A general sense of shock and disbelief that this could actually take place in the country. But we heard from president hassan rouhani. He issued a written statement earlier on saturday in which he blamed israel, and also said that the countrys nuclear in defense of programs will move forward despite this assassination. He said that this will only increase the will and the determination of it. When scientists down the line and that factories that they will be replaced and his replacements will work even harder to try and make up for the fact that he has been assassinated. Hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed to control protesters and around indias capital. Are rallying against the new laws, they say could take away their livelihoods. Elizabeth piron them has more from the protests at the single crossing. The pharmacist saying that the 1st round of talks didnt lead anywhere. They dont trust the government, they want the government to ensure that a guaranteed minimum price for their projects. And thats what is at the heart of the standoff between the government and the farmers. They want the government to guarantee a minimum price. The government will not write that internet is nation. And so the pharma say that they will continue with their protests, whether they are allowed or not. And out until the government repealed those of the rules. There is Justice Department to shed children a number of federal executions as joe biden moves closer to taking office and the circuit. The way for the use of poison gas and firing squads for French Police officers have been detained after a video, showing them beating a black music producer presenter manual macro has called the incident unacceptable state. Not with all the headlines on the back with more news here on aljazeera. Thats after the listing biased American People have finally, folk in america as i see it when america is off balance or will be code more dangerous. The world is looking in the next year of sanusi with the election behind us will the Republican Party dump truck the fuel we can take on us politics and society . Thats the bottom line. Promise to come in iraq, call our school and have almost a western democracy restaurant for all the hot under the protection of the house of representatives from Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull. 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 due to the pradesh. The biggest state in india is a dangerous place from which to report and give us this day. Our daily Coronavirus Briefing announcing a vaccine 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 australias print outlets belong to Murdochs News Corp astray and the coverage 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 government 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 straight to former Prime Ministers from rival political parties. Just joining forces calling murdochs brand of journalism propaganda, cancer honest, really is 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 new stories that are taking their toll on news corp, as trail. Yeah. And its reputation. 2. Things have led to this great need that was staying at the moment of the middle comedian empire in history 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 effect has been the way in which the middle crists and major outlets in australia have reported the pandemic in victoria. There was a huge 2nd way in the labor premier ben 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 i mean change. And that was huge in australia last summer where we had terrible statement. And there were articles in the australian which is like, shit, news. I played australia strongly suggesting that the Climate Change, which was pretty outrageous and in the press is pato the environment which is and i will still not really have a comprehensive energy. What has changed now from the uk and chris . Well do this in the past. Is that before there was a kind of a finance and that has gone, its become much more the reliance and there is 2 former politicians who i would do as teacher like the kind of fed outness 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 power. 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 astray. 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 member, mr. Rudds disproportionate and unseemly efforts to ingratiate himself with news corp. This trail you when he was labor party leader, both in opposition and government. Just because youre a hypocrite, doesnt make you wrong. He had no choice. The label of power, especially by the story really meant that he could either try and get an unfavorable treatment will get a 5. He tried to get a favorable one and how to be pushed back to the right age. Theyve been seeing for the fact that he was still was ultimately down in power. If not, i mean up at least with systems and you say that the current 2 major party leaders. Im not talking much about the station. All that us ability of the Royal Commission, theyre avoiding that conversation because its too provocative in a 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 part of the senate, which will conduct its own inquiry into media diversity. In australia, news corp a stroke, it 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 tatic, 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 finances. 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 paul, before you will say, one of our greatest broad isnt journalists . Its an awful. Im out of an. I mean, how long would you want . It wasnt there, im not here. But when i asked, tell me, i decide how do we should do in terms of margaret iraq, who clearly is one of the needing political journalists in australia and has been since im not into these essential work youre doing is youre transferring your own political fired, yours and you wish him to Blind Company for them and hes become a sort of intelligence for the Murdoch Press, which is a shame, really because he had a very distinguished humans to the rear, but it was quite breathtaking television. And it was largely its are trying to be a propagandist for one saw it. But if one is a critic or skeptic about somebody has issues, thats not our current. And the thing i found surprising was that kelly argued it was presenting at the versity view. And that other media workers, it is a propaganda organ change, and therefore there was no problem with also presenting a view 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. There, 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 you know, speaking against 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 corp, australia 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. 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 said politicians for macabre to talk about what is happening behind the saints. And thats very important is too much fear of speaking out against the so nice ation. 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 onside. The roar that pulling paris has largely gone. And this is partly a story about the decline of one street, maybe or not only there is still a game to sit and pal and so its still got power, but its not that wars that have certainly been and you know, the level of possibility and then sometimes Mysterious Properties in the mystery or trade shows that they are really worried about this in terms of maybe some of 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 tarik. Nasa has been following that story for us. Tarek mcconnell 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 patsy. 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 in chain 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 concerts, foreign reporters 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, this 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 used 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 monk and is 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 gangly 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 typical night when they would need to put discovering the story of the new going in that that was the context. The hotness incident is a very straightforward one of the gang rape in the little marginalised 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 took it straight from a hospital in delhi to heart. You can see that 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 articles of we dont know about the British Government body catered, that we lived with for the opposition parties and for the team members who are not good enough to cut 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 Investigative Journalism as an enormous attack. The government has a very clear agenda, many of the many of the, many of the mana, to suppr