around the hospital where the late Nelson Mandela was being treated. In august, swiss police confiscated images taken by photographer who flew his drone over the wall at a celebrity wedding. In both cases, journalists were criticized for chasing famous faces and given that the media are often accused of invading the privacy of public figures, could drones give imagehungry news hounds another way to dog their targets . From above. People ask me all the time what if the paparazzi gets these . One, they already have them. There are laws that bar people from looking in other peoples windows like sneaking up to somebodys house and looking in those but the laws are predicated on you being physically on the property. With the uav, you dont have to be there anymore. It seems like a natural right not to be photographed in your backyard. But drones are promising to violate that. A lot of people will be quite understandably creeped out by the idea that if youre outside, anywhere, anywhere in your home, in your backyard, if youre just outside, you may potentially be photographed. With so many issues unresolved, Mainstream Media have used drones sparingly. Far away from built up areas where safety issues and regulation are unlikely to be an issue. Theres something about the culture of Mainstream Media which is normally fairly cautious about pulling in and risking things with new technology. Mainstream media at the moment has been very hesitant to take up drones. The bbc, for example, has gone step by step, training their people very slowly. It is also theres aspects of drones that slow things down. Youve got battery life on small drones is normally quite low. So you can really only fly around 15 to 20 minutes. It is hard youve got to practice to get a really good, steady shot that tells the story that you want to tell. Coming at it from a flying point of view and the fact that we have to be ca qualified for this, immediately, i think of all of the restrictions that we would have on us, before you could use it for journalism, of course, yeah, great, stick a camera up in the air. Theres a riot going on down here or theres something that we need to go and check out. It is fantastic. But they may be breaking rules and regulations. Over the coming months, the organization responsible for regulating airspace in the u. S. , the faa, will consider revising laws that restrict drone use. That could mean more experimentation to see how a drones eye view can enhance News Coverage. Because, as with any be new technology, it is not about what drones can do, it is about what journalists can do with drones. I think youre seeing a period of experimentation. I think the limitations right now, primarily have to do with law and safety. But once those begin to relax, i think youre going to see a lot more creative in how theyre used. The best scenario would be genuine discussion about safety and privacy. So we had a reasonable compromise that could exploit these technologies without surrendering. I think it is much better for policymakers to be proactive rather than look at technology as some force of nature that just is going to happen because its not. We make these things. We can decide how to use them. This is the 900 page document we call obama care. And my staff has read the entire thing. Can congress say the same . Theres more to it. Audiences are intelligent and they know that their needs are not being met by american tv news today. Entire media culture is driven by something thats very very fast. There has been a lack of fact based, in depth, serious journalism, and we fill that void. There is a huge opportunity for Al Jazeera America to change the way people look at news. We just dont parachute in on a story. Quickly talk to a couple of experts and leave. One producer may spend 3 or 4 months, digging into a single story. At al jazeera, there are resources to alow us as journalists to go in depth and produce the kind of films. The people that you dont see anywhere else on television. We intend to reach out to the people who arent being heard. We wanna see the people who are actually effected by the news of the day. Its Digging Deeper its asking that second, that third question, finding that person no one spoken to yet. You cant tell the stories of the people if you dont get their voices out there, and Al Jazeera America is doing just that. And now a techno minute. Time. Doctors preforming heart transplant surgery in just 6 hours before a donor organ is damaged by ice, used to keep it cold during transit. But this device could. Change all that. Its called the organ care system, or. Heart in a box. It works by hooking up the heart to this machine. It pumps it full of warm blood, and a formula containing a proprietary mix of nutrients. Its warm, its warm, its beating. Its functioning, its just functioning as if its in your body. Doctors are also seeing promising results, using the organ care system on other organs, such as lungs. For more information on this, and other techknow stories. Visit our website at aljazeera. Com techknow dont miss techknow, sundays 7 30et 4 30pt on Al Jazeera America good afternoon, and welcome to am Al Jazeera America. Live from new york city. Taking side in ukraine, u. S. Secretary of state john kerry meet with the opposition in germany. He says they support their fight for democracy. Plus, election day in thailand, but millions are blocks from those polling stations. And a somber sunday for parishioners are the cause of sex abuse settlements has left the diocese cet