Will Rupert Murdoch succeed in taking over Sky? Plus, the challenges of reporting on Chechnya.

On The Listening Post this week: Will Rupert Murdoch's second attempt at taking over Sky, the UK's largest private broadcaster, succeed? Plus, the challenges of reporting on Chechnya.

The Murdoch Empire strikes back

In 2011, a phone-hacking scandal at his newspapers stopped Rupert Murdoch from taking full control of Sky. Now he says he has his house in order and the deal is back on the table.



Contributors:

Jane Martinson, head of media, The Guardian

David Bond, reporter, Financial Times

Justin Schlosberg, chair, Media Reform Coalition

Suzanne Franks, media professor, City University

On our radar:

- Two months ago Facebook, announced its plan to work with German news outlets to combat the spread of fake news - but it's having difficulty finding partners.

- Foreign journalists based in China get more leeway to report than their Chinese counterparts, but there are limits, as a BBC crew recently learned when it tried to cover a local land dispute.

- Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's government in Egypt is one of many administrations employing public relations (PR) firms to burnish their reputations overseas. As it turns out, the Egyptian general intelligence directorate has PR firms from the US working on its behalf too.

Reporting in Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechnya

Journalism in the Russian republic of Chechnya is in a dire state. The news media has been crushed, and the few Russian journalists still daring to report face threats, harassment or worse. Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, keeps turning the screws tighter.

Contributors:

Oleg Orlov, chairman, Memorial Human Rights Organisation

Oliver Bullough, journalist

Gregory Shvedov, editor, Caucasian Knot

Elena Milashina, Caucasus correspondent, Novaya Gazeta

Source: Al Jazeera News