18 June 2013
Deutsche Welle honored the winners of its international competition “The Bobs- Best of Online Activism” at the Global Media Forum in Bonn. The “Best Blog Award” went to the Chinese social critic, Li Chengpeng.
“Authors in Chinahave a really difficult time speaking the plain truth” the 48- year old winner told Deutsche Welle. Li Chengpeng is an extremely well-known blogger, author and social critic in China. He is especially popular with the young generation in the country, where he has over seven million followers on the micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo. His blog Lichengpeng (www.blog.sina.com.cn/lichengpeng) has received over 300 million visits. Li Chengpeng has said that, “the melted water from the iceberg flows into the sea, without worrying about the many obstacles along the way. There is enormous strength in civil society. I would recommend that the government cooperates with civil society groups, instead of smearing us with baseless accusations.”
A role model for the younger generation
“He not only writes, he also acts: He conducts investigative research. For example, in 2008 he travelled to an earthquake zone inSichuanprovince to report on shoddy building materials in collapsed schools. He is a role model for the younger generation and demonstrates how the Chinese can create a better future for their country,” explained jury member Hu Yong.
Li Chengpeng tells the Chinese youth that they need to be more aware of censorship and encourages them to participate openly and actively in the political process. After publishing his most recent book, “The Whole World Knows,” he went on tour but was forbidden by authorities to speak with his fans. To show their solidarity, visitors to the tour wore masks over their faces similar to the one he wore for the “silent readings.”
“Every small initiative is important”
In the Best Social Activism category, Deutsche Welle’s jury members honored the work done to promote democracy and human rights in social media. The Moroccan youth initiative 475 (www.facebook.com/475LeFilm) took the jury’s award. It deals with the fate of women who, according to Moroccan law 475, are forcibly married to men who raped them so the rapists do not face criminal charges. The story of Amina, who committed suicide in 2012 at the age of 16, got the project started in a social media campaign on Facebook and Flickr. “The project shows that every initiative is important when it comes to stopping rape and all forms of violence against women,” the jury said.
The jury awarded the Chinese site FreeWeibo (www.freeweibo.com) in the Best Innovation category. The service offers censorship-free access to the micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo.com, one ofChina’s most popular social networks. “In China, censorship is completely normal and a daily occurrence,” the jury said. “Messages can be deleted without the people who wrote them ever knowing about it. FreeWeibo gives users a way to see the deleted posts and find out what is being censored.”
In the Most Creative & Original category, the jury gave its award to Me & My Shadow (www.myshadow.org). Written in English, the project shows people “in an entertaining and visually stimulating way what kinds of personal information they are revealing when they are online and gives simple tips on ways they can change their behavior to protect their privacy,” the jury said. Tactical Technology, an international association that shares information on digital issues with human rights groups around the world, produced the project.
This year’s Global Media Forum Award went to the project Infoladies (www.pallitathya.org.bd) from Bangladesh. Finalists in the category addressed issues tied to the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2013, which looks at “The Future of Growth – Economic Values and the Media.” The Infoladies project equips women with digital cameras, mobile phones and solar-powered laptops to travel by bike to rural areas and answer questions related to health, agriculture and development. “Infoladies brings life-saving information about health, education and a number of other services to the poorest people in Bangladesh,” the jury said.
The Reporters Without Borders Award went to Fabbikouassi’s Blog (www.fabbikouassi.wordpress.com) fromTogo. DW awarded the prize in cooperation with the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders. The journalist and human rights activist Fabbi Kouassi reports in her blog about the dangerous situation facing journalists in her country and about the daily police violence that targets journalists. The blog symbolizes “the work being done for freedom of expression in an African country that often gets overlooked,” the jury said, adding, “we talk about problems in China and Iran, but can forget Africa, where fear of police brutality and suppression are a part of daily life.”
In addition to the jury awards, Internet users from around the world cast around 95,000 votes in an online poll for their favorite finalists in The Bobs. The Best Blog / English award went to Mideast Youth (www.mideastyouth.com), a collection of websites and applications that all amplify voices of dissent in the Middle East. All of the User Winners can be found at www.thebobs.com.
A competition in 14 languages
Deutsche Welle launched The Bobs – Best of Online Activism in 2004 with the goal of promoting an open exchange of ideas and freedom of expression online in digital media. More than 4,200 websites and online projects from around the world were submitted to this year’s contest. The competition was conducted in 14 languages, which included Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian all for the first time this year. The “Best Person to Follow” was added to the contest as a new category for microblogging. Submissions to The Bobs reflected the wide spectrum of ways blogs and social media can be used to promote freedom of expression and to push for transparency and accountability.
The 15-member jury narrowed down the submissions to 364 finalists. Among the jurors in 2013 were Hu Yong of the People’s Republic of China, and Arash Abadpour, who writes one of the world’s most-read Farsi blogs.
Contest partners
This year’s premium partners are Reporters Without Borders and the re:publica conference. Media partners are Masrawy, Somewhere in…, Bdnews.com, iSun TV, Global Voices Online, Categorynet.com, Courrier International, Presseeurop, Gooya, Terra, Jetzt.de, Lenta.ru, Korrespondent, ntvmsnbc, MYNET, MEDYATAVA and webdunia.
www.thebobs.com
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deutschewelle/sets
18 March 2013
Peter Limbourg (52) will be the new Director General of Deutsche Welle (DW). The Chairman of the Broadcasting Board Valentin Schmidt announced the decision after a meeting of the supervisory body on March 15, 2013 in Berlin.
Upon the Selection Committee’s recommendation, the 17 members of the Broadcasting Board elected the current Senior Vice President of News and Political Information of ProSiebenSat.1 TV Germany as the successor to Erik Bettermann with a clear majority. Bettermann (68), whose term as DW’s Director General will officially end on September 30, 2013, has been in charge of Germany’s international broadcaster since 2001. During this time, he significantly shaped DW’s strategic realignment.
Valentin Schmidt commented: “Peter Limbourg has outstanding qualifications to further strengthen Deutsche Welle as a modern multimedia company and Germany’s international media presence as a result. He is not only a first-rate journalist with an international background and excellent language skills, but also has extensive managerial experience in the media industry.“
Limbourg thanked the Broadcasting Board for its trust. “To have the opportunity to play such a significant role in how Germany is perceived around the world is a challenge that I will make every effort to meet in the coming years. Ever since my youth, which I spent abroad, Deutsche Welle’s programs have been a valuable part of my life experience. Together with my colleagues, I hope to further enhance Deutsche Welle’s journalistic standing and its multilingual and multimedia programming. Intensifying DW’s cooperation with Germany’s public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF is another goal I have set myself,” said Limbourg.
After his military service, Peter Limbourg studied law in Bonn and passed the First State Examination of Law in 1987. From 1988 to 1989 he completed a journalistic traineeship at the German television news agency Deutsche Fernsehnachrichten Agentur (DFA) in Bonn and London. He worked as a reporter in Leipzig in the former GDR before becoming the Europe and NATO correspondent for DFA and SAT.1 in Brussels in 1990. In 1996 he became the Head of the ProSieben studio in Bonn, and in 1999 was appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief of N24 and Head of the Political Department at ProSieben, a position which he also took on at SAT.1 in 2001. In 2004/5 and 2008/9 Limbourg was the CEO of Pool TV, a joint venture of private television stations in Berlin. From 2008 to 2010 he was the Editor-in-Chief responsible for N24’s programming. He has been anchor of SAT.1 news since 2008 and Senior Vice President of ProSiebenSat.1 TV since 2010.
Limbourg is the jury chairman of the Media Award of the German Bundestag, a jury member for the Axel Springer Prize for Young Journalists as well as an advisor to the Media Commission of the German Bishops’ Conference.
Born in Bonn, Limburg spent his childhood and youth in Rome, Paris, Athens and Brussels. He is married with three children.
19 February 2013
This year’s Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum will focus on “The Future of Growth – Economic Values and the Media.” DW’s annual photo competition KLICK! has the same theme and starts on February 20, 2013.
“KLICK! – Your View of a Sustainable Economy” is the theme of this year’s photo competition. Photography enthusiasts from around the world are invited to submit up to three original photographs linked to the topic of a sustainable economy in a global context. The entries might be pictures of an innovative workplace anywhere in the world, or images related to the development of renewable energy technologies or dedicated to specific campaigns, projects and events promoting a sustainable economy. DW is looking for a truly personal perspective.
The deadline for entries, which can be submitted via email to klick@dw.de or uploaded to the website www.dw-gmf.de/klick, is April 10, 2013. The pictures will be featured on an interactive world map on the KLICK! homepage. Online voting will begin on April 17. During the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum from June 17 – 19 inBonn,Germany, participants will be asked to pick their favorites among the ten most popular entries on display at the conference.
The prizes for the three best entries are an 8GB iPod Nano, a 2GB iPod Shuffle or a 4GB USB flash drive.
The 2013 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum is co-hosted by the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Sparkasse inBonn. It is supported byGermany’s Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Regional Development Fund, the Minister for Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as by the City ofBonn. The North Rhine-Westphalian Foundation for Environment and Development is a cooperation partner.
www.dw-gmf.de
17 January 2013
DW Akademie calls for papers for its 4th media dialogue symposium on May 29, 2013, which will address the topic of “Pakistan’s Media Landscape: The Effects of Liberalization.”
It has been more than a decade since Pakistan liberalized its media sector in 2002. The media has developed rapidly since then, but journalists now face many new challenges. Media professionals have to juggle questions of free speech and self-censorship in an environment that is considered one of the most dangerous for journalists to work in.
At the symposium in Bonn, international media researchers, political scientists, economists, legal experts and journalists will discuss recent developments as well as future trends in Pakistan’s media landscape and will examine issues such as journalists’ safety, self-censorship, sensationalism, and conflict-sensitive reporting.
DW Akademie is organizing DW Media Dialogue in collaboration with Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. The deadline for paper proposals is February 25, 2013.
For more information, please visit the conference website.
13 December 2012
The visit by a media delegation from Myanmar to Germany, organized by DW Akademie, is part of Deutsche Welle’s ongoing support of media development in the country. The project is supported by the Federal Foreign Office.
Following decades of censorship, Myanmar is in the process of liberalizing its media institutions. Deutsche Welle is assisting this transformation via its international center for media development, DW Akademie. It is currently hosting a high-ranking delegation from Myanmar, including Ye Htut, deputy minister of the Myanmar Ministry of Information, seven representatives from the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) and the Director of the country’ first semi-private TV-station MRTV 4.
Aside from Deutsche Welle’s headquarters in Bonn and TV studios in Berlin, the schedule includes visits to the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Press Office, the German Federation of Journalists (DJV), the ARD network of public service broadcasters and regional broadcasters Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting (RBB) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).
At the various stops, the visitors are taking part in discussions and lectures on the role of the media in society and politics. Experts from the field are contributing their insights into the challenges of media restructuring and how established theories can be applied to Myanmar today. Many have drawn from their experiences with the change in the German media landscape following the reunification of East and West Germany. The key question is whether the German public service broadcasting system could serve as a model for Myanmar.
Years of cooperation
DW Akademie started providing training projects for media organizations in Myanmar in 2007. In 2009, it became involved in the establishment of the Myanmar Media Development Center (MMDC) – set up by MRTV-4. The process, which took three years, was also supported by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The MMDC opened in July 2012, with DW Akademie providing preliminary training for prospective TV professionals, followed by training for media producers in how to be trainers themselves. The graduates of the train-the-trainer workshop are to become teachers at the MMDC.
“A functional democracy needs a vital media landscape,” commented Gerda Meuer, Managing Director of DW Akademie. “This is why supporting the media transformation in Myanmar is the right thing to do. It’s very pleasing to see that our continuing work there is bearing fruit.”
DW Akademie is continuing its involvement at the MMDC, with more courses and workshops planned for 2013. It will also coordinate future international support for the basic and advanced training of media professionals in Myanmar and for the establishment of vocational institutes. A DW Akademie staff member has been stationed in Myanmar to work together with local partners. These efforts represent part of a sweeping plan for media development in the country.
Since February 2012, Deutsche Welle’s English-language TV channel DW has been available in Myanmar via direct-to-home provider Skynet – a nationwide network that offers telephone and Internet services in addition to television.
DW programming is also available on a number of other platforms in Myanmar, including the Forever Group’s pay TV network, which makes DW along with other international channels available to Myanmar audiences. Myawady TV (MWD), Myanmar’s second-largest TV station, as well as the popular state-run MRTV broadcast select DW programs and magazines such as Journal, Tomorrow Today and In Good Shape.
