International report

In the run-up to the French presidential election President François Hollande has criticised what he called Moscow’s attempt to "influence public opinion" with "ideological operations".

And the European Parliament passed a resolution last year calling on the European Union (EU) to do more to fight anti-EU propaganda: it blamed Russia for attempting to divide the EU.

Three days before France elected its next president, Filip Warwick looked at how interested Russia is in the result.

Zimbabwe’s government says that for the first time in almost twenty years, the country will produce enough maize to feed itself this year. Maize production has been affected in recent years by farmers choosing to grow cash crops like tobacco. Correspondent Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare on the efforts to get Zimbabwe’s farmers growing maize again.

Europe recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the signature of the Rome Treaties, which established a common market and allowed people to move freely across the European territory. Lately, however, the European Union has been heavily criticised and contested. However, its defenders want to be heard, and did so in Berlin last Sunday. Emmanuelle Chaze has this report from Berlin.

Reporters without Borders (RSF) launched its annual World Press Freedom Index on Wednesday. It’s one of RSF’s largest advocacy tools that the NGO puts out every year to rank 180 countries in their press freedom.

This year the top 10 rankings were all occupied by European countries, apart from Costa Rica and Jamaica, and at the bottom of the list were Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea.

However, RSF’s World Press Freedom map indicates that media freedom has deteriorated with surveillance and violations of the right to confidential sources contributing to the fall in ranking of many Western and European democracies.

Filip Warwick has this report.

Farmers from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been protesting in the capital, Delhi, for over a month. They have been demanding a relief package and loans from the government. Their 40-day sit-in has seen them turn to eye-popping tactics that have in turn forced the government to act. Murali Krishnan met up with the farmers at the rallying site.

In Israel, where the military service is mandatory, those who refuse to enroll for political reasons are going to prison. The conscientious objectors movement, against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, is small but growing in the Jewish state.

In the second report of a two-part series, Sabrina Myre explains that those who refuse to do military service face harsh criticism because serving in the army goes to the core of Israeli identity.

In Israel, rejecting the mandatory military service lands you in jail automatically. The draft refusers, also called conscientious objectors, are mainly women. One of them, Tamar Zeevi, spent months in jail after she refused to join the army to protest against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Despite her political opinion, the 19 year-old activist has finally been discharged due to reasons of conscience.

It’s a rare move, according to the Israeli NGO Mesarvot.

In the first report of a two-part series, Sabrina Myre meets Tamar Zeevi, just a few days after her release.