Russia’s government has banned America’s ABC TV news channel from reporting inside Russia. This is because of an ABC interview with Russia’s most wanted man, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. He has a $10 million bounty on his head for acts of terrorism in Russia. He confessed in the interview he was responsible for many terrorist attacks, including those at a Moscow theater in 2002 and a Beslan school in 2004. Russia is furious at ABC for giving Basayev the opportunity to spread his propaganda around the world.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that ABC’s interview with an internationally recognized terrorist supported terrorism. They said it also gave Basayev the chance to directly tell his followers to commit more acts of violence against Russian citizens. Russia made the decision not to provide ABC reporters with work permits. A government spokesperson said: “We will continue to act openly with the press, but ABC will not be invited to the Defense Ministry and no interviews will ever be given to it.” ABC said it did not regret broadcasting the interview.

WARM-UPS

1. INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: You are an international news reporter. Your job is very dangerous. You are in a very dangerous part of the world. You have a secret interview with one of the world’s most famous terrorists tomorrow. Walk around the classroom and talk with the other “international news reporters” about your job, the dangers, why you do your job and tomorrow’s interview.

2. CHECHNYA SEARCH: Your job is to find out as much information as you can in five minutes about Chechnya. Ask many students (and your teacher) for information. Once you have finished, sit down with your partner(s). Share and talk about what you found out. Discuss what information was new, interesting, worrying, pleasing etc. What information are you happy you found out?

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Russia / ABC TV / international news networks / most wanted men / Chechnya / terrorism / propaganda / interviews with terrorists / freedom of the press / regrets

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. INTERVIEW: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “interview”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. A REPORTER’S LIFE: Would you like to be an international news reporter? In pairs / groups, answer this question. Discuss what you think life as a world-traveling journalist is like. Some of the following words may be useful in your conversations:

Daily duties Other TV / newspaper companies Passport Dangers Friends and enemies

Terrorism Reporting the truth Loneliness Adventure Other

Change partners and compare what you talked about.

6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think being a war correspondent and interviewing terrorists is an important job. Students B think being a war correspondent and interviewing terrorists is a totally crazy job. Change partners often.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Russia has ordered a U.S. news team to leave the country.	T / F
b.	ABC TV news reporters interviewed Russia’s most wanted man.	T / F
c.	ABC paid Russia’s biggest terrorist $10 million for a TV interview.	T / F
d.	The terrorist is responsible for major terrorist acts in Russia.	T / F
e.	Russia’s government said ABC spread terrorist propaganda.	T / F
f.	The ABC reporters will receive work permits next year.	T / F
g.	Russia’s Foreign Ministry will continue to talk to other news networks.	T / F
h.	ABC has said it regretted broadcasting the interview.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	banned	opportunity
b.	inside	angry
c.	bounty	known
d.	furious	media
e.	propaganda	within
f.	recognized	information
g.	chance	do
h.	commit	forbidden
i.	press	airing
j.	broadcasting	reward

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	news	on his head
b.	Russia’s most	spokesperson
c.	a $10 million bounty	around the world
d.	he was responsible for many	violence
e.	spread his propaganda	wanted man
f.	internationally recognized	broadcasting the interview
g.	commit more acts of	channel
h.	work	terrorist attacks
i.	government	terrorist
j.	ABC said it did not regret	permits

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the correct spaces.

Russia bans America’s ABC TV news team

Russia’s government has _______ America’s ABC TV news _______ from reporting inside Russia. This is because of an ABC interview with Russia’s most _______ man, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. He has a $10 million _______ on his head for acts of terrorism in Russia. He _______ in the interview he was responsible for many terrorist _______, including those at a Moscow theater in 2002 and a Beslan school in 2004. Russia is _______ at ABC for giving Basayev the opportunity to _______ his propaganda around the world.		confessed furious banned bounty spread channel attacks wanted
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that ABC’s _______ with an internationally recognized terrorist _______ terrorism. They said it also gave Basayev the _______ to directly tell his followers to commit more acts of _______ against Russian citizens. Russia made the _______ not to provide ABC reporters with work _______. A government spokesperson said: “We will continue to act _______ with the press, but ABC will not be invited to the Defense Ministry and no interviews will ever be given to it.” ABC said it did not _______ broadcasting the interview.		violence regret supported decision openly interview permits chance

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘war’ and ‘lord’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the gap fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “FREEDOM OF THE PRESS” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about Russia banning ABC and freedom of the press.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

banned interview warlord head theater spread

recognized followers citizens openly invited regret

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What did you think when you first saw this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. What do you think of Russia’s decision?
4. What do you think of ABC broadcasting the interview?
5. Do you think such an interview could be dangerous?
6. Do you think ABC helped terrorism in any way?
7. Why do you think ABC TV could find Mr. Basayev but Russia’s specialist anti-terrorist forces cannot?
8. Do you think the ABC reporters had a duty to capture Mr. Basayev?
9. What do you know about Chechnya?
10. What do you know about Vladimir Putin’s relations with Chechnya?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What did you think about what you read?
3. Do you think Russia’s decision damages press freedom?
4. Do you think TV companies should be allowed to show interviews in which terrorists send messages to their supporters?
5. Do you think ABC should apologize?
6. What do you think of ABC saying terrorism is bad but also allowing a terrorist to talk about his feelings?
7. What would your government do in a similar situation?
8. Would you like to be a reporter covering stories of terrorism?
9. What are your biggest regrets?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

INTERVIEW WITH A TERRORIST: You are an international reporter. Tomorrow you have an interview with Shamil Basayev / Osama bin Laden / Other internationally wanted terrorist (please choose one). In pairs / groups, write down eight questions you want to ask the terrorist.

1. _________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________________________
7. _________________________________________________________________
8. _________________________________________________________________

After you have finished, talk about the possible answers.

Change partners and share and compare your questions. Explain what you discussed with your previous partner(s). Talk again about the answers with your new partners.

Change partners again and role play the international journalist and terrorist.

After the role play, talk about what you said while you were in your roles.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Russia bans America’s ABC TV news team

Russia’s government has ________ America’s ABC TV news channel from reporting inside Russia. This is because of an ABC interview with Russia’s most ________ man, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. He has a $10 million ________ on his head for acts of terrorism in Russia. He ________ in the interview he was responsible for many terrorist ________, including those at a Moscow theater in 2002 and a Beslan school in 2004. Russia is ________ at ABC for giving Basayev the opportunity to ______ his propaganda around the world.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that ABC’s __________ with an internationally recognized terrorist __________ terrorism. They said it also gave Basayev the chance to directly tell his followers to __________ more acts of violence against Russian citizens. Russia made the decision not to __________ ABC reporters with work __________. A government spokesperson said: “We will continue to act openly with the press, but ABC will not be __________ to the Defense Ministry and no interviews will ever be given to it.” ABC said it did not __________ broadcasting the interview.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on ABC TV and Russia. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. CHECHNYA: Make a poster about Chechnya. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

4. DIARY / JOURNAL: Imagine you are an international war journalist. Write the entry in your journal / diary for one day in your life. Read your diary / journal entry to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. T

e. T

f. F

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	banned	forbidden
b.	inside	within
c.	bounty	reward
d.	furious	angry
e.	propaganda	information
f.	recognized	known
g.	chance	opportunity
h.	commit	do
i.	press	media
j.	broadcasting	airing

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	news	channel
b.	Russia’s most	wanted man
c.	a $10 million bounty	on his head
d.	he was responsible for many	terrorist attacks
e.	spread his propaganda	around the world
f.	internationally recognized	terrorist
g.	commit more acts of	violence
h.	work	permits
i.	government	spokesperson
j.	ABC said it did not regret	broadcasting the interview

GAP FILL:

Russia bans America’s ABC TV news team

Russia’s government has banned America’s ABC TV news channel from reporting inside Russia. This is because of an ABC interview with Russia’s most wanted man, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. He has a $10 million bounty on his head for acts of terrorism in Russia. He confessed in the interview he was responsible for many terrorist attacks, including those at a Moscow theater in 2002 and a Beslan school in 2004. Russia is furious at ABC for giving Basayev the opportunity to spread his propaganda around the world.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that ABC’s interview with an internationally recognized terrorist supported terrorism. They said it also gave Basayev the chance to directly tell his followers to commit more acts of violence against Russian citizens. Russia made the decision not to provide ABC reporters with work permits. A government spokesperson said: “We will continue to act openly with the press, but ABC will not be invited to the Defense Ministry and no interviews will ever be given to it.” ABC said it did not regret broadcasting the interview. 

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