On November 1, 2018, Erkan Arikan will take over as head of Deutsche Welle’s Turkish language service. One of Arikan’s new responsibilities will be the development of a Turkish-language TV service which will initially go on the air as a Youtube channel.

The 49-year-old Arikan is leaving his position at WDR to move to Germany’s international broadcaster. He currently oversees the Turkish-language offerings of the international and intercultural radio program Cosmo, formerly Funkhaus Europa. Arikan also held this position from 2003 to 2008 before moving to a position as senior editor and moderator at ARD-aktuell in Hamburg. He worked as a reporter for NDR aktuell and for WDR Lokalzeit in Düsseldorf starting in 2013 before returning to manage the Turkish editorial team at Cosmo in 2016.

Gerda Meuer, DW’s Director of Programming: “Erkan Arikan is a seasoned journalist, a passionate reporter and a longtime chief editor. He is a proven expert in Turkish issues and is a doer with an innovative mind. He is the right man at the right time for DW. Much of his focus will be on the development of our new Turkish channel.”

Erkan Arikan: “During a period of rapid political change in Turkey, I am looking forward to taking up this journalistically engaging and challenging position at DW. Taking into account the currently strained relationship between Germany and Turkey, it will be a <noteworthy endeavor> to launch a Turkish-language video channel with the goal of building bridges between the two countries.”

Arikan came to Berlin as the son of Turkish guest workers, where he studied law and journalism at the Free University. Arikan interned at the TV news channel n-tv where he later worked as an editor and moderator until 2003. Arikan has both German and Turkish citizenship. He is married and is the father of two daughters.

DW currently offers comprehensive online news and information in Turkish with an editorial portfolio that includes an extensive social media presence. Individual articles are also distributed through partner portals. Fearing reactive measures by Turkish authorities, potential new partners are increasingly rejecting cooperation with independent Western news providers. This makes DW’s in-house efforts to strengthen its own platforms – along with the further expansion of social media channels – increasingly important.

(Source: DW press release)