31 October 2019
Zahra Nedjabat will take over responsibility for International Relations and Diversity at Deutsche Welle on 1 November. She succeeds Klaus Bergmann who is retiring after 28 years at DW.
From now on, DW’s International Relations department will also include Diversity.
DW director Peter Limbourg said Zahra was the ideal fit for this role: “As a multi-lingual and cosmopolitan personality, she will promote our internationality and diversity both internally and externally.”
Limbourg thanked outgoing Head of International Relations Klaus Bergmann for his work, saying that he acted as an accomplished and much appreciated DW ambassador on the international stage.
Nedjabat studied Comparative Literature, Islamic Studies, Philosophy and History in Bonn and Paris. Prior to joining DW, she worked as an editor and PR project manager at media.net berlinbrandenburg and as head of corporate communications at TRIAD Berlin. Nedjabat gained journalistic experience at BBC World and the radio station RC 93.9 FM Paris. Since 2014 she has been organising the Vienna International Christian-Islamic Summer University.
(Source: DW press release)
27 September 2019
A Russian parliamentary committee will urge Russia’s government to revoke DW’s licence for working in the country, claiming that the German broadcaster violated local laws. DW has rejected the accusations.
Russia’s media watchdog, prosecutors, and Justice and Foreign ministries will be asked to consider blacklisting German foreign broadcaster DW in Russia, Russian media reported on Friday. The move comes after the parliamentary commission in charge of investigating potential foreign influence in Russian politics claimed DW had violated domestic media laws.
In response, DW’s Broadcasting Council said that the company’s reporting was “in no way objectionable.” “The Broadcasting Council therefore rejects the accusation that DW interfered in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation,” DW said in a statement.
Broadcasting Council Chairman Karl Jüsten said DW staff should be able to work “unhindered” in Russia. “We expect the Russian authorities to ensure that all DW correspondents in Russia can report freely and without restriction,” he said.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry also pledged to support the broadcaster if necessary. “We know that DW is under pressure in Russia,” they said.
Russia blacklisted US state news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as foreign agents in 2017.
(Source: DW press release)
12 September 2019
Peter Limbourg, director general of Deutsche Welle (DW), and Marie-Christine Saragosse, CEO and chairwoman of France Médias Monde (FMM), met at the DW headquarters in Bonn for their third annual seminar to discuss new ways of strengthening their editorial cooperation regarding European media projects.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, DW, RFI (Radio France Internationale) and France 24 are planning multilingual digital co-productions for social media aimed at young people. Other events such as the second edition of the Paris Peace Forum in November or the Munich Security Conference in February next year, will be used to explore new ways of collaborating, for instance by sharing editorial teams on the ground.
DW Director General Peter Limbourg: “We like to deepen our successful collaboration because together we can reach even more people around the globe with high quality journalism from Europe.”
France Médias Monde CEO and Chairwoman of Marie-Christine Saragosse: “Because our role as international media is increasingly important in a global context of tensions, because on European news France Médias Monde and Deutsche Welle have expertise and multilingual editorial forces that no one can match, this cooperation between our two groups is essential.”
Cooperation at the heart of the public service missions
One successful joint project was the coverage of the latest European elections in May, including several TV debates co-produced by France 24 and DW in Brussels and in Berlin, as well as a major investigative report “European elections: when Russia interferes” and a series of videos about first-time voters from every European country. These videos were tailored for social networks and were all co-produced by DW, France 24 and RFI.
This cooperation at the heart of the public service missions of the two international media groups in the EU, led FMM and DW to continue developing a key project temporarily named “Enter!” which seeks to deliver multilingual digital information to European youth. This project, which meets one of the objectives set out in the Franco-German Treaty of Aachen (Aix La Chapelle), could be preceded by a pilot tested and running in 2020. The idea has already been positively assessed by the European Commission which deemed it feasible and praised its innovative strength.
These projects come on the heels of the success of “InfoMigrants.” Launched in March 2017 by FMM, DW and Italian news agency Ansa, with the support of the European Commission, “InfoMigrants” delivers reliable information to migrants wherever they are, in five languages (Arabic, English, French, Pashtoun and Dari) on all online platforms they may use (mobile site, Facebook, Viber etc). 37 million users were reached last year. This accomplishment has led the European Commission to renew its trust in “InfoMigrants” and to commit to funding it for one more year.
Another shared effort is “+90”, a Turkish-language YouTube launched in April by the international broadcasters DW, Voice of America, BBC and FMM. France 24 provides stories which are then adapted in Turkish by DW. Just five months after its launch in the Turkish-speaking market, the “+90” content was viewed more than 500,000 hours in total and the channel has close to 140.000 subscribers.
France Médias Monde and Deutsche Welle reaffirmed their ambitions to continue achieving success on these different fronts and joint projects aimed at European citizens and the rest of the world. In a context of widespread competition and the global information battle, the two groups are more than ever determined to join forces to fight the spread of fake news and all forms of manipulation by providing free, independent and balanced information for the benefit of every generation.
To watch the video on joint media projects of DW and FMM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LP8FsLab6c&feature=youtu.be
(Source: DW press release)
31 May 2019
The 12th annual Global Media Forum took place in Bonn on 27-28 May, organised by Germany’s international broadcaster DW.
Bringing together more 2,000 delegates from all parts of the world, the lively conference examined everything from AI to the future of local journalism under the title Shifting Powers.
Pointing to one potential future, a robot was in conversation with DW executive
Guido Baumhauer (pictured left) while the relationship between media and politics was examined by a panel including
Lord Michael Dobbs, the British politician who wrote the original House of Cards novel (photo above).
With lively conversation and debate, and the unique opportunity to meet journalists and media executives from some of the most hard-to-reach places on the planet, DW’s Director-General Peter Limbourg says that the Global Media Forum is being positioned to become the media equivalent of the Munich Security Conference. A bold ambition – and it’s one that’s quite likely to be achieved.
16 October 2018
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)
