🇰🇷 Pyeongchang 2018: Sport, politics and the media game | The Listening Post

among the most closely watched early

Olympic events is a local diplomacy

hello I'm Richard gisbert and you're at

the listening post here are some of the

media stories we've been tracking this

week five rings two countries one flag

if they handed out medals for spinning

the story North Korea would get the gold

July 15th 2016 the night turkey got a

new national narrative or at least

that's what the government and the media

that have its back would have you

believe

Facebook Google fake news and hate

speech governments can't seem to fix it

maybe big money advertisers can and

Egypt where the security state gets down

with the kids an omission Iowa school

due to kolenda yeah you had it was a

case of let the games begin and cue the

propaganda the politicking and the

punditry at the opening ceremonies of

the Winter Olympics athletes from two

countries still officially in a state of

war North and South Korea marched into

the stadium together under one flag

those images of a temporarily unified

Korea were beamed around the world and

will have registered in Washington how

about the site of kim yo-jong the North

Korean leaders sisters shaking hands

with South Korean president moon jae-in

right under the nose of US Vice

President Mike Pence if stealing the

show was Pyongyang's intention the media

played right into its hands offering

extensive coverage of the delegation

from the north wherever they like the

flame there are going to be geopolitics

in the mix but these games given where

they are and the governments involved

have taken Olympic politics to another

level our starting point this week is

Pyeongchang South Korea

not every picture tells the story not

every image is worth a thousand words

but the right one in the right place

time and context can pack a bigger punch

than a hundred sound bytes for a million

tweets an image like this one athletes

from two countries entering the Olympic

stage under one flag

it's a great photo-op it makes for some

good pictures it does sort of bring the

sense of potential in the sense of

optimism at least briefly for that

sports event but it doesn't necessarily

mean unification is around the corner of

course there's an element of spectacle

to it but it was also meaningful I think

you demonstrated that the two Koreas are

trying to work something out at this

moment one in which the North Koreans

have developed a nuclear program now

there's a lot of tension between them

and the international community and just

having that group walk in together

doesn't erase all of that so you know it

is a moment that suggests hopefulness

and a lot has been said about the u.s.

vice president Mike Pence and his wife

choosing to remain seated while tens of

thousands of spectators including North

Korean and Voice and the South Korean

president were standing up and

applauding wildly Mike Pence came across

as grumpy boorish insensitive actually

quite offensive if a charm offensive is

to work the recipients must be open to

persuasion and it helps if they're

gullible Pyongyang will have been

pleased with the way the Western media

received kim yo-jong kim jong un's

sister with the world watching the

Olympics she will put a young telegenic

face on the regime there is no denying

the significance of her presence at the

games given that kim yo-jong is the

first member of north korea's ruling

family to ever visit the south but

before falling under her spell western

news outlets might have done some

homework and considered her day job

propaganda is what kim yo-jong does

as the head of North Korea's department

of propaganda and agitation she does run

a very important department that

department makes sure that North Koreans

have few if any real access to outside

information that they remain in the dark

and that department also does its best

to restrict the flow of information out

of North Korea none of that was broached

in reporting on kim yo-jong only the

fact that she exuded the softer image

that she smiled for the cameras that she

looked modest and sincere the appearance

of the kim yo-jong may be seen as a more

propaganda show to may create more

peaceful more loving images of North

Korea but from the viewpoint of the

inter-korean relations and this is a

very important political breakthrough

given that she was the first the Korean

ruling family members visit to the South

Korea so in that way is a very very

meaningful political breakthrough

in Pyongyang kim yo-jong became the

temporary face of an authoritarian

country that is politically dominated by

men Kim jong-un represents the third

generation of a family dynasty a

patriarchy that has lasted for 70 years

but when North Korea ventures onto the

world stage and in front of the news

media women do a disproportionate amount

of the PR work in addition to kim

yo-jong the government sent more than

200 cheerleaders to the games it's not

the first time they've been sent out but

journalists can't seem to resist them

the cameras were drawn to the women like

moths to the Olympic flame the media

again a male-dominated media is just all

over them desperate to try to get a

response from them you see it's sort of

a game in the South Korean media - can

you get one of them to answer a question

because they are really quite

tight-lipped other than when they're

cheering in a way it's almost a

propaganda failure because of how

regimented and organized they appear it

can look a little bit weird sometimes a

little bit sort of stiff it's sort of

what you would expect from Western media

because they really like this narrative

and especially like the cheerleaders

really fit into the caricature that

they've built of North Korea and this

idea of it's this Potemkin village and

their fascination with how synchronized

they are and how brainwashed they are

and how controlled they are support

staff surround the cheering squad the

athletes the art troupe

all of the delegation would be under

24/7 surveillance he says they wouldn't

be able to go to the bathroom alone and

it sort of revealed how little the

Western media knows about either Korea

and how little they understand about the

situation in home is unpredictable

the international news media treat North

Korea as a potential geopolitical

flashpoint Media in South Korea see the

North differently as an existential

threat news outlets based in Seoul are

typically split along liberal and

conservative lines liberal outlets are

more open to accommodating Pyongyang

conservative ones are usually much more

hardline but on this story and the

bilateral meeting between kim yo-jong

and the south korean president

moon jae-in the ideological gap in the

south seems to have shrunk because of

the stakes the Arsenal's and the players

involved not all of whom are Korea

on the left you have editorials cheering

moon jaein on saying this is a very

important moment of outreach and

possibly a bigger breakthrough on the

right instead of being critical of

Montaigne editorials are saying things

like this is good just be careful

the gap between left and right is

relatively narrow I think because South

Koreans generally are very worried about

the United States right now we think the

Olympics will go very nicely and after

that who knows

we'll find out that President Trump is

way too willing to risk war on the

Korean Peninsula so there's sort of a

unity of opinion across the board left

and right looking for a way to defuse

tensions and move on most of South

Korean newspapers and South Korean TV

feature that littering between South

Korean president and important protocol

grade through Daniel Chong Shanghai

tomorrow to meet Hawaii underseater

ninja

another Korean war will break out then

South Korean people is the one who saw

for most I saw any kind of sign any kind

of gesture from the north to communicate

with South Korea is have to be seen as a

possibility that no other way the

wall-to-wall coverage of this story

comes with cracks significant gaps in

understanding the South Korean media

know little about what goes on in

Pyongyang the international media don't

know their way around either country

either story and the vast majority of

journalists parachuted into the Olympics

are sports reporters unschooled in the

world of geopolitics for the Kim's of

North Korea this was more than a photo

opportunity it was a propaganda

opportunity and they took it

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we're discussing other media stories

that are on our radar today with one of

our producers Tarek Nava Tarek one of

the world's biggest advertisers Unilever

now talking about pulling its ads from

both Facebook and Google why so Unilever

is trying to succeed with its

advertising muscle where governments

have failed with their regulatory powers

Facebook in particular is facing

criticism for failing to remove hate

speech misinformation fake news and

extremist content and the company's

founder Mark Zuckerberg began the year

by announcing that the site had tweaked

its news feed algorithm to prioritize

what it calls more meaningful social

interactions it's by no means clear

though that that will solve those

problems and Unilever which owns brands

like dove Vaseline and Ben & Jerry's ice

cream has announced it will pull

advertising from Facebook and Google and

left those companies clean up their acts

and one Unilever executive actually put

it that you know some of these platforms

are little better than a swamp so how do

you read this move is it about

principles or is it about profits I

think it's clearly aimed at protecting

their brand Unilever doesn't want to see

if ads alongside content from white

supremacist for example and it's become

increasingly clear how little leverage

government's actually have over social

media companies to force them to change

their ways hitting them where it hurts

the billions they make an ad revenues

could prove to be very consequential

especially if other big companies follow

Unilever fleet the other story you've

been looking at concerns an Indian

journalist anchor canted Chakraborty

who's been fired over a tweet first of

all who is she chakrabarti was a

political editor at online outlet daily

o which is owned by the India today

group last week she tweeted this from

Mehrtens turning a blind eye to hate

mongering fake news spreading anchors

editors reporters and writers or hiring

them in the first place must be tried in

courts as hate speech enabler proper

tears a tweet didn't name any names nor

did it really get that much attention at

first but it was clearly too close to

home for chakra parties bosses at India

today anyone who follows Indian media a

new Chakrabarti was probably talking

about particular anchors

some of whom are in India today's

channels are important chronically Hindu

like you who John boutté Kareem semana

pasada uncle's like Rohit sadhana Gaurav

Sawant frequently put out incendiary and

sometimes completely false information

on air and they're not the only ones

doing that in the Indian media this is

the time for revenge okay so what

Chakrabarti was describing is a very

real issue on the Indian airwaves and

she paid a price for that yes she did

her job senior editorial staff for India

today meant to discuss the tweet and she

says a week later she got a call from HR

saying she had three options

delete the tweet resign or face being

fired saying she refused to be censored

she chose the latter and the company

however said the Chakrabarti broke their

rules on editorial conduct

okay thanks tarick sometimes a date on

the calendar can become synonymous with

an event a founding moment for a new

media narrative September 11th 2001 is

an example of that for Turk's there's

July 15 2016 when a failed coup attempt

left hundreds dead and thousands injured

now such dates tend to come with a

ready-made enemy or at least a scapegoat

and the Turkish government has a bit of

both in what it calls the fethullah

terrorist organization or pheto a

movement led by a reclusive Islamic

cleric based in the US for Tula Gulen

back in the early 2000s gülen's

followers were allies of president air

diwan's AK Party by 2013 however they

had fallen out politically and air21

labelled the movement a parallel state a

shadowy threat to turkeys democracy

after July 15 2016 the government

rebranded Gulen and his followers as

terrorists The Listening Post will young

now on the Turkish media's role in

framing the coup as an ongoing

explanation for the challenges the

country faces and as a way of crushing

dissent

understand little burning in the album a

little clean it wash basket into there

instead Akasha buon anima lonely that

checked on the agenda ha the media

narrative has really played an important

role for the AKP government and for

present I want to disseminate a

particular version of the event

which you're gonna need you know to care

Gossage in Atari bogies your cotton

Darvin andy jillian yonder soft

from the soldiers and civilians killed

and injured to the bullet scarred walls

of government buildings from accusations

confessions prosecution's and

recriminations a new national narrative

has emerged in which Turkey is beset by

an enemy within the fettle a terror

organization to be known henceforth by

the acronym feta David some journalists

who want to defend the state also want

to keep the 15th of July high on the

agenda if you consider the character the

texture the intricate structure and the

sophistication of the organization that

we've fought against on the 15th of July

you will better understand why that day

will not be forgotten the hunted barely

bit homage to most propaganda see the

government is trying to keep itself in

power of the back of the propaganda of

15th of July even before the Qura tent

came to an end the pro-government media

were very quick to label the coup

plotters as members of feta this

discourse has continued unabated since

that date judaculla rock they vomited in

truth the Gulen movement and the ark

party coexisted and cooperated for years

before relations soured Gulen ists took

top jobs in the judiciary in education

in the police and army and had

significant holdings in the media but

that history has no place in the current

government discourse which has gülen's

followers infiltrating turkey's

institutions to form a parallel state

when that organization attempted to

seize power by force it was only

president early ones

timely and effective mobilisation of the

popular will that stopped them however

while their coup attempt was thwarted

their supporters are still being outed

all the time not only in the courts but

in trials by media so when a new decree

law is announced and people raise their

concerns about the implications of that

decree law usually the first response

from a programmer in conduct

are you a member of the feta boo army

darken and psychologically fit in

England all the negatives this becomes a

vehicle in for silencing oppositional

voices and for discouraging people from

asking questions not only about feta in

general about any government policy to

the issue of feta and Turkey is not an

easy thing to grasp it is a movement

which was so well hidden that many

journalists supported them unfortunately

some are saying that there have been

unjust investigations and prosecutions

against feta such as cases against

journalists but we need to distinguish

between true journalists and those who

really call themselves journalists

according to president Erdogan and many

in the Turkish media the influence of

feta even extends to a court in New York

where late last year

Reza's Arab a turkish-iranian gold

trader admitted to running a sanctions

busting racket trading Iranian oil for

gold paying millions of dollars in

bribes to senior Turkish ministers along

the way za robs testimony implicated

oder one in his son Bilal but viewed

from Turkey this is all part of a feta

inspired international conspiracy hog

Hume a federal judge has a link to

feather the prosecutor has a clear link

to settle one of the witnesses is a

fettle member who fled Turkey this is

all linked to an Turkey stop playing the

international role expected of it and

started to pursue its own destiny this

hostility will continue at first the

government and pro-government media

refined massive importance to the rod as

a valuable Turkish

however when syrup started to cooperate

with the prosecutor's office the

prosecutor the judge and the entire US

Justice Department were declared

reaching he's - although not the odorous

book et rajo-guna Julie conscious in the

Berlin not too

of course Biff isn't a credible

narrative there is a discrepancy between

the reporting of the zurab case by the

Turkish and the international media the

international media look forward to

seeing information against terawatts

against his ministers and against Turkey

his fight with the military has been a

long time coming to man who has

tightened his grip on power by jailing

thousands of political opponents at home

50,000 people have been arrested a

hundred and fifty thousand people either

lost their jobs or been suspended

following the 15th of July the silence

of Western actors seemed to say that

they were sad that the coup had been

prevented this made journalists who

thought Turkey in the West share common

interests reconsider their position

Aaron was in France when the French

journalist asked him a question about

Syria and president Aaron was not happy

with this question and he asked a

journalist if he was a member of feta

all of these international and domestic

developments can be explained as part of

this international conspiracy against

turkey persecuted by enemies abroad

infiltrated by enemies within most of

the Turkish media have now closed ranks

around a state sanctioned narrative that

appears to explain all of this in terms

of the failed 2016 coup attempt

meanwhile hundreds of journalists have

been arrested their news outlets

shuttered or taken over by government

supporters the result is a media

landscape where the only story is the

July 15 story the program of media is

serving the same political narrative and

the same political objectives as aired

one and the nkp government obviously you

know their political agendas are very

much aligned and because they serve to

propagate the message from the party and

and from the president we can see

several similarities in terms of their

narratives is AMA eighty to ninety

percent of the media in Turkey has been

under government control for a long time

and they report with one voice that is

communicating Edwin's views solely

within the last year we are seeing what

we call the presidential palace media

fighting among themselves to prove who

is more Pro adilyn who is super ultra

super ultra pro adilyn's super arrow and

rule that I came there a little make-up

of Shamar why should let the stories

that a nation tells become how that

nation imagines itself collectively how

it understands its victimhood its

identity and its destiny if the turkey

July 15 was the day everything changed

narratives around the failed coup and

feta are a new national creation with

one that with so much of the Turkish

media behind it is rapidly becoming a

new national reality

and finally kids just about everywhere

like to spend time on YouTube and when

they do that in Egypt they might learn

how to become police informants somebody

at the interior ministry thought it

would be a good idea to produce a

cartoon designed to do that it features

two boys reporting some suspicious new

neighbors to a friendly policeman uncle

Nabil now not everyone sees Egyptian

security forces in such a benign light

the NGO Human Rights Watch for example

recently said that the interior ministry

oversees an assembly line of torture

what follows is a slightly scary

snapshot into the security state that

Egypt has become under President Abdel

Fattah el-sisi but at least the kids get

some chocolate out of the deal we'll see

you next time here at The Listening Post

[Music]

Pacific in the mazovick nummies another

madrasa ash annual inner is shredded

Elena in Norway in Russia had the

Knievel score on dinner and a Jelena

soluble in time a fee rhizobia 14 metal

ash miss high cloudiness bye bye

[Music]

we don't get the soccer phenom I see in

the commissioner Aikido me the doorman

Elmo hey man no come here to move a lot

and I wish I was cool to look alain de

robar accumulate in the compeller tomb

lamonsoff too many fee huggers a lot

miss Muhammad Aikido Ola Linda Dora

sorta and moham in the master bag area

miss Albania with Ben de la Motte

Hessian if he has a lot a nap dead for

her be careful

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