Deutsche Welle: Broadcasting Council protests against actions taken by Iranian authorities

28 November 2022

Deutsche Welle: Broadcasting Council protests against actions taken by Iranian authorities

At its meeting on 25 November, the DW Broadcasting Council discussed coverage of the war of aggression against Ukraine, improvement of DW programming accessibility and threats against journalists from DW’s Persian service.

In late October, the DW Persian service, along with other media and public figures in Europe, were placed on a list by the Iranian regime of supposed supporters of terrorism. In so doing, the regime is providing itself a flimsy legitimation of the action it is taking against critical voices outside of Iran.

The threats and attempts to intimidate employees of the DW Persian service have been going on for years. DW employees and their relatives have repeatedly been interrogated when entering or leaving the country for family visits. This is why employees actively working in the editorial service haven’t been back to Iran for some time. The threats are unmistakable. If the critical coverage were to continue, there could be no guarantees for the well-being of the relatives of DW employees located in Iran.

Since the protests began, Iran has been increasing the pressure on journalists living abroad. Agents working for the regime have contacted people in Iran who follow a DW employee on Instagram. The people were told both on the phone and during interrogations to unfollow the account if they want to avoid reprisals against themselves and against their relatives. Our employee was referred to as an enemy of the state during some of the interrogations. Enemies of the state receive the death penalty in Iran.

The Broadcasting Council condemned the actions taken by Iranian authorities. “We protest against this treatment of journalists,” says Prelate Karl Jüsten, chairman of the Broadcasting Council. “We very strongly condemn these blatant threats and attempts at intimidation as a reaction to our coverage of the peaceful protests. We would like to thank the DW Persian service. Despite these threats, the journalists are doing amazing work and showing the world what is happening in Iran.”

DW launches English language vodcast Global Eyes

26 November 2022

DW launches English language vodcast Global Eyes

‘Will the war in Ukraine make your Chapatis cheaper?’ – DW vodcast looks at security policy issues from the Western and Asian perspective

Global Eyes, the latest English-language DW vodcast, is launching on November 26. Two hosts get to the bottom of global security policy issues. With their guests, they explore how these issues affect people’s daily lives.

The creators of Global Eyes are dedicated to the idea that security policy and geopolitics are important for everyone, everywhere. The two hosts examine the very real effects security policy issues have on every individual person – from food prices to health, all the way to armed conflicts.

The vodcast not only deals with security policy issues from a western point of view, but also opens Asian perspectives. Global Eyes offers a broad range of information, expertise and personal stories from their guests, who come predominantly from the global South.

Getting out of the ivory tower

“The Global Eyes vodcast aims to draw the discussions about security policy issues out of government buildings, think tanks and academic institutions,” said Nadja Scholz, Acting Managing Director of Programming. “The hosts break down complex, global subject matters into comprehensible facts while exploring connections with their guests that are often forgotten.”

Host Isha Bhatia, from DW Programs for Asia, wants to prove with the vodcast that young people are interested in more than just TikTok and Instagram. Her goal is to discuss serious, complex topics so that they are interesting and do not sound like intellectual lectures. “From the G7 to the G20, from BRICS to OPEC, from Quad to SCO. What do these groups really mean? What implications do their decisions have? Global Eyes endeavors to answer these questions,” says Bhatia.

Host Kate Brady, from DW’s Analysis and Reports department: “It is easy to get bogged down in details when you are dealing with complicated security policy issues. We want to change that and, with support by experts, decipher how the big global topics affect our daily lives.”

Controversial core questions to guide the debate

Each episode is centered on a provocative question that connects a security policy issue and the lives of users. The first episode examines the how the war in Ukraine and the Western sanctions on Russia are affecting the lives of people in India. The opening question is “Will the war in Ukraine make your Chapatis cheaper?”

Energy expert Nandikesh Sivalingam, from Bangalore and foreign policy expert Seema Sirohi, from Washington, help answer that question. By the end of the episode, it’s not only Kate Brady and Isha Bhatia who will better understand the question, but also the listeners.

They are already planning further questions such as “Will the conflict in Taiwan create IT jobs in India?” or “What does India’s G20 presidency have to do with antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains?”

Video and Audio, YouTube and Spotify

The format was developed by editors working together with Digital Format Development at DW. The English-language vodcast is produced by DW and will appear monthly as both an audio and video production. The first season consists of ten episodes with a run time of between 40 and 45 minutes. The video versions will appear on a monthly basis on YouTube and Facebook with the audio versions on all major podcast platforms including Spotify and iTunes as well as on the India-based platform Jiosaavn.

Global Eyes will premiere on November 26 on the DW News YouTube channel, on the DW Asia Facebook account and on various podcast platforms.

Global Eyes website:

https://www.dw.com/en/global-eyes-security-policy-and-what-it-means-for-you/program-63538048

YouTube:

https://youtu.be/xBSSGjUeEmM

iTunes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/global-eyes-security-policy-and-what-it-means-for-you/id1653609075

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/22RwqvNOHRaV48cfxcZj9L?si=7a8b7687d3124c73

[Source: DW press release]

Guests on France 24’s ‘Talking Europe’

25 November 2022

Guests on France 24’s ‘Talking Europe’

On Saturday 26 November at 1:15 pm Paris time Armen Georgian’s guests on France 24’s ‘Talking Europe’ are:

Péter SZIJJÁRTÓ, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

and

Paolo BORCHIA, Member of European Parliament (Italy – Identity and Democracy Group)

and

Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Member of European Parliament (Spain – Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats)

[Source: France 24 press release]

DW opens Asia Pacific Bureau in Jakarta

19 November 2022

DW opens Asia Pacific Bureau in Jakarta

DW Director General Peter Limbourg: “The opening of our office in Jakarta is an important step for DW to get closer to our target groups in one of the most important regions of the world. We have a motivated and highly qualified team here. It is important that we also increasingly produce our digital offerings worldwide.”

For many people in South East Asia DW already is a trusted source for news and information. With Indonesia being the region’s largest economy and a key political player the new bureau is in a strategic location to cover events across several countries.

DW is building a team of correspondents in the region who will contribute to the Indonesian language service as well as the network’s global journalistic output. In depth coverage of events in South East Asia and Australia will be just as important as speed in covering breaking news. With a network of reporters and video journalists across the region, all coordinated from the Asia Pacific Bureau in Jakarta, DW will be able to boost its output of exclusive stories. Reports will not only come in faster but crucially contain the local perspective of journalists who know their surroundings.

DW Jakarta Bureau Chief Georg Matthes: “Reporting from the Asia-Pacific region is not nearly as comprehensive as it should be given the geopolitical importance of this part of the world. Our team does not just report on Indonesia, but on a large region facing economic and environmental changes that will have a global impact. The editorial team provides news and background to all of DW’s linear and especially digital channels in multiple languages.”

[Source: DW press release]

Deutsche Welle: Stable usage figures despite censorship in many countries

17 November 2022

Deutsche Welle: Stable usage figures despite censorship in many countries

With 291 million weekly user contacts worldwide, DW says that its programme offerings remain stable despite censorship affecting access to its services in several countries. DW’s video content accounts for 225 million user contacts, its audio content for 52 million and text offerings for 14 million.

Violations of press freedom

Technical blocking of DW services is by no means anything new for the German broadcaster, but it keeps affecting more and ever larger media markets. DW’s strategy of increasing its use of digital platforms in countries where press freedom is restricted makes it easier for users to continue accessing independent information. In some cases, this requires the use of tools to circumvent censorship, such as the DW App, the Tor browser or of trustworthy VPNs.

In Russia, following the forced closure of DW’s Moscow bureau in early February, all DW channels were blocked. This was briefly reflected in a dip in TV ratings. However, in the months that followed, increased use of online and social media platforms reversed the impact.

In late June, the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council RTÜK blocked access to DW’s websites. Again, a strategic shift to social media, particularly YouTube and Instagram, compensated for the temporary decrease in usage numbers.

In Iran, where all DW broadcast channels have been blocked for years, video views of DW Persian jumped sharply following the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September and the subsequent protests. DW is currently unable to make a longer-term forecast for Iran, as Instagram at present is of limited use to all news providers.

DW Director General Peter Limbourg has criticised the interference by authorities in many countries, describing it as “permanent attacks on press freedom.” Limbourg: “For years now and in more and more countries, governments have been obstructing or blocking access to independent information. The situation is truly alarming. Fortunately, however, we are often one step ahead with our innovative solutions. Our audience can rely on us to bring them news and information.”

Multilingual success especially on social media

The best-performing languages of DW’s 32 broadcast languages are English, Spanish and Arabic. Demand for video across all languages and regions – apart from sub-Saharan Africa – is the highest.

Video content is used primarily by TV partners (accounting for 93 million user contacts) and digital platforms (YouTube accounts for 32 million; Facebook 31 million; Instagram 11 million; TikTok 8 million). YouTube (+6 million) and TikTok (+7 million) have seen the strongest growth this year.

On Facebook, the best-performing pages are the Arabic-language channels JaafarTalk and DW Arabia. On YouTube, DW News (English) and DW Español (Spanish) as well as DW Documentary (English) and DW Documental (Spanish) stand out. On Instagram, the Albasheer Show (Arabic), +90 (Turkish) accounts and the currently blocked DW Persian are the most successful.

Acting Managing Director of Programming Nadja Scholz: “DW started tailoring its offerings to digital platforms a few years ago for the very heterogeneous media markets around the world in order to meet the usage behaviour of our predominantly young, educated target groups. This strategy is now paying off.”

In Latin America, DW reached 12 million more users compared to last year, primarily due to an increase in partial program acquisitions and TV switches by DW journalists with stations in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only DW target region where audio use continues to dominate, with 46 million listeners. But here, too, demand for video content has been growing steadily over the years.

ABC and CBC extend collaboration and award-winning programme co-productions

16 November 2022

ABC and CBC extend collaboration and award-winning programme co-productions

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and CBC/Radio-Canada have announced that two projects from the Kindred ABC/CBC Animation Collaboration have been given co-production development deals with ABC Kids and CBC Kids:

My Shadow is Pink, a preschool series for kids ages 3 to 7, from Headspinner/Sticky Pictures and created by Scott Stuart and Ken Cuperus, based on Stuart’s best-selling book; and
The Eerie Chapters of Chhaya, a series for tweens ages 10 to 14, created by Suren Perera, Georgina Love and Thomas Duncan-Watt.

Both projects were chosen from among more than 180 submissions to the Kindred Animation initiative, which was launched earlier this year.

The national public broadcasters also announced the continuation of their successful creative and commercial collaboration. Originally signed in June 2019, the renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will allow the ABC and CBC/Radio-Canada to continue co-developing dramas, comedies, factual content, children’s programs, and podcasts, and to increase the reach and impact of this content.

Among the programming commissioned under the MOU is the compelling six-part TV series Stuff the British Stole, based on the hugely popular and multi-award-winning podcast of the same name. The radio programme/podcast won the top prize in the AIBs 2022 with presenter Marc Fennell joining the gala event in London via a link from Sydney.

It has also delivered the spectacular and unorthodox science documentary Carbon: The Unauthorized Biography, narrated by Golden Globe winner Sarah Snook.

“I am pleased to continue our successful partnership with the CBC/Radio-Canada, which has already delivered a range of valuable content to our audiences. In an increasingly crowded international content market, it is vital for public broadcasters to find new ways to deliver our national stories to audiences at home and abroad.” said David Anderson, Managing Director, ABC

“This is such a great partnership. CBC/Radio-Canada and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are leveraging their resources to support more Canadian and Australian creators so that their stories shine on the world stage. Building on the success of our past co-productions we will continue to show how essential public media is to arts and culture and democracy in both our countries.” — Catherine Tait, President and CEO, CBC/Radio-Canada

The announcements were made in Tokyo at the Embassy of Canada to Japan, just ahead of the Public Broadcasters International conference (PBI Tokyo 2022), an annual international gathering of public media executives. Both Mr. Anderson and Ms. Tait will speak at PBI on November 17 (11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. JST) in a session addressing how public media are positioning themselves in a media ecosystem dominated by the so-called “digital giants.”

Mr. Anderson and Ms. Tait will also participate in the first in-person meeting of the Global Task Force for public media on November 16. The Global Task Force comprises the leaders of eight major public service media from around the world: ABC (Australia), BBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, France Télévisions, KBS (South Korea), RNZ (New Zealand), SVT (Sweden), and ZDF (Germany). Established in 2020 and chaired by Ms. Tait, the Global Task Force promotes and defends the values of public media—access, accuracy, accountability, creativity, impartiality, independence and high standards of journalism—all of which underpin informed and healthy democracies.