Cardinal Pell on Trial; Ten Journalists among 31 Killed in Afghanistan
SESAY: Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of historical sexual abuse. In Northern Australia, a magistrate ruled the 76-year old will stand trial and the process gets started Wednesday.</s>VAUSE: The ruling follows a month-long hearing, during which witnesses gave evidence after the original charges against Pell were dismissed. The cardinal, though, has repeatedly and strenuously denied all the allegations. Journalist Lucie Morris-Marr joins us now from Melbourne. Lucie, there's still pretrial hearings to come, some results in procedural issues but it is not entirely clear when the criminal trial itself actually begins. LUCIE MORRIS-MARR, JOURNALIST; That's right. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 am the cardinal is required to</s>VAUSE: You have to stress, this is Cardinal Pell is the third highest ranking official with the church. So has there been any reaction at this point from Rome? And in particular has they actually moved to force Pell to step down as the Vatican's finance chief, now that this criminal trial is set to be underway at this time?</s>MORRIS-MARR: Well, the attitude from the pope when he was charged in June last year was very pragmatic and pretty fair considering the circumstances. He thought that Cardinal Pell deserved a fair justice system, a fair trial, if that was to happen. And he said he would comment once the justice system had commented itself. And so we are not expecting him to resign or be slapped from his post. He's currently on leave so his standing as Vatican treasurer still stands today. But what is remarkable and extraordinary about this case is this whole subject of historical sexual abuse</s>VAUSE: Lucie, very quickly, during this hearing, this pretrial hearing, the lawyers for Pell said there was voluminous evidence to prove all the allegations were actually impossible. Have they indicated what that evidence could be?</s>MORRIS-MARR: There was lots of attacks on the credibility of the accusers because what we have, which is common in trials, especially with historic natures of accusations, that go back up to 30 and 40 years, is it's their word against his, which for prima facie evidence in a sense. And so what they were doing was --</s>MORRIS-MARR: -- attacking the reliability of the evidence that either they were very strong, they got quite brutal at times. He accused the alleged victims of actually lying, of using Cardinal Pell as some kind of scapegoat, for the reaction of the Catholic Church as a global problem of historic sexual abuse. And so it got very, very tense and harsh at times. But of course,</s>VAUSE: Yes, a case of</s>SESAY: Journalists were the target of the latest attacks in Afghanistan; 31 people were killed on Monday. Among them, this photographer for Agence France Presse and eight others, who'd rushed to the scene of an earlier blast in the Afghan capital. They were killed by a bomber disguised at a TV camera man. Journalist Ali Latifi joins us now from Kabul. Ali, why do you think journalists were targeted in this way?</s>ALI LATIFI, JOURNALIST: I think they were targeted because, you know, we have to remember that this is the second attack claimed by the so- called Islamic State in the capital in about a week's time. So I think it's their way of showing that, A, they have strength in the city and they have a presence in the city and inciting fear in people because that's the thing that's really upsetting people, is the fact that journalists were targeted. People are wondering why it's journalists that are targeted and kit is really interesting because people, you know, from here, people who have been here for years, they're really taken aback by this more than any other attack because of the fact it was journalists. So I think in that sense, it a kind of works to their propaganda aim.</s>SESAY: When we talk about the threat journalists are facing in Afghanistan, when we spoke last hour, you said it's a reality that a lot of you, you've just kind of factored into the job. But do you think it will cause some people to rethink, to pull back from certain stories, certainly to respond to bombings in a different way?</s>LATIFI: Like I said previously, this isn't the first attack against journalists and this is isn't necessarily the first time that journalists have been attacked and killed on the job. I think hopefully it will lead to some kind of a change but I don't know if it can because, you know, we have to remember that these are people doing their job. These are people trying to make money. These are people that are very committed, that's the one thing that I really appreciate about the journalist community here amongst ivon (ph) journalists, is that they are very committed to their job and they really take it very seriously and in a very deep, important way. So I think it will be interesting to see if people start making these calculations again. You know, what story is worth it and what isn't. And whether it's worth going immediately to these sorts of scenes.</s>SESAY: Yes. It is worth pointing out, there's another attack in Afghanistan, where children were killed, women were killed. These groups are terrorizing all segments of the population. But on this particular day, where so many journalists lost their lives, our hearts go out to you there in Afghanistan. Thank you, Ali.</s>LATIFI: Thank you. Thank you.</s>VAUSE: Oh, boy. OK, well, the meeting has not even happened, the time, date and location has not been announced and then there's that small detail of the endless possibilities it could all go so badly wrong. Plus, already the campaign is on for Donald Trump to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for the diplomatic thaw on the Korean Peninsula.