Folded them into a programme for a medley of media related stories. 2014 will be remembered as the year hong kong erupted with prodemocracy contest. We have the story on hong kong and political clashes in beijing. Three of spains biggest papers had new editors. We have that story we explore a noisy place in the world of journalism, the online comments sections, known as the home of the trolls. And we examine the output of the news media in japan, since the disaster of the Fukushima Nuclear plant and starting with Nick Muirhead from tunis with a look at tunisias most revolutionary news media. Expectations were eye. Tunisia was where the arab spring got its start. The question is have the expectations been met since the fall of president ben ali. Ask tunisians what are the biggest changes since the fall of president ben ali, and theyll tell you its media freedom. You can see it on the news stands, on the airwaves, online. Tunisia is talking. Translation the public realm erupted with people who once didnt have the right to express themselves freely, and who finally came to bring a different rhetoric to whether or not existed in the past. Translation we can see all political opinions portrayed on tv. Ideologies ranging from the far right to the far left. This is something we havent seen, the ruling partys opposition, people criticising. That government, until it stepped down in january this year was the troika coalition. It advocated for islam to play a greater role in tunisian politics and society. A vision that did not sit well with the secular opposition. Channels that existed attacked the government in skating critiques and heated debates and talk shows. Troika and supporters reacted by setting up channels of their own. The religious chanel tnn, saying that they are out to counterbalance what is said on opposition channels. Tunisias media was no longer censored, they were polarized. When regimes tend to burgen and after the framework. That is what happened in tunisia. In the ben ali era, there were five television stations today there were 17. Many are owned by Political Parties and businessmen with close ties to the parties. To deal with that the government set up a new regulator, the highend authority. It set new recommendations for Media Coverage during the Electoral Campaign but struggled to assert authority. Two of the three privately owned channels refused to comply with the new regulations and are, in effect operating without licences. Translation its not hiker against journalists or freedom of speech. Thats not what we are about. This is between a minority of media owners that had privileges during the rein of ben ali and wanted to act outside the regulatory framework. Ostensibly the conflict boils down to money, influence and what many see as a sense of entitlement of media that exists under ben ali. Hiker says its trying to separate media and politician by removing the money. They cant own, fund or advertise on television. In an Election Year politicians need it. In the new commercially driven market the media need the money. In effect hiker has not succeeded in throwing money at the media. They said no way is there a political advertising. The party has to pay under the table moving things, buying some media, and buying it. Its not transparent, and i said to them you will have money in the ground. Make it transparent. Under the old regime censorship prevented the media from serving. The one thing, despite the political money that most news outlets cannot by, here in the birthplace of the arab spring is journalistic credibility. The South China Morning Post is an institution in hong kong. Founded in 1903 it earnt a reputation that it carried through the 20th century for unfettered journalism, in contrast with tightly controlled media in Mainland China that is, until relatively recently. It is a household name. In recent years i hate to say it, but the newspaper is becoming more and more like an official beijing mouth piece. Hong kong is at a crossroads, and now is more important than ever to create more room for dialogue. In 1993 a malaysian businessman bout the South China Morning Post. Four years later in 1997 the last governor of Hong Kong Chris paton handed the city back to china. It was the start of what beijing promised would be one country, two systems. Hong kong would have a different set of laws than china, including for the media. The changes were slow in coming. Since 2003, the south china post has averaged one editor per year. The current editor took the job earlier in 2012 and more than two years later lasted longer than most. That he is the first editor to come from the mainland. It may explain the durability. Among the team there are concerns about the papers independence. This paper was compelled to talk to us. He feared for his job. I think the audience in hong kong is owed an explanation of what is going on. I saw a perp say on twitter that they read the spmp in the same way as reading china daily. We are not china daily yet. Those making the case that hong kongs media are tacking orders from beijing go behind the south china post and point to connections of some media owners and the editors they appoint. Charles, chairman of the News Corporation and richard lee, a 50 owner are both members of the c. P. P. Pc a prominent advisory to the government in beijing. So too was this man when he took the job as editor. And the posts owners, the quok mainland. In hong kong they dont need the government to tell what you to do. Selfcensorship alone is destroying freedom. This is not a case of stories ripped up in front of peoples faces. Theres a subtlety about it. They dont want to be seen as censors. Most subjects will be covered, its how. It kills off im partially. Our reporting tries to do that, balancing both ties. We invite the organizers of occupied central to write for us. A prochina reader said the coverage was blood thirsty against beijing. We also give extensive coverage to the major figures, and its close to the beijing government. We are mindful of their views. Reporter almost 17 years after the handover, hong kong is at a crossroads and beyond it. Beijing is exercising more and more control. Hong kongers are concerned over what they are seeing in their city and reading in their media. The south sudan morning post has been an integral part of hong kongs identity for 110 years, and the future of the paper, and that of other newspaper outlets is convicted with the Al Jazeera America presents somebodys telling lies. It looks nothing like him. Pan am flight 103 explodes december 21st, 1988 was the right man convicted . So many people, at such a high level, had the stake in almegrahis guilt the most definitive look at this shocking crime the major difficulty for the prosecution that there was no evidence Al Jazeera America presents lockerbie part two case closed now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. Get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. A global perspective wherever you are. The major headlines in context. Mashable says. Youll never miss the latest news they will continue looking for survivors. The potential for Energy Production is huge. No noise, no clutter, just real reporting. The new Al Jazeera America mobile app available for your apple and android mobile device. Download it now start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on Al Jazeera America we are in the middle of a lot of stores. The economic crisis, the whole European Economic crisis and the media crisis. Translation we have gone through a difficult situations where many very experienced journalists lost their jobs as a result of the austerity measures, these are the times we had to live through. We didnt choose them. Every time someone is replaced because of political or economic interests, the ethics of journalism deteriorates. What we can expect from elmondayo is a loss of journalistic quality. We not survive in the middle of all these storms. Last year the spanish newspaper el mundo broke a huge story about politicians, payments from a slush fund, text message that implicated the Prime Minister and had him fending off coups for his resignation. It was not the Prime Minister who resigned. It was elmonday os founder. He said the reason for the firing was political. He is not the onlied tore in chief to only editorinchief to be shown the door. All in the space of three months there were two more. Translation it is true that the decision was tape at the people when elmisunderstando was being critical of the government. The final decision was a corporate run. Maun stream press had so much Mainstream Press had so many money worries its hard to focus on journalism. Advertising revenues shrunk by 60 . Dozens of Media Outlets closed, thousands were laid off. Add to that the drop in circumstance u lyings. Circulation. Directors are under pressure to change things. Charging for newspapers and not content. The public needs to realise that information cannot be free if its going to be good. Reporter at a time when there was a lot of faith in key institutions, the monarchy, political and others, its their duty to hold them to account. The reliable watchdog is proving to be a challenge. The crisis of credibility extends to the doorstep. This paper gaped a rep u gained a reputation as the newspaper of classic spain. The owners are facing debt problems and are partly owned by the bank and that put the microscope. What is clear is that a newspaper that is completely dependent on someone who finances it is not going to question them. Selfcensorship kicks in. The link between economic and financial sectors and the journalistic world means death for reporting and journalism. Relax. I mean we are not in the destruction of democracy. To take a decision here, to lead this newsroom, its a different matter. I take the decision of what im writing freely. Theyll be the judges of that, because in this, the aim of austerity in europe, the credibility of the media is one more commodity that spaniards find in short supply. I think it is important. The comments section can be a story. Of course, they give almost a benchmark of what society feels. The comments section is part of this general media towards being a dialogue rather than a oneway broadcasting system. Wouldnt it be great if that were the whole story. Theres a dark side to online commenting, and we have all stephen it. Civility seen it, civility stamped out. Conversation cut short. Overrun by trolls, whose first point of call was youtube. It has the troll problem, in that those users dont want a constructive conversation or give feedback to the video itself. Community. Any good comments section needs a way to block those people or make sure the comments are not at the top when you open the comments section. Youtube users have to log in with a google account. It is requiring that commentors list the veil of anonymity. The key to the section. Not all conversations think so. Not all conversations are essential if you allow people to express themselves and have a robust discussion. They have said that they let people comment. 99 of People Choose to comment anonymously. While it meant in india, they offer the choice and most are happy to give the real name. In interesting cases, anonymous commenting for them is essential because for security reasons, people dont want to say things. For cashstrapped media organisations, building the rite culture and getting the best from comments is not a matter of hitting the delete button. Properly monitored sections takes people and money, spawning a side industry. It takes time and money to do Good Community management. The approach of having someone who is able to control a situation, and encourage good before, and good conversation is really the key. In moderation it de ploys on army of 350 moderatos, working from home all over the world. This woman patrols her corner of the social web from croydon in south london. I think the purpose of moderation is to help to keep the internet clean. You need sound judgment, you need to think and make deficient deficient. Theres quite a bit to get the decisions rite. Outsourcing is an option. Theres major sites doing their own labour intensive work to raise the profile of their Community Contributions in their own published content. They have been handpicking relevant comments and putting them alongside the story, and revolving bombs, in the international website. They allowed me to pin comments to a specific parr graph. Its interesting because it allows you to comment on a specific idea or point. The Media Organization needs to give their staff the time to interact. If you want a discussion to be rigid with information and feed back. Our view is the best people to do that are the ones that created the content. We pushed the staff to go in, moderate, get hands on, give a sense of ownership. This is something they are fully part of. In this age of patrolling uncivil discourse. Im joie chen im the host of america tonight, were revolutionary because were going back to doing best of storytelling. We have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we havent heard before. I think Al Jazeera America is a watershed moment for american journalism real reporting that brings you the world. This is a pretty dangerous trip. Security in beirut is tight. More reporters. They dont have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab. More bureaus, more stories. This is where the typhoon came ashore. Giving you a real global perspective like no other can. Al jazeera, nairobi. On the turkeysyria border. Venezuela. Beijing. Kabul. Hong kong. Ukraine. The artic. Real reporting from around the world. This is what we do. Al jazeera america. March 2011 an earthquake in japan set off a tsunami, triggering a meltdown of three nuclear if power plants in fukushima. 311. Translation the media are responsible for unnecessary exposing people to radiation. Its not only the responsibility of the government, its also the responsibility of the japanese media who didnt report event or tell people the facts. The media couldnt judge whether this information was correct or not. They didnt want to give the public wrong information because of the dangerous situation. A dangerous situation that japans media were accused of making worse. Viewers were told that the amount of radiation leaked was not hazardous. The reports were wrong. Media analysts say not much has changed since the disaster. If anything, the situation has deteriorated. And many bring in a new law, the designated secrecy bill written by the abe government and which came in effect this month. The law makes it illegal for journalists to public or obtain state secrets. Reporters found guilty could face up to five years in gaol. Its more than a state secrecy act. It functions as a law. And one of the most disturbing elements of that is theres no Supervisory Board that reviews what is determined as a state secret or the prosecution of people under the act is taken care of independently this is a story with political, economic and environmental elements. In the aftermath of fukushima, japan temporarily shut Nuclear Plants and 90 of electricity generated from fossil fuels, which are imported. Eight months ago Prime Minister shinzo abe announced plans to resume Nuclear Power plant generation. The coverage of the Nuclear Story in japan is compromised because major institutions have grown close. Companies like tokyo Nuclear Power plant tepco, and they spent money on advertising, and Media Outlets dont want that the revenue to go away. Theres a lot of money to be lost. Most at the stop of the the department, you risk loading advertising from them. If tepco complains, they could lose more dollars. Its about money not public interest. Japanese newspapers, unlike television are more reliant on subscriptses as a rough knew source. They are subvipss as a revenue source. There are five channels, the biggest n. H. K. , funded by citizens paying an annual licence fee. In recent months it had to fend off criticisms. In january the radio commentator resigned after 20 years amid accusations that the broadcaster told him not to discuss it on his show. That came after the previous chairman left, with reports suggesting he was pushed out for political coverage. It is a placement, one that proved controversial. He is very close to Prime Minister abe, and known for having rightwing opinions. The listening post requested an interview. They declined but gave us this statement instead despite assurance, japanese media watchers will keep a close eye on mmhmm k and other mmhmm k and other nuclear groups. Thats our look back at some of the stories that our producers picked for 2014. Next week we look forward at trends, predictions of what you can expect to see from the global news media in 2015. See you next year here at listening post. The far north of europe a place of extraordinary beauty home to an astonishing array of plants and animals which have