Belarus: Director General Limbourg denounces classification of DW as ‘extremist’

10 March 2022

Belarus: Director General Limbourg denounces classification of DW as ‘extremist’

On Wednesday 9 March, Belarusian authorities classified the Telegram channel of DW Belarus, information services and Deutsche Welle (DW) as “extremist.”

DW Director General Peter Limbourg denounced the decision, saying, “The blocking of our websites in Belarus in October 2021 was already an unbelievable encroachment on press freedom. The recent announcement of the criminalisation of the DW logo proves how nervous the regime there is.”

“DW is still informing many people in Belarus via tools for bypassing censors. Especially following the attack on Ukraine, the numbers have significantly increased. Now they want to use cheap tricks to create pseudo-legal grounds to take action against people who make use of their right to free speech.”

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus released a statement on March 9: “The Minsk Central District Court, based on material from the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, has classified the information products of the Telegram channel and the DW Belarus chat as extremist material.”

DW locates Moscow bureau to Latvia

9 March 2022

DW locates Moscow bureau to Latvia

Deutsche Welle (DW) is relocating the journalistic operations that were based in Moscow to Latvia following the closure of its Moscow studio and the withdrawal of its staff’s accreditation by the Russian government.

Infrastructure for DW’s broadcasting operations will be set up over the coming weeks in the capital city of Riga. Yuri Rescheto, previously DW Bureau Chief Moscow, will be head of DW’s new foreign location.

DW Director General Peter Limbourg: “We continue to take all the technical and organisational measures possible to provide our audience in Russia and around the world with critical information. We remain committed to providing independent and objective reporting. Even though our website and most social media channels have been blocked by the Putin government in recent days, people in Russia can find a variety of ways to circumvent censorship.”

DW Editor-in-Chief Manuela Kasper-Claridge: “From Germany, Ukraine, neighboring European countries and now soon also from Riga, we provide our audience in Russia with comprehensive and sustainable information about the war in Ukraine. Latvia offers geographical proximity to Russia, and the vibrant media landscape in the Baltic countries now creates optimal conditions for our team and reporting.”

On February 3, 2022, the Russian government banned DW from broadcasting in Russia, citing as a reason Germany’s ban on the German-language channel of Russian state TV network RT DE. The following day, staff at DW’s Moscow studio had to hand in their press accreditations. The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced an investigation into whether DW should be classified as a foreign agent.

DW says Turkey trying to stifle its online operation

23 February 2022

DW says Turkey trying to stifle its online operation

Germany’s international broadcaster DW has responded to the Turkish media regulator’s call to apply for a licence for internet services.

In a statement, the German broadcaster said:

DW was given notice from Turkey’s media regulator RTUK on Monday [21 February] to obtain a broadcast license in Turkey within a period of 72 hours or have its online content (dw.com) blocked.

The Turkish media regulatory authority RTUK published a statement to this effect on its website on February 21, 2022.

DW Director General Peter Limbourg: “After having subjected the local media outlets in Turkey to such regulation, an attempt is now being made to restrict the reporting of international media services. This move does not relate to formal aspects of broadcasting, but to the journalistic content itself. It gives the Turkish authorities the option to block the entire service based on individual, critical reports unless these reports are deleted. This would open up the possibility of censorship. We will appeal against this decision and take legal action in the Turkish courts.”

DW, alongside other international broadcasters, is one of the few remaining news outlets from which people in Turkey can obtain independent information. In addition to DW, Voice of America and Euronews were also given notice to apply for a license.

DW had established a liaison office in Turkey in accordance with the 2019 law and has been registered with the relevant Turkish ministry since February 2020. This registration is independent of DW’s correspondent office in Istanbul.

Commenting on the situation, AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick said: “At the AIB, we are extremely concerned about the demand by Turkey’s media regulator that two of our members – Deutsche Welle and Voice of America – must apply for a licence to deliver their Turkish language service online in the country. The decision by RTÜK appears arbitrary and out of step with other regulators in Europe (RTUK is a member of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities). There is a real danger that the decision will deprive Turkish citizens of access to the important international news sources that DW and VoA provide.”

Germany and Russia go head to head over broadcasters

3 February 2022

Germany and Russia go head to head over broadcasters

Germany and Russia have traded blows over the two countries’ international broadcasters.

On Wednesday 2 February 2022, the German Commission on Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) decreed that RT must cease broadcasting German-language programmes saying it “does not have the necessary broadcasting licence”.

RT DE – the Berlin-based German-language division of RT (formerly Russia Today) acquired a licence from the Serbian media regulator on 17 December 2021. Both Germany and Serbia are signatories to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. Licences granted by one ECTT member state provide the legal grounds for transmission and reception of a licensed service in another ECTT-ratified state. However, Germany says that since the programmes are produced in Germany and not Serbia, the licence does not provide the right for the channel to be received in the country. RT has said that it will challenge this in the German courts.

The following day, 3 February, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation issued a statement announcing that it is closing the operations of Germany’s international broadcaster DW in the country (headquarters in Bonn pictured).

The statement reads:

“As part of the response measures announced on February 2 in response to the unfriendly actions of the Federal Republic of Germany to ban satellite and other broadcasting of the German-language television channel RT DE, the Russian side intends to implement the first stage of response measures:

– closure of the correspondent office of the German television and radio company Deutsche Welle in the Russian Federation;

– cancellation of accreditation of all employees of the Russian Bureau of Deutsche Welle;

– termination of satellite and other broadcasting of the Deutsche Welle television and radio company on the territory of the Russian Federation;

– initiation by the competent authorities of the Russian Federation of the procedure for considering the issue of recognising Deutsche Welle as a foreign mass media outlet acting as a foreign agent;

– launching the process of forming a list of representatives of state and public structures of Germany involved in restricting the broadcasting of RT DE and otherwise putting pressure on the Russian media operator, who will be banned from entering the territory of the Russian Federation. The list is not expected to be published.

Information on the next steps in the response will be published in a timely manner.”

DW has issued a press statement about the Russian move. It quotes DW Director-General Peter Limbourg as saying: “The measures by the authorities in Russia are completely incomprehensible and a total overreaction,

“We have been made into a kind of pawn, which the media must often endure in autocracies. We formally protest against this absurd reaction by the Russian government and we will take legal action against the announced measures. Until we are officially presented with the measures, we will continue reporting from our office in Moscow. Even if we ultimately do have to close it, our reporting about Russia will remain unchanged. In fact, we would increase our coverage.”

According to the press statement, Deutsche Welle has held a broadcast license in Russia since 2005 for its DW English and DW German TV channels. The current licenses issued by Russia’s media authorities are valid until 2025 for DW English and until 2027 for DW German.

DW English is broadcast in Russia via the ASTRA-5B satellite. DW German is broadcast using the ASTRA-4A satellite. In line with the binding conditions of the license, the DW German TV channel has a window for Russian-language programming in its schedule. This programming consists of DW magazines adapted into Russian (a total of 18 hours per week: 2 hours per day, Mon.-Fri. and 4 hours per day, Sat.-Sun.). Several cable TV distributors in Russia also run the Russian-language programming of DW German. They are Rostelecom, Tricolor, Beeline, ER-Telecom, MTS and NetByNet.

Picture: The Foreign Ministry in Moscow

New DW-led research provides insights into the control of Covid-19 in European prisons

6 December 2021

New DW-led research provides insights into the control of Covid-19 in European prisons

DW’s latest research released today December 6, “COVID: How Europe’s prisons have fared in the pandemic”, produced in collaboration with 11 newsrooms* in the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet), gives a comprehensive overview of the ongoing management of Covid-19 in European prisons and the actions required to protect the health and human rights of prisoners and control the spread of the infection.

By gathering data on COVID cases, deaths, and vaccinations in prisons in 32 countries, the research reveals that the number of Covid-19 cases in prisons tends to follow those in the outside world. However, prisons’ responses to control the spread of the virus came at a price: prison visits were discontinued, communal activities suspended, and solitary confinement increased. In particular, the pandemic has exacerbated already existing structural problems, such as overcrowding. In addition, the data indicate that vaccine access in prisons was delayed.

These findings support the need to stop overcrowding, expand the availability of vaccinations to inmates and provide necessary access to in-person visits. It also highlights the need to find alternatives to imprisonment as a critical step towards reducing the use of incarceration.

DW has been a member of the European Data Journalism Network since 2019. Coordinated by Deutsche Welle, the project was led by Kira Schacht and started in June 2021. Together with DW, the 11 partner today newsrooms published their own stories in more than 15 languages and shared DW’s findings.

Kira Schacht, research project lead and Data journalist at DW: “People in prisons are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, and outbreaks in prisons can endanger the world outside as well. But there’s virtually no public information, and very little reporting, on how prisons have fared during the pandemic. This international collaboration is a unique chance to shine a light at this often-ignored topic. Because, as one expert we spoke to said: “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that if we leave one group behind, we make things worse for all of us”.

As regards the project scope, Schacht said: “Since there is no easily accessible data for all European countries, we combined the reporting and language skills of 11 newsrooms throughout Europe. Through a mix of international reports and information requests to local authorities, we built our own database of COVID-19 cases, deaths, vaccinations and measures in prisons. Together with the finished stories, we’ve also published this database, as well as a detailed report of our analysis methodology.”

Adriano Martufi, who researches prison conditions in Europe at Leiden University, said: “There is certainly a problem of underreporting. Health services in prisons are understaffed, underequipped. I’m not even sure whether they have the technical capability to collect and handle such data.”

[Source: DW press release]