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Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: Can saying fool land you in jail?

Documentaries

People gather at Saraçhane

23/12/2022 GMT

Can saying fool land you in jail?

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Can saying fool land you in jail?

Will Istanbul’s mayor be sent to jail for ‘insulting’ language about election officials?

The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoğlu has been sentenced to jail and banned from politics for ‘insulting’ election officials. Is there more to it than the word ‘fool’?

Last week Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu was sentenced to two years seven months in jail and banned from taking part in politics. It’s not clear if his sentence will be ratified by two higher courts, but his crime was to call Turkey’s election officials ‘fools’ after the rerun 2019 mayoral elections, though many believe it has more to do with next year's presidential elections. BBC Monitoring journalist Dilay Yalcin in Istanbul unpicks the story.   

Meeting Thailand's leading transgender business mogul 
Thai transgender businesswoman and transgender advocate Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip has made history as the first trans woman owner of the Miss Universe Organisation. BBC Thai’s Tossapol Chaisamritpol has interviewed her about her ambitions for the pageant, and her own life experiences.  

Reporting and running
BBC Arabic reporter Murad Shishani is often on the road, covering stories from conflict in Gaza to presidential campaigns in Iowa. But wherever he is, he keeps his spirits and energy levels up by running. Murad shares some of those runs with us.

Brazil and K-culture 
If you’re a fan of K-pop or K-dramas you’re not alone. Award-winning films like Parasite, bands like BTS, and Korean dramas like Squid Game are global successes, part of what’s been called Hallyu, or Korean Wave. It's a big wave in Brazil, and BBC Brasil’s Shin Suzuki decided to take a closer look at the appeal of K-culture. We paired him with BBC Korean’s Julie Yoonnyung Lee to fill in the South Korean side of the equation.  

BBC 100: Triumph against the odds 
Yetunde Olugbenga of BBC Yoruba starts a new series of stories shared by journalists from our language services who’ve faced big challenges in their lives and careers. They have told their stories in schools in order to encourage and inspire the next generation, as a way of marking the BBC centenary. Yetunde tells us how she overcame sexual harassment from a college lecturer.


(Photo: People gather at Saraçhane in support of Ekrem İmamoğlu who has been sentenced to prison. Credit :Hakan Akgun /dia image via Getty Images).

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