Trade Secrets: Covering the TTIP leaks

On The Listening Post this week: We explore the politics and the coverage behind the secret negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – the United States and European Union trade deal. Plus, the media weaponry fuelling Yemen’s information war.

Trade secrets: reporting on TTIP

Documents leaked by Greenpeace have shed light on closed door negotiations between the EU and the US over TTIP. We analyse the coverage, the secrecy surrounding the talks and the barriers to reporting on a story unfolding largely in secret.  

Talking us through the story are: Daniel Rosario, EU Commission spokesman for trade and agriculture; Alberto Alemanno, professor of law, HEC Paris; Faiza Oulahsen, campaigner, Greenpeace; Hans von der Burchard, reporter, Politico; and, Melinda St Louis, International Campaigns Director, Public Citizen.

On our radar

• Egyptian newspaper editors – in a coordinated move – have criticised the government’s security apparatus in a way the country hasn’t seen since President el-Sisi came to power.
• The US Central Intelligence Agency – the CIA – had some explaining to do after it decided to live tweet the killing of Osama Bin Laden as if it were happening today.
• The firing of an editor working at a prominent Hong Kong newspaper, Ming Pao, has led to dozens of journalists gathering in the city to demand answers over the sacking.

Yemen’s polarised propaganda war

Ever since Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen last year to push back against the Houthi rebels in the capital Sana’a, both the warring sides have stocked up their media arsenals to help push their version of this war.

Talking us through the story are: Iona Craig, journalist; Nawal Al-Maghafi, reporter and filmmaker; Ramzy Baroud, former managing editor, Middle East Eye; Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar, Arab Gulf States Institute.