Weltzeit 2-2021 | Local insight, global reach: Working in a strong network with partners

2|21

Local insight, global reach Working in a strong network with partners

©©DW / J. Röhl

Editorial

While most news events have a local focus, they often have a global effect. The DW editorial team proudly flies nearly 140 flags.

They stand for the strong local expertise of our correspondents and reporters around the world who are covering the news and providing our audiences with the information and background they need in order to make decisions.

Our mutual trust in objective and balanced journalism has led us to develop ideas for jointly produced content with some of our partners. The exceptional success of the program “Eco Africa” which airs on television channels all across the continent in several languages is just one example of how the audiences of international broadcasters can profit from teamwork.

Our mutual trust in objective and balanced journalism has led us to develop ideas for jointly produced content with some of our partners.

This could not be achieved, however, without the alliances DW has around the world with strong partner media organizations. Currently we are part of a family with 4,000 members.

With some of our partners we share a long history, new partners are coming on board regularly. DW provides them with content for rebroadcast, for instance, enabling local media in many countries to offer reports and analysis from around the world to their users.

This form of cooperation on eye level is what makes the difference.

We are privileged to have media partners across Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, who are working with DW in distributing our content. At the same time, we profit immensely from the ongoing dialogue with our partners. Their insight into the needs and requirements of users in their respective countries and regions helps us to keep our journalistic ­ output relevant.

Our audiences can determine with increasingly individual decisions how they search for information and consume news.

This is increasing as our societies are becoming more digital. While we strive to supply balanced journalistic content to our very diverse audiences, we have to meet them halfway in more places than in the past. In some markets, television is still the favorite medium, in some areas we still reach a majority by radio while the steadily growing shift into a variety of social media channels runs at different speeds in different parts of the world. We readily ­accept this challenge, because we know that we can count on our partners. In this issue we would like to introduce some of the people who make our network so unique.

Keep well.

Cordially, Peter Limbourg Director General

@dw_Limbourg

Deutsche Welle

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ENCOUNTERS

Perspectives on Belarus

Katja Artsiomenka

dw.com/by

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©©DW

Olga Kapustina

Olga Kapustina was born and raised in Belarus. A truly global citizen, she studied journalism and German studies in Russia and Germany and has been working in the Russian department at DW for almost ten years. Her counterpart Katja Artsiomenka was also born in Belarus where she studied journalism before moving to Germany.

She is a professor of journalism in Cologne and has been passionate about radio broadcasting for years.

The two journalists are the hosts of the new Russian-language edition of DW’s show To the point.

The show is part of DW’s expansion of its news and information offerings for its target audience in Belarus — in Russian and Belarusian.

“Social networks play a big role in Belarus,” shares Kapustina, who is looking forward to direct exchanges with viewers. In the first broadcasts, “we want to look at the ongoing protests and ways out of the political crisis in Belarus, in addition to topics that are also important for Belarus, such as nuclear power, memory culture, flight and migration,” she says.

For Artsiomenka, it is crucial that the show presents the “diversity of perspectives and background information for discussion and thus to support the free formation of public opinion and will in Belarus.”

The journalists welcome cons­ tructive criticism on the show. Due to the pandemic, it is challenging to have lively conversations with guests virtually, but nonetheless, they are looking forward to meeting more people from all over the world — even if only virtually.

Contents ENCOUNTERS

30 Celebrating fruitful partnerships Senegal: One of Africa’s most stable democracies

6 Transparency and media freedom Strengthening local media

32 Why partnerships drive our success Interview with Guido Baumhauer, DW’s Managing Director of Distribution, Marketing and Technology

7 African Roots Making Africa’s history tangible DW FREEDOM

PROGR AM INSIGHTS

8 Meet the laureate: Tobore Ovuorie DW Freedom of Speech Award 2021 10 The sorry state of press freedom Hungary: The shutdown of an independent news website

34 ENTR Putting young Europeans in the spotlight

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MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

36 Public broadcaster 2.0 Ukraine: A transformation to public TV

FE ATUR E A RT ICLE S

12 DW 2020 partnership reach

38 Common ground Empowering communities across borders

14 Straight out of Lahore Meet documentary filmmaker Omer Nafees

GLOBAL MEDIA FORUM 2021

18 Defending freedom of expression Colombian newspaper El Espectador

40 High profile, hybrid and for everyone Disruption and innovation

20 Breaking barriers in Brazil The free and independent TV Cultura

42 Interview with Irene Khan UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Opinion and Expression

22 Freedom of the press in Bulgaria Calling for a fundamental change

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PERSPECTIVES

24 The battle for Myanmar Using technology to access censored content

44 Becoming: Michelle Bachelet The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights talks about her way into politics

26 Social media in the Arab world A decade of leading change

AROUND THE WORLD

46 West Africa: Fred Muvunyi Sharing African stories from the ground

28 Eco Africa: A German-African Affair DW’s environmental magazine

46 Imprint

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ENCOUNTERS

Working together for transparency and media freedom

Norbert Barthle

In the ongoing pandemic, media around the world are under tremendous pressure.

The economic crisis is being felt in newsrooms, and in many regions, government censorship, misinformation and disinformation are making journalists’ work more difficult. The initiative aims to strengthen local media.

“Reliable information has rarely been so important. Disinformation and censorship are increasing worldwide and are as dangerous as the virus itself,” said DW Director General Peter Limbourg at the virtual launching event on May 6. Limbourg presented the initiative “Transparency and media freedom — Crisis resilience in the global pandemic,” together with Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

As a response to the pandemic, the BMZ is funding media development cooperation with an additional ten million euros. “People need to be well informed, especially in times of crisis,” Barthle said. This was not just

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©©DW / J. Röhl

©©DW / B. Geilert

German Development Ministry and DW Akademie launch crisis initiative.

Peter Limbourg

during the pandemic, he said, “but also in the face of climate change, flight and refuge, and violent conflicts.” A crisis, he stressed, “cannot be managed without media.”

Dr. Sylvie Briand, a leading World Health Organization (WHO) expert on the infodemic, underlined the importance of people’s trust in the media. “Media have an incredible power and a great responsibility in dealing with information and emotion.” She added that an infodemic cannot be eliminated, “you have to manage it.”

Most of the additional funding will go to 16 new DW Akademie projects. Independent local and community media in Africa and Latin America, for example, will receive support in developing innovative information formats and viable business strategies.

Additionally, with the establishment of information and communication networks, government, civil society and media actors will work together for the first time on crisis management and education.

DW Akademie is also working with its partners in the Middle East and Latin

­merica to encourage young people to A use media critically. “Media and information literacy (MIL) is essential for people to find their way in the digital age,” said ­Hania B ­ itar, Director of the Palestinian nongovernmental organization PYALARA. The focus there is on social networks. The “MIL goes viral” project is using messenger services to teach MIL. This way, vital information goes viral — and not misinformation and disinformation.

pyalara.org individualland.com kenyacorrespondents.org zambia.misa.org cdacnetwork.org radialistas.net camboja.net StopFals.md

Making Africa’s history ­tangible

The now-completed 50-part series of portraits of African historical figures is the centerpiece of the multimedia project, a collaboration between DW, the Gerda ­Henkel Foundation and the Nigerian animation company Comic Republic. The series personalizes the continent’s history and make it understandable. Together, the short stories create a comprehensive picture of Africa’s diverse history. The series is published in six languages and is aimed mainly at a young audience.

“DW cannot undo centuries of colonial historical interpretation in 50 portraits, but it can use its resources and honest cooperation to help convey the latest and most authentic scientific knowledge in a way that is appropriate for young people. Something like this has been missing from the African media landscape until now,” says Claus Stäcker, Director of Programs for Africa.

Dr. Michael Hanssler, Chair of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, which is funding the project, emphasizes that “it is essential to counter a distorted perception of African ­history.”

©©Comic Republic / DW

DW’s African Roots series portrays 50 personalities from African history. Narrated in African voices, they serve as the basis for audience debates in social media, on radio, or at historical sites.

­ frican Roots seeks to accomplish this with A the help of African authors and personalities who can speak for the history of their continent uniquely. He also points to the important role of the scientific advisory board. “The technical review of all content has also been carried out by researchers in Africa.”

The scientific advisory board consists of three renowned historians: Doulaye Konaté from Mali, Nigeria’s Christopher Ogbogbo, and Lily Mafela from Botswana. The project’s goal is to “meet the growing need to appreciate African history as an important

part of human history,” says Mafela, dean of the education faculty at the University of Botswana.

The portraits will be distributed on DW programs and social media platforms and through some 300 radio and TV partners in Africa. In addition, they will be made available directly to educational institutions in Africa. Schools, universities, and libraries can share them with learners of all ages to help them understand their history. dw.com/africanroots

dw_stories now on Instagram With a focus on personal and encouraging stories from people around the world, dw_stories is already successful on Facebook.

Dw_stories shows protagonists who are making a difference on both a very small and a large scale. Those portrayed range from powerful politicians such as the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to a young woman who escaped an attempted murder by her partner and is now fighting against femicide.

“The target audience of dw_stories is young, predominantly female and socially engaged. They are very interested in stories of people who change their own lives or the lives of others for the better,” says Anja Brockmann, Head of Stories and Analysis. “Our followers can share and discuss their own experiences on topics like equality and tolerance in society.” Other topics include freedom of expression, democracy and social participation.

The dw_stories account aims to encourage and entertain. As with the Facebook account of the same name, the community helps shape dw_stories and offers users a forum for constructive discussion, support and inspiration. The main target countries are the U.S. and India. dw_stories

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DW FREEDOM

Unstoppable: Tobore Ovuorie Nigerian journalist Tobore Ovuorie is the seventh (and second female) laureate of the DW Freedom of Speech Award. The prize honors journalists’ outstanding commitment to human rights and particularly, freedom of expression in the media.

Despite threats to her own life, Ovuorie has been investigating human trafficking from Africa for years. She is determined to shed light on wrongdoings — and she is always a step ahead.

On no accounts should I let my voice be silenced.

Even if I’m the only person standing, I should continue forging on.

DW Freedom of Speech Award Promoting democratic values, human rights, freedom of speech and the dialogue between different cultures has been at the heart of DW for more than six decades. Since 2015, DW has been underlining these values with its annual DW Freedom of Speech Award. It honors a person or media initiative that has shown outstanding promotion of freedom rights. dw.com/freedom @dw_freedom dw.freedom

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“I kept hearing: ’You are a girl, you have to keep quiet, you talk too much,’” Tobore Ovuorie recalls. “There was anger, a sort of rage in me. I did not want to conform.”

Ovuorie knew she wanted to be a journalist even before entering school. When she was a child, it was her father who encouraged her to write: “On no accounts should I let my voice be silenced. Even if I’m the only person standing, I should continue forging on.”

As a woman in journalism, this is what she did. When an editor asked Ovuorie to shed light on sex trafficking, she knew: “We had to go through the process ourselves.

Otherwise, the story would be wishy-washy.”

In 2013, Ovuorie, who had previously lost a friend to traffickers, went undercover in Nigeria’s sex trafficking circles for seven months, with the help of colleagues at Nigeria’s online newspaper Premium Times. In what proved to be a life-threatening investigation, the then 33-year-old shed her own identity and posed as a would-be sex worker in Lagos and Abuja with the goal of meeting traffickers involved in smuggling girls to Europe. It worked: She got the go-ahead from her pimp to go to Italy and later escaped the traffickers in Benin.

“Tobore belongs to the kind of people who bring light into darkness where some people don’t want to have any light. She is a very courageous woman and colleague,” Director General Peter Limbourg said, adding she was “remarkable” for putting herself in danger to uncover the truth, moving “far beyond the journalistic comfort zone.”

As Europeans, he said, “we are also part of the story” of human trafficking, a multi-­ billion dollar business spanning continents.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 80 percent of girls arriving in Europe from Nigeria are potential victims of sex trafficking — one of them Ovuorie’s friend, who later succumbed to AIDS. During the investigation, the journalist was raped and whipped and became an eye witness of corruption, violence and murder. While her traumatic experiences came as a shock to her at the time, she now says they were “part of the job hazard.” The widespread human trafficking ring she uncovered, involved in international sex trafficking and organ trading, has since been the subject of criminal investigations.

“It means so much to me that the work I am so committed to gives a voice to women without a voice and speaks to others as well,” Ovuorie said upon receiving the award. She hopes the recognition “can serve as an inspiration for girls and women to be more, especially to follow the path of research in journalism.”

On the 2021 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Nigeria ranks 120 out of 180 countries, the situation of media workers and journalists remains precarious. Ovuorie, who is currently reporting on COVID-19 and investigating the involvement of embassy employees in human trafficking, still receives threats. “It’s an attempt to scare you away. It has taught me to watch my back,” she says. “I have to move quite often, I can never stay in the same place for long.”

Nonetheless, Ovuorie keeps forging on to fight injustice and “stand up for the voiceless with the power of the written word.”

©©DW / E. Okhifo

by Julia van Leuven, DW editor

Deutsche Welle

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DW FREEDOM

“Dear journalist!

Your request has not been approved!”

The sorry state of press freedom in Hungary

by Veronika Munk and Szabolcs Dull, editors-in-chief of Telex.hu

As independent journalists who have worked in Hungary for decades, we can confidently say that the free press in our country is not in good shape. Over the last ten years, ever more printed media, radio and TV stations are owned by people with connections to politics or politicians. The Hungarian media landscape has fractured into two distinct parts: Outlets linked to the governing party and ones independent from it.

The public broadcasting companies, funded this year by Hungarian taxpayers to the tune of about 325 million euros, are basically a mouthpiece for the government.

Moreover, several hundred private media outlets are concentrated in the centrally managed Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), an institution with a pronounced government bias. The Hungarian advertising market is also an area heavi­ ly influenced by politics: one of the biggest players placing advertisements in the media is the Hungarian state itself. Those deemed sympathetic to the administration are allocated advertising, while those classified as hostile are excluded and as a result can barely keep their heads above water ­financially.

Journalists do not go to prison in Hungary, and there have been no murders of journalists in recent memory — yet the work of independent journalists has rarely been more difficult. Not only do we have to struggle to maintain an economic basis for our work, but we also have to fight for access to information. Running up against brick walls when making inquiries in the public interest or requesting interviews is a constant; not getting answers is par for the course.

In March 2021, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, stated in a report that the Hungarian government was brazenly categorizing independent media outlets as “enemies” and “opponents of the government” and dismissing journalists keen to uphold basic professional standards as “activists” and “Soros mercenaries” — wholly unacceptable, in her view.

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In theory, the Hungarian state is committed to freedom of information. Ensuring its prerequisites and conditions is enshrined in the Hungarian Constitution; likewise, that the state recognizes and protects the freedom and diversity of the press. But freedom of information and access to information is undoubtedly being curtailed in Hungary.

Often, individuals, institutions, corporations, ministries and politicians who fulfill state and public functions simply refuse to respond to media requests.

During the pandemic, it has become especially important to provide people with information and to remind them of the reality of the situation, especially in a country where many still claim that the virus does not exist.

In Hungary, the government’s corona­ virus task force does not answer questions from Telex, we can’t gain access to

Demonstrators marched in Budapest after the dismissal of Szabolcs Dull, editor-in-chief at Hungary’s largest news site Index.hu. Other colleagues such as his deputy Veronika Munk resigned as a sign of protest.

©©János Bődey / Telex

­ospitals, the ambulance service hardly h ever responds to queries, and healthcare workers are simply forbidden from speaking freely to journalists.

When 28 Hungarian newsrooms — ­Telex among them — demanded that the government allow them to do their journalistic work in the health sector, the head of the government’s communications department, Zoltán Kovács, replied tersely that “the point of hospitals was healing, not filming. The national corona headquarters informs the general public on a daily basis.

Yet leftist portals continue to spread fake news, discrediting the Hungarian healthcare system.”

We are fully aware that health care facilities are currently in a state of emergency. Our goal is to show the reality, the heroic steadfastness of health workers,

Six months after being terminated as the editor-in-chief of Index, Szabolcs Dull joined Veronika Munk at Telex.hu.

the h ­ undreds of human tragedies that play out daily, or the joy that follows recovery.

In short, we simply want to document the reality of this historic situation.

Not only is the Hungarian press currently experiencing painful cutbacks, but the ability of people in Hungary to access information is also being increasingly impaired.

The shrinking media space is limiting the freedom of all of us and weakening democracy. That is why we, together with our colleagues, decided last autumn that we would dare to think big and launch a large, independent, free news portal. That’s how Telex was born.

©©DW/F. Schlagwein

Independent media outlets are seen as enemies and opponents of the government.

In June 2020, one of us, Szabolcs Dull, at the time editor-in-chief of Index, then Hungary’s media outlet with the widest ­ reach, was sacked for protesting against outside pressure. Veronika Munk, the deputy editor-in-chief, quit a day later — along with more than eighty colleagues.

Never before had a dismissal and a resignation been accompanied by so much public attention. After the mass departure, many thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of Budapest for freedom of the press and mourned the loss of the medium that until then had credibly, quickly and accurately met their information needs around the clock.

In the blink of an eye, we became news ourselves. The fact that Hungary’s most popular media outlet was going under for political reasons ripped through the world press,

from the Washington Post to Japanese public television, the BBC to DW. Not long after the entire editorial staff had left, Index recruited a new editorial team, and announced that Miklós ­Vaszily would be its new owner. He is a media ­manager who makes no secret of his links to the government. He has previously pressured several media outlets into toeing the government line, and he has also been a director of public broadcasting. He had ­already been circling Index before Szabolcs Dull’s dismissal.

We couldn’t practice journalism under these conditions. We left Index and, thanks to donations from readers, founded a new medium — Telex, with which we produce correct and critical journalism for several hundred thousand interested people every day. We are transparent about how much money we have and what we spend it on. And we pride ourselves on producing journalism that is both neutral and independent.

Founded in the media environment currently prevalent in Hungary and — what’s more — during a pandemic, Telex has achieved an unprecedented and unique feat. No one has established such a large editorial office before by means of crowd funding alone. In the space of one month, we received one million euros.

Today, in Hungary, a country of ten million people, close to 700,000 people read our Telex portal every day, and so far more than 45,000 people have contributed with smaller or larger sums on donate.telex.hu to keep Telex running.

We didn’t think we would get this far in just seven months. But we believed and still believe in ourselves, in a persistent and committed editorial team, in our supporters who prove month after month that they believe in us too. And we are especially pleased to have demonstrated one thing: just how many people in Hungary are prepared to demand genuine, high-quality journalism.

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FE ATUR E A RT ICLE S

Global reach DW’s success is augmented by its strong alignment and cooperation with over 4,000 partners around the world. Weltzeit shares some of the stories on the following pages.

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DW’s journalistic offerings reached 249 million weekly user contacts in 2020. 111 million of them via television, 49 million via radio and 89 million via online offerings.

More than three-quarters of online usage can be attributed to videos. Additionally, a similar high proportion of users are interacting with DW content on their smartphones or tablets. DW also grew significantly on TV and radio. With 111 million users a week, TV remains the strongest broadcasting platform. 80 percent of TV usage came from DW broadcasts and switching to partner stations.

In radio, the expansion of the partner network in the African target markets generated growth. Around 90 percent of DW’s radio usage takes place via FM partners. The use of DW radio services is now showing a strong increase with 12 million more radio users per week compared to 2019. Especially in DW’s broadcasting languages Hausa, Kiswahili and French, radio usage has again increased.

Cooperation between editorial departments and the Audience Development team further enhanced the profiles of DW’s social media accounts and aligned them even more to the individual needs of users

in different target regions. This has led to strong growth, especially on Facebook and YouTube.

The demand for DW content continues to be particularly strong in sub-Saharan ­Africa. It rose primarily due to higher usage of radio services and the expansion of regionalized TV services. In Europe and the Middle East as well as North Africa, the use of DW services increased most significantly, especially through regular interview segments on TV (in the West Balkans and Greece, as well as in Iraq and Algeria), but also across all online platforms.

Find the charts with the top languages and platforms here.

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A scene from the winning film: Doctor Amna Batool refuses to bow to social pressure to get married and instead chooses to help fight the pandemic.

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Straight out of Lahore Omer Nafees is a documentary filmmaker and the winner of the 2020 video story contest by DW and its Pakistani media partner Dawn Media. In his films, Nafees takes his audience deep into parts of the Pakistani society previously unseen.

by Ivana Drmić, DW editor

©©DW / A. Saleem

©©DW / DAWN

As the novel coronavirus started to spread, medical professionals quickly came into the spotlight. Documentary filmmaker Omer Nafees shows that their fight on the frontlines against the coronavirus ­pandemic is most certainly worthy of the attention. In 2020, Nafees’ film “Unbound Breath” won the video story contest organized by Dawn Media and DW in Pakistan. In his film, Nafees takes the audience through a day in the life of doctor Amna Batool, a young woman who is pursuing a career instead of settling down as expected by society. Batool decides to join the coronavirus ward despite suffering from asthma.

Nafees’ documentaries are based on authentic people, he says and therefore, “they belong to the people.” Growing up in Lahore, Nafees was a strong observer of

society from an early age and started to capture neglected realities in his surroundings with a basic camera which he got as a present from his brother. His films feature various characters from a self-taught skater to a man who fosters pigeons in the heart of Lahore. “When working on a new character, I always go in with an open mind, to get a full image of a story.”

Nafees graduated from the prestigious National College of Arts in Lahore and belongs to the younger generation of filmmakers in Pakistan. He likes making non-­ commercial documentary films as they are “raw, independent, and impactful” and go far “beyond storytelling, and can be a strong medium to provoke thoughts and actions in societies.”

With its rich history and diverse ­cultural landscape, Pakistan has an abundance of stories. As a young filmmaker in Pakistan, Nafees believes the video contest by DW and Dawn media has had an impact on young talents in Pakistan, he tells Weltzeit, adding that it “did a great job in encouraging the production of great films.” The film market in Pakistan is small but, according to Nafees, things are getting better since online streaming services have become easily available. This has resulted in people developing a greater interest in and an eye for good films.

Nafees was very surprised by the appreciative and supportive response from the audience during the video contest: “I loved the fact that people could really connect with the aspects of my characters and their stories.” He welcomes the opportunity that the ­project has provided young filmmakers “to share the stories they wanted to tell,” says Nafees about the film competition ­#ItHappensOnly­InPakistan.

Omer Nafees (left) during a shoot in Lahore, Pakistan.

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A deep dive into Pakistani life and c­ ulture The documentary contest #ItHappensOnlyInPakistan, hosted by DW and Dawn Media, puts young filmmakers into the limelight.

Dawn Media Group

by John Marshall, DW journalistic trainee The projects that Dawn and DW have collaborated on, such as the #OurDiverse­ Pakistan project, have all gained traction and encouraged young, previously little-­ known filmmakers to come forward and share their work on a broader platform, making these avenues critical to the exposure that Pakistani filmmakers and stories from Pakistan ought to get. It is via this exposure that filmmakers can overcome some of the critical challenges they would otherwise face in finding their feet in the media and establishing their name, which is almost always a prerequisite to advancing their work and their careers and most importantly in securing credible sponsors so they may produce important and meaningful work. dawn.com

Saad Bhatti and Adeel Qureshi’s film ‘Nidar (Fearless)’ won the second prize in the competition.

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©©DW / DAWN

Watch the winning films of the video story contest.

©©DW / DAWN

Launched in 2018, #ItHappensOnlyIn­ Pakistan is a nationwide video story contest that invites filmmakers to submit short documentary films on subjects that are uniquely Pakistani. The media houses Dawn and DW developed a collaboration to promote talented filmmakers from across Pakistan.

The competition focuses on film and creates a much-needed space for local ­documentary filmmakers to showcase their talent and work, as well as to highlight unique stories about Pakistan. At the start of the collaboration, there was skepticism on how the standard Dawn audience would react to stories that didn’t address hard news or fall within the boilerplate current affairs style of storytelling. However, the films have been well received. Last year’s contest was the most successful yet with over five million views.

What makes ­the film competition so appealing to the audience is how authentically each subject is tackled in the film. In addition to the topics, one can see how much local talents have to offer. The project did very well among the film-making commun­ ity, with over 2,000 entries coming in from all over the country in the contest’s first edition in 2018.

‘Staying Still’ by Waleed Akram, Ibrahim Hassan and Sheikh Mubashir received the third prize.

is Pakistan’s largest and most ­highly regarded media house covering an array of aspects when it comes to Pakistani public life. Dawn’s audience consists of several segments from within the Pakistani public and diaspora as well as foreign readers from the United States, India and Afghanistan, who are interested in ­ news from Pakistan and South Asia.

The Dawn Media Group is committed to reliable and constructive information on various platforms such as newspaper, website, as well as the TV channel. All these platforms carry information and content that affects the Pakistani public on local as well as national levels.

Be it news and discussions on high school exams during coronavirus or the impact of climate change on crop yields or discussions that bring into light subjects such as resuming trade ties with India, Dawn covers matters that impact all ages and milieus of Pakistan’s national make-up; whether with an English newspaper, news websites in English and Urdu, an ­English-language radio station, an Urdu news channel as well as several other publications to boot.

When coronavirus hit home, Dawn’s audience became heavily invested in news and stories on how the virus was impacting the world.

They wanted information on how best to manage if they were infected with the virus and sought information on testing, hospitals etc. They wanted to know how their own neighborhoods were being impacted on a day-to-day basis. They sought knowledge on the progress when it comes to vaccine development. Although there were also periods of pandemic fatigue where readers consumed other ­information, the interest in news and updates on the pandemic persists and there is continued interest in staying informed on that front.

©©DW

Keep Scrolling

DW partner Scroll.in is an independent news, information, and entertainment venture launched in 2014. Scroll aims to shed light on the most important political and cultural stories that are shaping contemporary India by adding critical perspectives to these stories through rigorous reporting, objective analyses, and expert commentary. Its team consists of young as well as seasoned journalists who have produced award-­ winning journalism in the last eight years.

There is huge public interest for ground reports on innovation in India. Yet few get told. Through its partnership with DW, Scroll can showcase success stories on topics ranging from health to job opportunities to environment and climate change to world events from India to an international audience.

Locally, Scroll’s audience primarily consists of decision makers, residents of India’s large metropoles largely between 22 and 44 years, with an almost equal male to female ratio. Scroll distributes its content in English and Hindi on multiple platforms. On television, DW’s environmental format Eco India is one of the highlights. Social media is also a key distribution medium for the broadcaster — especially with about 30 percent of its audience engaging on these platforms.

In this way, Scroll ensures that its content reaches and addresses the needs for all user groups. scroll.in

DW Tamil

©©DW

will be added to the broadcast languages in 2021. The new journalistic offering in Tamil is aimed at the world’s approximately 75 million speakers. Most of them live in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In addition, there are about six million native Tamil speakers in Sri ­L anka, where they make up about a quarter of the island nation’s population. Reporting in Tamil will focus on human rights, civil society issues and the simmering conflicts.

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134 years of defending freedom of expression And the struggle continues. Recognized for its journalistic innovation and as the origin of internationally renowned writers, the Colombian newspaper El Espectador takes a stand for independent media. by Élber Gutiérrez Roa

El Espectador is the oldest media outlet in Colombia and a recognized stage for journalistic innovation, investigation, denouncing corruption, promoting democratic values and training internationally renowned writers and reporters. It was founded in 1887 to exercise independent journalism and disseminate liberal ideas amid conservative hegemony. El Espectador suffered several closures due to political persecution and its founder, Fidel Cano Gutiérrez, was imprisoned a number of times as a result of official persecution. Those were times when reading El Espectador had been declared a cause for excommunication by the high hierarchs of the Catholic Church.

El Espectador was the journalistic cradle of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, who developed all his talents here as a columnist and correspondent in Europe.

Much of Gabo’s literary work was first published by El Espectador — from his first short story ’The Third Resignation’ to the first

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chapter of his masterpiece ’One Hundred Years of Solitude.’

But the history of El Espectador is not only built with stories of excellence from a literary point of view. In its 134 years of life, El Espectador has been a symbol of courage and even of survival in the face of the powers that have historically threatened freedom of expression in Colombia: corrupt politicians, economic emporiums, drug trafficking and other violent actors.

In the middle of the 20th century, the military dictatorship in Colombia ordered the closure of El Espectador, which had to change its name for a year to continue circulating almost clandestinely. With the 80s came two of the greatest battles that El Espectador has fought. The first was the series of investigations that revealed how Grupo Grancolombiano, the largest economic emporium in the country at that time, fraudulently maneuvered with the money of bank savers. The group’s revenge was to

­ assively withdraw the newspaper’s adverm tising in order to suffocate it economically.

And it almost succeeded.

The battles in defense of freedom of expression continue, although some threats have mutated.

The second was the crusade against Pablo Escobar, who was a congressman at the time. El Espectador unmasked him and revealed that he was in fact the most

©©Élber Gutiérrez Roa

El Espectador was founded in Medellín in 1887. Its impartiality and critical editorial line led it to be the victim of attacks, resulting in the exile and persecution of several of the newspaper’s employees. According to the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, Colombia continues to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. It is ranked 134th out of 180 countries.

©©Getty Images / Rick Maiman / Sygma

Élber Gutiérrez Roa

­ angerous mafioso in the world. Seeing d himself exposed, the capo declared El Espectador a military target and ordered an explosive attack that blew up the newspaper’s headquarters in 1989. Amidst the ruins of the building and with the few pieces of equipment that remained in service, the reporters continued their work and produced an emblematic edition titled “Seguimos adelante” (“We continue forward”). Three years earlier, assassins in the service of P ­ablo ­Escobar had murdered Guillermo Cano, the director of El Espectador who discovered that Escobar was a drug trafficker.

Since then, the highest award for freedom of expression in the world, which is awarded every May 3 by UNESCO, bears the name of Guillermo Cano. Every journalist in the world dreams of one day having his professional virtues.

Each of its 134 years of history is a concrete example of concern for innovation. El Espectador dared to make decisions that at

the time were widely criticized. It was the first print newspaper in Colombia to use photographs and news agencies, the first to incorporate women journalists, the first to print its paper products with ecological inks, the first to use the digital subscription model, and the pioneer among print newspapers in the creation of video journalistic formats, which have been widely accepted in Latin America. And it continues to reinvent itself.

The battles in defense of freedom of expression continue, although some threats have mutated. The great change lies in the fact that the world is more connected and any media that wants to be relevant must take advantage of this to nurture its journalistic production. Although its use also involves risks, the Internet is an excellent tool for journalism and El Espectador is looking to leverage its universality, timelessness and multiplatform, as well as the possibility of interaction with audiences.

is a Colombian journalist and a specialist in politics. He has been ­editor-in-chief of DW’s partner El Espectador since 2008, and since 2015, its multimedia editor, too. Roa has a master’s degree in International Affairs. He has worked in the media for 25 years covering politics, human rights and peace processes.

He is also a professor and workshop leader and a founding member of Consejo de Redacción, an association of journalists that promotes investigative journalism. He has been honored with the most important journalism awards in Ibero-­A merica, including the King of Spain journalism prize (2006 and 2007) and the ­Inter-American Press Association Award (2006).

Our idea is to work with algorithms, instead of working for algorithms. We use social networks to disseminate the best journalism, but we do not let internet meters set the agenda for us. El Espectador’s audiences are not looking for news or trending scandals. They want the issues explained in depth. And they don’t swallow it whole. In these times of a pandemic and social protests, it has become clear that digital consumption has changed; that cell phones are increasingly used to access information and that social networks are being used more and more to disseminate fake news.

Hence the importance of seeking ­alliances with DW, whose journalistic ­production not only complements us because it provides videos of great aesthetic quality and reaches regions of the world to which we do not have access, but also because it shares the values of respect for individual freedoms and the promotion of human rights.

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Breaking barriers in Brazil Free media in Brazil is under threat.

But one TV station — the largest in the country — is fighting back, covering arts, culture and education in a free and independent manner.

by Anne Samba, DW editor

20 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

Based in São Paulo, TV Cultura had its first broadcast in 1969. It is part of Funda­ ção Padre Anchieta — a non-profit foundation which aims to offer programming in the public interest, without influence from commercial or governmental entities.

TV Cultura’s audience is as diverse as its programming. “It reflects the diversity of the Brazilian people,” says Programming ­Director Eneas Carlos Pereira about the TV station which can be watched throughout Brazil via more than 150 partner stations.

“TV Cultura’s audience and broadcast performance are built through dialogue with Brazil’s populations outside the urban axis, which means riverside and rural populations as well as communities in the periphery. They are our major target,” he shares.

The television’s programming focuses predominantly on educational and cultural topics but also offers sports as entertainment. Its priorities include educating children and young people, and shaping opinions. During the pandemic, TV Cultura created a channel dedicated to broadcasting classes by the public-school network to children and young people. With people spending more time at home, the TV station registered an increase not only within its children and teen audience, but also within its nighttime audience of 50+ year-olds.

We experience daily threats to ­democracy, threats against those who produce art, culture, information and education.

©©Divulgação TV Cultura

Social media has changed consumer habits too. “On TV we talk mainly to ­children and young people from classes C and D (those without access to gadgets) and to the 50+ audience. On social networks we have established dialogue with the young audience, between 18 and 35 years old. Never­ theless, many of our traditional programs are also being watched both online and on TV by different audiences,” says Pereira.

But how do they ensure that the relevant content addresses the needs of all user groups; from young to old, those living in cities and those in rural areas? Pereira says that the audience recognizes “TV Cultura as a reliable source of news and information about the pandemic in the world and in Brazil.”

Widely acknowledged as a successful example of public television, TV Cultura is the most important media channel from the Fundação Padre Anchieta (FPA). It is ­recognized as a modern broadcaster committed to providing critical, innovative and high-quality programming for all audiences and age groups.

FPA broadcasters have education, journalism, citizenship, dramaturgy, culture, art, music, childhood, youth, and the environment as priorities, enabling them to ­create quality programs for their diverse audience.

TV Cultura and DW have a long-standing and successful partnership. The Brazilian partner regularly broadcasts DW magazines like Camarote.21 and Futurando during prime time and also documentaries from the DW Transtel catalogue. Every week, DW joins the “Jornal da Cultura” news program with a live cross. On its web page TV Cultura publishes DW articles and enriches its social media offer with DW Videos. During its 51 years of history, TV Cultura has won more than 400 national and international awards, including more than 40 Brazilian cultural awards APCAs, four International Emmy Awards and 12 Prix Jeunesse Awards.

Brazil is ranked 111th out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom ­Index. Since Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president in 2018, the situation for journalists has worsened. With a wide and diverse range of collaborations, TV Cultura and DW share the same commitment to freedom of information and to making relevant ­information accessible to all. ©©João Caldas

©©Getty Images / Alexandre Schneider

TV Cultura

Eneas Carlos Pereira

Danilo Rocha Cavalcanti

is the Programming Director of TV Cultura. He is an author and screenwriter for cinema and television. He studied Dramaturgy and Criminal Sciences at the University of São Paulo.

is responsible for Digital Media at TV Cultura. He studied data processing and computer science. He previously worked at Latin America’s largest internet portal UOL for 20 years. Cavalcanti is currently responsible for producing content for TV Cultura’s website, social networks, and live broadcasts on digital channels.

The biggest challenge, he says, is the struggle for audience and the search for funds. Unlike in European countries, public broadcasters in Brazil are still perceived as political, which is not the case. “We are a public broadcaster, managed by civil society and committed to providing access to quality content to this society.”

Regarding TV Cultura’s long-term cooperation with DW, Digital Media Manager Rocha Cavalcanti says that DW is “a partner with great credibility, that produces respectable and high-quality journalistic content, so that the public has more relevant content to be informed.”

Pereira sees similar objectives and goals between DW and TV Cultura: “Especially in moments such as what we are currently experiencing in Brazil, where besides the pandemic, we experience daily threats to democracy, to the fight for the rights of minorities, and mainly, threats against those who produce art, culture, information, and education — we have experienced difficult days here, and so the partnership of broadcasters like DW is fundamental for the future.”

This article is based on an interview with Eneas Carlos Pereira and Danilo Rocha Cavalcanti.

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Freedom of the press in Bulgaria Being one of the poorest EU members, Bulgaria has the lowest standards of press freedom in Europe. Bulgarians are calling for a fundamental change in the system.

©©picture alliance / NurPhoto / Hristo Rusev

by Christopher Nehring, historian and expert on Bulgaria

Thousands of people across Bulgaria took to the streets in 2020 to demand basic rights such as media freedom.

22 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

A prime minister and an opposition leader who don’t talk to journalists? What is inconceivable elsewhere has been reality in Bulgaria since the April parliamentary elections. Both the election winner, Boyko Borisov, and the party leader of the second strongest party, Slavi ­Trifonov, have been practicing a silent media boycott. They send their messages almost exclusively via Facebook; discussions and inquiries are as impossible as they are undesired.

That Borisov is boycotting a media system he played a significant role in creating is just the latest threat to press freedom in ­Bulgaria.

For example, violence against journalists is on the rise in Bulgaria. Journalists who report on corruption or economic crimes are threatened and attacked, and the state cannot, or will not, help.

Political influence through personnel policies, funding, and personal pressure has heightened distrust of state media: a 2019 study by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation showed that 65 percent of the Bulgarian population believes state broadcasting is politically influenced.

Meanwhile, private media are struggling with other problems: A few oligarchs control almost the entire private media landscape

through ramified corporate networks.

Critical and sophisticated journalism is thus becoming increasingly difficult. ­Coverage of individuals and parties, such as before the April election, often follows a simple “pro or anti” stance, with opinions dominating over facts, and tabloid-style TV formats are not uncommon even in news broadcasts.

Freedom of the press in Bulgaria has been steadily declining since the country joined the EU in 2007. The country now ranks 112th in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking. This puts Bulgaria in last place in the EU.

Nova Broadcasting Group is DW’s partner since 2012. In a country where television is the most-consumed media outlet, Nova Broadcasting Group features some of DW’s best weekly TV magazines such as Check-In, REV, Euromaxx, Global 3000, and In Good Shape.

“The shows give Bulgarian viewers the advantage to see the major European and international topics from a ­different ­perspective — the point of view of a globally-renowned broadcaster. There is a tremendous interest in DW’s journalistic content which is highly trusted by the Bulgarian ­audience. The valuable contribution of these shows is an opportunity for our viewers to form their own opinion on topics from various fields of life,” says NBG’s CEO Nikolai Andreev, who joined the company in 2009.

“The pandemic has contributed to the growth of television consumption,” says Andreev, but the disturbing trend of fake news and disinformation is also pervasive in the Bulgarian society. “Fake news poses a huge threat and today we can see people returning to the traditional, verified sources of information that can guarantee reliability.”

One of the company’s priorities is NOVA Supports Bulgarian Films — a film funding campaign to support and develop Bulgarian cinema on television, cinema and the Internet.

Andreev believes that it is an important step to inspire and create “more high-quality projects and give an opportunity to creative teams in the film industry to work and develop in the country.”

Nova Broadcasting Group is the leading multi-platform media and tech company in Bulgaria. It has established a leading position in the country’s media market and is part of United Group, the leading telecom and media operator in Southeast ­Europe, with a total of ten television channels, five radio stations, multiple websites, digital platforms and newspapers.

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Thinzar Shunlei Yi is one of the few pro-democracy activists in Myanmar who is willing to do on-the-record interviews. But while her identity may be known, her location and data are protected. Even before the coup on February 1, she and many activists have had to adapt in order to protect themselves and the information they are trying to get out of Myanmar from military censors.

Young activists in Myanmar came of age during almost ten years of semi-democratic rule when they had full access to the Internet. However, the constant threat of military surveillance of internet data and social media content has led many people to use tools like Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps, encrypted messaging services and anonymous browsers in order to communicate and post content without fear of detection or arrest.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPPB), a Thailand-based human rights organization, more than 3,600 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced since Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, took power in February.

Many face up to 20 years in prison for inciting hatred towards the military and three to seven years for stirring up fear or unrest in public. Hundreds more have been killed.

“People are paying the price almost ­every day on the street,” said Thinzar ­Shunlei Yi. “Myanmar people feel that we have nothing more to lose.”

Myanmar’s growing online activist army In the days following the coup, scores of people in Myanmar took to social media to share their shock and anger. Activists, citizen journalists and concerned citizens stepped away from Facebook to platforms like Twitter and TikTok. Many people were wary of the military monitoring and spreading false information on Facebook.

It is our duty to defend democracy.

Phone calls and text messages moved to encrypted messaging services like Signal or Telegram. When the Internet was completely blocked, people used the telephone.

A broader civil disobedience movement soon went online, with platforms used to organize boycotts and strikes.

The number of Twitter users in Myanmar grew from an estimated 190,000 in December 2020 to 1.2 million in March 2021, according to numbers on StatCounter and

24 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

The battle for Myanmar plays out on Twitter, TikTok and Telegram Young activists are campaigning for democracy in the face of a military clampdown on the Internet. They are using technology to ensure access to free and reliable information.

DW and Psiphon are working in tandem to get objective news content into the country.

by Ole Tangen Jr, DW editor

DataReportal. Others moved to TikTok and started posting live and recorded videos of clashes between protesters and police, and tributes to those killed. The hashtag #savemyanmar has been used 1.4 billion times on the platform.

Playing cat and mouse with censors The military has reacted to the rise in pro-democracy content by continuing to disseminate fake news on Facebook, while arresting prominent social media influencers who dare to speak out.

The military regime has also progressively shut down internet access across Myanmar while trying to block access to social media sites. Only broadband-based internet connections at homes and offices remain online as the military tries to keep the economy going. Without mobile internet, users take risks to find open Wifi hot spots.

And almost all internet access remains blocked at night.

Michael Hull, the president of the ­Psiphon Inc, the company that makes the

censorship circumvention app Psiphon, has been monitoring the situation in Myanmar.

According to company data shared with DW, the use of the Psiphon app increased from around 6,000 daily users just before the coup to almost 2 million users within 48 hours after the coup.

During the next few weeks, Psiphon was the number one downloaded app in Myanmar as more and more people needed the technology to access blocked sites. “This has been a universal response to shutdowns regardless of where people are around the world,” Hull said. “Populations are capable of not only reacting but communicating to each other the information needed to get people back online,” he added.

Psiphon, which is available in Burmese, works by encrypting the data coming from the device and allows users to access blocked content — like social media sites — through a variety of technologies and by routing the data through a network of servers around the world. Even with all the barriers that ­currently limit how Internet can be accessed in Myanmar, Hull said that 600,000 people a day are still using

©©Getty Images / Jack Taylor / AFP

Protesters take to the streets after the military coup in Myanmar in spring 2021.

The military temporarily blocked internet access and banned access to websites.

Government censorship of the Internet is a persistent threat to freedom of expression. Since 2012, DW has been utilizing the bypass tool Psiphon, a commercial provider in Canada, to create censorship-bypass tools for the needs of free media. Psiphon offers apps and computer programs that offer different censorship-avoidance mechanisms and utilize a variety of servers, proxy servers and VPN technologies. DW now offers different means for users to utilize Psiphon technology to access content that has been censored.

Facing violence for free speech In Myanmar, even having Psiphon or other circumvention apps installed on a smartphone can be a reason for arrest. There have been reports of police stopping people to check devices. Protesters are now encouraging each other to leave their phones at home or to delete incriminating photos or apps.

©©DW / O. Linow

­ siphon to access blocked sites while conP nected to a wired broadband connection.

“During initial phases, internet service providers that are implementing these shutdowns are not very sophisticated and Psiphon is easily able to circumnavigate any kind of large-scale blocking,” said Hull, adding that the company monitors and adjusts its technology as censors get more sophisticated.

Justice for Myanmar (JFM), a group that monitors abuses by the military, accused the Tatmadaw of mass violations of human rights and using the Internet shutdowns to censor and surveil citizens and activists. The group’s own website was blocked by the military in 2020.

“The Internet shutdown is causing serious harm to the people of Myanmar, and restricting civil society and independent media,” JFM spokesperson Yadanar Maung told DW. Activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi said protesters are finding creative means of getting their content online, and that grassroots movements for change are also a cry for help to the international community.

“If we don’t act right now, [the Tatmadaw] will inspire many more brutal dictators around the world,” she said. “It is our duty to defend democracy.”

Add Psiphon to your phone.

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Ten years ago, when Arab youth gathered in the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Amman, they had not only found their voices, but they had also stumbled upon the power of social media.

It changed the game and the faces of the ­region and is still doing so a decade later.

While the Arab Spring flourished on the shoulders of social media, namely Twitter and Facebook at the time, the significance it has today is multi-layered.

The platforms with hundreds of millions of accounts in the Arab region have changed the patterns of communication and even the language used by younger generations.

Moreover they have also exposed corruption, political misconduct, societal and legal injustices, and led to actual changes in the legal systems in many countries.

Windows into closed societies One significant role for social media in the last few years has been the opening of a room for women across the region to highlight their plights. Campaigns that started on social media led to changes in the legal systems on issues such as FGM (female genital mutilation), domestic violence, rapists marrying their victims, sexual harassment and child marriage.

But it did not only give voices to the voiceless or “less fortunate,” but it has also been opening a debate in the most conservative Arab countries and communities about diversity, human rights, equality and freedoms.

Social media: A decade of leading change in the Arab world

by Doaa Soliman, DW head of Online and Social Media, Arabic Service

26 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

Surprisingly enough, it also created a window into previously closed societies, such as some Arab Gulf countries. For years we witnessed Saudi Women raging one battle after the other against the Wilayah system (male guardianship), asking for equal rights and denouncing domestic violence.

In 2019, the whole world watched as 18-year-old Saudi Rahaf al-Qunun mana­ ged to escape her home country, seeking asylum in Canada in fear for her life after renouncing Islam. Rahaf’s escape journey attracted worldwide attention with more than half a million tweets using the ­# Save­Rahaf hashtag. Such attention was made possible thanks to the high penetration rate of ­Twitter in the Arab Gulf societies.

©©unsplash

Snapchat

©©Getty Images / Maskot

From January to March 21, 2021, DW reached an average of 24 million views on Snapchat among its partners. DW’s strongest partner in the Gulf region is 7awi, one of the most widely used content providers in the region on Snapchat. The strategy is to source suitable web videos, also published on Facebook and Instagram, and to place them on strong Snapchat pages.

Snapchat is a platform with a particularly young and predominantly female target group. It is the apt platform, next to TikTok, to reach DW’s newly defined target group (14 – 40 years).

Another complicated story was revealed one year earlier also thanks to social media. In 2018, a video published on YouTube showed Princess Latifa, the daughter of Dubai ruler and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, saying she’s being held against her will.

The video prompted a series of international reactions across the world. The effort to #FreeLatifa is ongoing.

Counter measures and new possibilities Despite their significant role as catalysts for change, social media platforms constantly raise concerns about privacy, data

­ rotection, governmental surveillance, in p addition to warnings of possible negative impacts on mental health, especially for ­adolescents and young adults.

Campaigns on social media led to changes in the legal systems on issues such as FGM and child marriage.

Around 90 percent of Arab youths use some form of social media, in comparison to the global population use of under 60 percent, according to a recent paper published by the University of Oregon.

While the vast majority of Egyptian users — around 90 percent — favour Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter take the lead in the Gulf region.

This popularity triggered a series of counter measures from governments across the region, leading in its turn to further legal changes that put freedom of expression on social media under more fire.

Activists, journalists and social media influencers are not only behind bars in a number of Arab countries, but some have even lost their lives for posting views that oppose their governments or differ from the wider masses. In Iraq alone, two anti-­ government activists were shot dead in 2020 because of their vocal posts. And an Instagram influencer with close to 3 million followers was shot dead in 2018 in Baghdad for challenging societal norms.

With so many variables to understanding the roles and impact of social media in the demographically young Arab societies, one thing has been proven time and time again: social media enables change; the platforms constantly evolve to meet the needs of users, and open more and more windows for new possibilities and changeability.

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Eco Africa: A German-African affair Through a solution-oriented approach, the Eco Africa TV magazine showcases innovative concepts to inspire people to protect the environment.

by Thomas Mandlmeier and Julia Henrichmann, DW editors

28 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

often meant “sometime before midnight” for ­Lagos and ­Nairobi. As a result, we spent many late hours in the office putting together the first shows.

But the biggest challenge still lay ahead: Where do we get all the contributions to fill an entire program every week with topics from on the ground? That is when the

­ etworking began. Support first came from n the DW Africa department and our correspondents across Africa, but we also looked online. Via our personal contacts in Africa, we reached out to new people and had them send in proposals. Together with our African producers, we worked out the basics of ­magazine journalism for television. ©©DW

“You call that a traffic jam?” Laughter.

“Well, come to Lagos, that would be great if the streets looked this empty every day.” I remember these exact words from our Nigerian host Nneota Egbe after seeing a report about a startup from Hamburg that calculated traffic flows to better guide commuters. This is just one example of everyday life working at the weekly environmental maga­ zine Eco Africa, which is co-produced with five African partners in three languages and aims to find topics that reflect the realities of life for an African and European audience.

But let’s start at the beginning. In 2016, we launched the “TV experiment” Eco Africa, a pan-African-European environmental program with five diverse reports on the environment. Presented in Africa, the program was first co-hosted by Edith Kimani in Kenya and Nneota Egbe in Nigeria. After­ wards, together with the actual reports, everything was compiled at DW in Berlin.

The first weeks were difficult as it was unfamiliar territory for all the partners. When do we receive the links? Monday evening

Behind the scenes of Eco Africa: The team continuously explores best practice projects across Africa and Europe.

©©DW ©©picture alliance / AA / Adeyinka Yusuf

Eco Africa

The plan succeeded — and we have productions from Africa for audiences in Africa. Today, we get a steady supply of reports from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.

The DW team is also continuously learning, too. A topic like plastic recycling seemed worn out to many in Berlin, but with all its facets it cannot be shown enough in Africa. We also found European environmental issues that could resonate in more than 50 countries in Africa. Meanwhile, the spectrum of topics now ranges from a portrait of a marine conservationist in Mozambique to a training in organic farming in Burkina Faso or a German startup that recycles batteries to promote the expansion of electromobility in Zimbabwe.

For us, the first live meeting with Nneota Egbe and his co-host in Bonn at the Global Media Forum in 2016 did not feel like a first meeting — we had been a family for a long time and embraced each other. We even had

The idea for Eco Africa was born in the run-up to a trip by DW Sales to partner Channels TV in Nigeria by Head of Sales Petra Schneider together with the then Head of Business, ­Science Environment Manuela Kasper-Claridge and ­DW ­Director ­General Peter Limbourg.

The format is produced in English, French and Portuguese, and broadcast by 66 partners across Africa. A new co-­production in Hausa with Wonderland TV in Nigeria is planned. The English version is co-produced with Channels TV in Nigeria and NTV in Uganda and featured by 45 partners, among them A ­ frica Health Trading in Ethiopia, Citi Television in Ghana, Switch TV in Kenya, Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, ­Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, Channels Incorporated also in ­Nigeria, Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation, TV 7 in Togo and NBS Television in Uganda. The French version is co-produced with CRTV in Cameroon and EXCAF Télécom in Senegal who also broadcast it together with Golfe TV in Benin and TV 7 in Togo. The Portuguese version is a co-production with Soico TV in Mozambique.

Eco India is a similar format co-produced with Scroll.in in English and Hindi and broadcast also by DW English, Doordarshan’s DD1, Epic Channel and EPIC ON. The Tamil and Bengali language editions will be launched in 2021. Eco ­Latinoamerica is a shorter format, soon to be extended and broadcast in ­Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

We have the clock — you have the time. to lend him a jacket to keep warm during the filming of Eco Africa on the Rhine. The following year, our Senegalese partners welcomed us with unexpected cordiality when we came to train their crew. And since no meeting is possible without gifts our editorial office in Berlin has become packed with African artwork and handicraft.

To this day, the Eco family has grown steadily and our dealings with production partners in Africa have changed the way we perceive being German. Not a single week goes by without someone saying: “We have the clock — you have the time.”

Happily, the Eco Africa “TV experiment” has proven successful. It is acclaimed in ­Africa and Europe and has even been imitated. But we have become more courageous

since those early days. In 2017, a French edition was launched and produced with ­ partners in Senegal and Cameroon. In 2020, we a ­ dded a Portuguese edition, hosted by Daliá ­L anga from Mozambique. Each new version ­expands our international production team. This is an experience that no one would want to miss out on.

The Eco family co-production model has also proven successful in the Indian market.

Nature and the environment are a global concern, affecting all societies. Eco Latinoamerica recently celebrated its premiere.

Looking back on five years of Eco ­Africa is looking back on five years of intensive partnerships. We are connected by more than just a program — we have met good journalists and made good friends in ­Cameroon, Senegal, Uganda, Mozambique and, of course, with our very first partner in ­Nigeria.

dw.com/eco-africa

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Celebrating fruitful partnerships Through radio and television, DW and EXCAF Télécom are active at the heart of one of Africa’s most stable democracies, providing their audience with diverse content.

by Tanja Suttor-Ba, DW Distribution

With a population of 17 million people, Senegal enjoys a diverse media landscape.

Radio is a strong multi-lingual medium with more than 450 public, commercial and community radio frequencies nationwide, more than 50 of them in the capital Dakar. Many stations in Senegal, are characterized by their thematic special­ izations, for example in music, religion or women as a target group. As different as Senegalese radios may be, they have one

thing in c­ ommon: Wolof — as the preferred broadcast language.

DW’s most important partner in the country, EXCAF Télécom, operates four radio and two TV stations across the country in Wolof and French. The topics covered range from environmental and health issues to news and entertainment such as the German Football League Bundesliga, which has become popular among the ­Senegalese population.

Sidy Diagne, EXCAF Télécom CEO

30 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

©©XCAF Télécom

was founded by Sidy ­Diagne’s ­father Ibrahima Diagne in 1972 as a trade show company. There were no private television or radio networks in Senegal at that time. In the 1990s, the company ventured into the radio market and, in 2005, the television market.

©©picture alliance / Xinhua News Agency / Eddy Peters

EXCAF Télécom

The fruitful radio partnership between the media houses was established in 2007 and extended to television in 2010. “I can only be happy about this more-than-10-year partnership with DW. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have dedicated a special channel on the Senegalese DTT platform SEN TNT a special channel to important topics such as health and COVID-19 where we broadcast DW content every day,” says Diagne.

Dunyaa FM, one of EXCAF Télécom’s radio stations based in Dakar, features the francophone DW Afrique program. Its

strength lies in the adaptation of regional topics that are relevant to the audience in Dakar, Kaolack, Kolda, Louga, Mbour, Richard Toll, Saint Louis, Tambacounda, Thies and Ziguinchor.

Senegal is regarded as one of Africa’s most stable democracies. There is a strong journalists’ union which is considered more independent than comparable unions in neighboring countries. The country also has a press code since 2017 — however its implementation has been repeatedly delayed.

Senegal ranks 49th out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index. ©©Soico Group

“The collaboration with DW has been strengthened and expanded. It is important for the French-speaking zone in Africa because it promotes exchange opportunities within the DW partner network,” says Sidy Diagne, CEO of EXCAF Télécom. DW Afrique and EXCAF Télécom established a weekly segment on news and COVID-19 in 2020, and since March 2021, the weekly broadcast of a Bundesliga football match.

DW’s constructive environmental maga­ zine Eco Afrique is co-produced by EXCAF Télécom and broadcast on their TV station RDV since 2017.

Daniel David, Soico Group CEO

Soico Group

Radio continues to be a very popular medium in Africa. Here, a furniture shop owner listens to radio while he waits for customers in Dakar, Senegal.

in Mozambique, together with DW, provides with Eco Africa a solution-­ oriented format. The format encourages to find creative ideas in one’s own life. It is a unique concept as there is no comparable format focusing on environmental issues.

The choice of topics is courageously chosen and highly relevant, innovative and emotional at the same time.

It offers information to viewers to raise their awareness on issues such as sustainability, climate change and environmental protection. “The partnership between DW and Soico Group is an exemplary success,” says Soico Group CEO Daniel David. He asserts that being able to disseminate these best-practice examples from the A ­ frican continent, as well as new ideas on environmental issues, encourages entrepreneurship and inspires future generations.

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DW has roughly 4,000 partners worldwide who include DW content in their TV and radio lineups, as well as online. Why is it important for DW to work with partners?

Reaching people all over the world with information that matters to them is key for DW. That’s why it’s an ongoing challenge to find new ways and partners to achieve this. DW’s heterogeneous partner network is made up of more than 4,000 online, social media, audio, radio and TV partners. It is as diverse as our target groups.

Our partners are also closer to the target audience than we could ever be. They know and understand the interests, needs and expectations of the users, viewers and listeners. They share valuable insights with us and help us customize our content in 32 langua­ ges — to make it as relevant as possible.

Moreover, the platforms and channels we partner with are often very well known in the target regions. It’s like a symbiotic relationship, where we benefit from their reach and popularity and they benefit from our unique, quality content. The numbers speak for themselves: More than three quarters of our reach can be traced back to our partners.

The effective and sustainable cooperation with our partners is therefore the key to DW’s success.

The meaning of true partnership DW’s Managing Director of Distribution, Marketing and Technology Guido Baumhauer sees close and trusting partnerships as the key to DW’s significantly growing user reach. Here’s why.

Interview conducted by Ivana Drmić, DW editor

32 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

DW’s profile topics include freedom and human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but also the environment and social justice. How does DW deal with partners in states where these rights are not always guaranteed?

In certain target regions, some partners are neither friend nor enemy. We might ­label some as “frenemies”. However, mutual respect is the essential basis for all our ­partnerships.

We must always find a balance between reaching people in a certain country without giving up our values. It is not as easy and obvious as it seems: Despite the simplistic views shared by some “media experts,” the giant tech companies GAFAM (Google, ­Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) are not always automatically “evil;” it varies from

The effective and sustainable cooperation with our partners is the key to DW’s success.

In the end, more than 250 million weekly DW users in 2020 shows just how successful and effective DW’s partner network has proven to be.

How important is the cooperation with our partners in order to guarantee freedom of information?

In some countries such as China and Iran, the censorship of media and other platforms is particularly advanced, and DW’s online services are blocked. Of course, we also want to provide users in censored markets with free and independent information and try to find different ways to do so. Which means we partner with censorship circumvention services like Psiphon. Additionally, we offer our users in censored media markets the DW website as an onion service, reachable via the Tor network. We also cooperate with popular video platforms (such as Whaley or RenRen in China) that help raise awareness for DW as a brand and increase the usage of our Chinese content in Hong Kong and among Chinese speaking minorities in other

©©DW / A. Wißkirchen

Guido Baumhauer

country to country, from market to market.

But our main goal is to reach as many people in our target audience as possible on as many platforms as possible. That is why we do not rely on just one partner per region.

And of course, DW retains its editorial independence in all partnerships.

If DW is going to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment, we need to make our content available where our users are. For example, in some countries ­Facebook is an important partner to reach our audience, in others it is YouTube or a national partner like Dawn in Pakistan. In countries where the government tightly controls its media market, finding the right balance between respectful partnerships and dodging restrictions is definitely one of DW’s biggest challenges.

has been Managing Director of Distribution, Marketing and Technology at DW since 2006. After a journalistic traineeship at DW in 1993, ­B aumhauer worked as the broadcaster’s correspondent in Brussels from 1995 to 1999. In 2000, he took over management of the Directorate General, and a year later, as editor-in-chief, he expanded DW’s ­internet presence into a 32-language multimedia platform.

countries. Overall, our partnerships made up for more than 40 percent of the traffic for the Chinese service in 2020. If governments are restricting access to our content, we will always try to find a way to get around it.

How does DW choose its partners? What criteria needs to be fulfilled in order to establish a partnership? What kind of content is adapted?

Sharing similar values is always a good starting point. We strive for partnerships built on mutual respect and appreciation. To make sure that our content is relevant for the users, we never simply adapt it, but rather tailor it to the users’ needs and interests.

It’s important to listen carefully to our partners’ suggestions and ideas, while always maintaining our editorial i­ ­ ndependence,

responsibility and control. Some of the most successful formats have been developed and co-produced with our partners. For example, the co-productions of Eco ­Africa (with our Nigerian partner Channels TV), Eco Afrique (with Senegalese partner RDV: EXCAF Télécom) and Eco India (with the ­Indian digital partner Scroll) show just how effective this approach can be.

What have been the most successful partnerships for DW? Every partner brings unique opportunities and innovative ideas to the table. In a highly competitive and dynamic international media environment, it is mandatory for DW to constantly expand our partner network.

That’s why we are always on the lookout for new ways to reach our target audience.

Like with DW’s most successful audio partnership with Google Assistant News or with our acclaimed documentary channel on YouTube. Effective global distribution also means keeping an eye on social media cooperation with platforms like Instagram or Snapchat and influencers around the globe while looking for TV partners in Latin ­America and radio partnerships in Africa.

With the rise of social media and videoon-demand (VOD), media usage is changing. Do the changes in the media landscape influence the nature of DW’s partnerships or the acquisition of new partners?

Our goal is to remain competitive in an everchanging media environment, stay ahead of the game and generate relevant, tailored content to our target audience on whatever platform they use. This only works by cooperating with new partners and that is why our exciting work never gets boring: There are always new developments to which we need answers. Many of our users are switching to digital platforms and they expect our content to find them wherever they are. Our on-demand strategy is a response to this shift. I am especially thankful for DW’s energetic and creative sales and distribution team that never stops searching and finding the best possible partnerships. Their efforts are essential to reach DW’s vision in inspiring our target audience with regionally relevant, on-demand content that encourages dialogue. This is an ongoing process and only one thing is sure: We need to keep moving and find the answers to the questions that haven’t been asked yet.

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PROGR AM INSIGHTS

It’s time to listen to young Europeans A new project in six European languages is making sure that the voices of younger Europeans are being heard — by focusing on the issues that bring them together.

But just what makes ENTR so different?

How do you ensure that the content addresses diverse realities?

Gönna Ketels: We do so by addressing universal questions that really matter to young Europeans such as: What kind of life do we want for ourselves? What do we want for our future? What kind of society do we want to live in? How can we fix what is holding us back? We don’t view young Europeans as a homogenous audience, but as a diverse one: from across the continent, different backgrounds and interests. We believe that is at the core of pan-European constructive journalism.

What kind of content are you producing to address these critical issues?

Ketels: We produce a broad range of content — mainly visual — for social media ­platforms. These range from Instagram stories and reels to live debates and longer videos that can be thought-provoking, fun and ­inspiring. We publish content on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. ENTR’s aim is to engage with young Europeans with

34 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

Gönna Ketels, Head of Content ENTR ©©DW/A. Tasci

Can you describe what ENTR is about?

Patrick Leusch: ENTR is aimed first and foremost at young Europeans who are critical or have distanced themselves from the idea of Europe. It provides a space for dialogue and debate about the future of Europe without repeating old narratives of what Europe should be. It is meant to drive a more open debate and at the same time provide some information about diverse realities in Europe. Valuing differences and celebrating commonalities are at the core of ENTR. The project is ambitious, collaborative and purely on social media. With ten European media houses participating in the project, ENTR is a unique cross-border platform which is possible due to digital media.

©©G. Ketels

Interview conducted by Ivana Drmić, DW editor

Patrick Leusch, Project Director ENTR

journalism that not only talks, but that also listens to them.

You work on the project together with partners from six European countries. How does the editorial arrangement look like?

Leusch: We don’t have one format for all languages. It’s the other way around: Every language, every partner has a coordinator and a team. Each one of them creates content that is relevant for their audience. We try to find common ground and look closely at the content to see if it could be relevant and subsequently adapted or tailored to each of the audiences.

is a pan-European project that provides a new space for open and authentic debate about Europe’s present and future. It highlights the abundance of different perspectives across Europe.

The multilingual digital media platform aims to reach young Europeans. It is supported by the European Commission and German Federal Foreign Office.

The following media houses from six European countries are involved in the project: France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24, MCD), G4Media from Romania, RFI Romania, My Country Talks, Onet from Poland, the Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, the Genshagen Foundation and Germany’s popular news site ZEIT ONLINE.

Ketels: We also cooperate through our cross-border format which involves reporters from at least two different editorial teams working on a common topic. It’s not just sharing afterwards what we’ve done, but also anticipating where we can work together and identifying relevant topics early on.

Can you tell us a bit more about the project’s target group?

Leusch: The project aims to reach the age group from 18 to 34 years or longer — those in the second phase of their lives. Our studies found that there are 40 percent of young Europeans who are critical of the idea of

©©ENTR

Europe. On social media, you find that nationalist and populist voices are sometimes predominant in the context of Europe or the EU. The debate is often driven by nationalistic populist voices. With ENTR, we want to oppose such voices with constructive, authentic and dialogue-oriented journalistic content.

We do not want to reach urban elites and cosmopolites, but rather those who have the impression that Europe is not providing — or in the worst case — is endangering their lives through migration, for instance.

Reaching these young Europeans is a very big challenge.

Ketels: We’re talking about people who are building their lives, who are in a phase of their lives where they have to make important life decisions: There is a lot of uncertainty and they are looking for orientation.

These are young people who are also looking for new definitions of what it means to be European.

What are the biggest challenges?

Leusch: I think that the project is mirroring the challenge that Europe is facing, because you have to ensure that the project partners have the same goals, while respecting all the differences that unite us. And in every

single step, you can see the balancing between these two realities. That’s also why I think this partnership is so important for the broadcasters. That brings us a little bit back to the real idea of Europe.

Ketels: To me, the biggest challenge is building a community from scratch — from zero followers. On a personal note, I think it is challenging to let go of the belief that how we’ve always done things is best and instead to be open to new perspectives.

entr.net

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35

The opening of the Kyiv Radio Hub in November 2020 (from left to right): Zurab Alasania, Director General of UA:PBC (until May 2021), Annetta Pölking, a representative of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and Mykola Chernotytskyi, Director General of UA:PBC (from May 2021).

Public broadcaster 2.0 Ukraine’s public broadcaster UA:PBC has re-branded not only with a modern look.

Suspilne wants to be truly “public” and wants to cater to a growing digital audience with a credible approach to international and local news.

by Hélène Champagne, DW Akademie and Ole Tangen Jr, DW editor

36 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

©©UA:PBC

MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

In April 2020, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne launched “In Quarantine,” a live, daily news program full of unbiased and useful information about the COVID-19 pandemic. The show proved popular with audiences with over five million views in just the first five days.

This modern-looking show featuring critical news and information was the culmination of four years of hard work and intense reforms by the broadcaster’s journalists, editors, technicians and management.

It was also a result of collaboration between Suspilne and public broadcasters from throughout Europe. DW Akademie and BBC Media Action supported the modernization of Suspilne with funding from the European Union and the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The goal was to turn a large public broadcaster from a Soviet-style state-run entity into a modern, reliable source of news and information. UA:PBC was created in January 2017 and rebranded as Suspilne in 2019. Today, Suspilne includes two national TV channels, UA:Pershiy, the first channel, and UA:Kultura, as well as radio stations and 22 regional outlets.

focus on proper training — including organizational development training for management — as one of the main factors that have strengthened the broadcaster as a true public media service in Ukraine.

“This is a crucial aspect of UA:PBC’s role as a public service broadcaster, which proved to be one of the main factors in strengthening the company as a true public media service institution in the country,” said Grebeniuk.

Multimedia newsroom The reforms and changes at Suspilne are continuing with plans to launch its renovated Newsroom 2.0 this summer. The team will be able to rely on an optimized newsgathering structure, a modern production system and high-quality equipment purchased by DW Akademie and BBC Media Action as part of the EU-funded project.

For Angelina Kariakina, the head of the Newsroom 2.0 Project, the newly designed

newsroom staffed by a team of well-trained, multimedia journalists is at the heart of Suspilne’s transformation. “We have been able to evolve from old fashioned, separate TV and radio news teams into a genuinely multimedia organization with the greatest potential in the country,” said Kariakina. BBC Media Action supported the transition to a more story-centric, multimedia newsroom by providing strategic consultancy, advice on designing workflow and trainings for the newsroom team. “It has revolutionized the way we cover major news stories and will allow us to reach vibrant, new audiences,” said Kariakina.

Focus groups research facilitated by DW Akademie have shown that more still needs to be done in terms of raising awareness in Ukraine as to what public broadcasting is. Greater engagement with the audience would ensure that public support and government funding for Suspilne continues to grow in the future.

©©UA:PBC

We have been able to evolve from separate TV and radio news teams into a genuinely multimedia organization.

©©DW / A. Mantach

According to analysis from the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), a Ukrainian media watchdog organization, Suspilne is now well regarded for its independent and unbiased reporting.

A new focus on training As part of its public service mission to produce credible news and information, ­ Suspilne organized over 100 media trainings last year alone through its two new hubs, one in Kyiv and one in Odesa. Through DW ­Akademie, trainings were offered in media management, leadership, mobile journalism, storytelling, among others.

Inna Grebeniuk, a member of Suspilne’s Management Board, views the expanded

In the picture (from left to right): Viktoriia Sydorenko, Director of Public and Media Relations at UA:PBC, Zurab Alasania, Director General of UA:PBC (until May 2021) and Carsten von Nahmen, DW Akademie Managing Director.

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MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Common ground With so many refugees arriving in Uganda, it’s hard to avoid conflict. Now, a radio network is trying to ease the difficult co-existence between refugees from South Sudan and host communities in Uganda with a vision of reliable information and empowerment.

Fiona Knight, 23, was on her way home one evening last January when suddenly, she became very scared. “My neighbors and I had gone to collect firewood,” she says. “Without warning, some young people from neighboring communities came out of the bush, armed with bows and arrows. They threatened us, and we ran away. But they chased after us together with their dogs. We lost our slippers. And we came back with nothing.”

It was not the first time Knight had been threatened since she and her family of three sought safety in the Rhino refugee settlement in Northern Uganda, after fleeing violent conflict in South Sudan. Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees have arrived in the country, building huts on government-allocated land. The former remote communities soon found themselves next to a refugee settlement that would assume the size of a city within a matter of weeks.

Initially, the refugees were well received.

Uganda has one of the most generous refugee policies in the world. Refugees are allowed to work and move freely and are allocated a piece of land for their use. But inevitably, conflicts with the local population emerged. The conflicts are on tangible things such as farmland or firewood, which is essential for cooking. Both refugees and members of nearby communities gather firewood from bushland — a resource that’s normally open to all. But in areas with a high

38 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

concentration of refugees, vegetation disappeared within the first year. That means refugees like Fiona Knight have to walk further from their settlement to access bushland that is owned by locals.

But conflicts are also about mutual misunderstanding due to different languages and a lack of communication. Through the Cross Border Network (CBN), local radio stations from Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan have joined forces and have since been exchanging information and working together. “The vision is to be a professional network that informs and empowers communities across borders for peaceful coexistence,” the network’s Ugandan ­coordinator, Jane Angom, says. The CBN was formed in 2017 in Uganda during a meeting of journalists from Uganda and South Sudan which was supported by DW Akademie. The network includes 22 media houses and was put in place to increase communication and check rumors. Due to lack of resources, community radio stations on both sides of the border have often exacerbated the conflicts by broadcasting unverified information. “I still recall how anxiety increased throughout the refugee settlements, when we heard on the radio that Salva Kiir had died,” says ­Fiona Knight, referring to the fake news about the death of the president of South Sudan.

Jane Angom and her colleagues are not only aware about fact-checking, they also know about the power of language.

©©imago images / Stefan Trappe

by Ochan Hannington* and Antje Bauer, DW Akademie

Angom recalls a fight after a football match between two youth. “We simply reported and said, two youth from different communities were watching this match and they ended up fighting. But other media houses mentioned the tribes of each of the youth, and that kind of reporting escalates the conflict because you are actually highlighting the rift further and adding to it,” she explains. Also regarding storytelling, the CBN aims to encourage peaceful coexistence and stop conflict. “We try to establish how the issue of the refugees can best become an issue of interest to both sides,” says Angom.

She sees the impact of her work: As a result of repeated programming and content, advocating for peaceful coexistence, the community members found local solutions to the challenges, for example in West Nile region of Northern Uganda. “The community members found local solutions to the challenges and the pressures they were

How close should we get?

Media and conflict

f­ acing. For example, in some settlements, the refugees were given parts of the local land for them to be able to till to address the food crisis,” she stresses.

These initial successes underscore the significance of cross media cooperation radio in promoting dialogue and increasing access to information relevant to the daily needs and issues affecting the community.

In addition to this, “dialogue committees” have recently been put in place in order to overcome the mutual mistrust. The committees comprise an equal number of people from both communities as well as a few “neutral” people from NGOs who operate within the refugee settlements. All members of the dialogue committees are elected, and the committees act as village courts for minor offenses.

*Ochan Hannington is a freelance journalist from South Sudan living in Northern Uganda.

Not a textbook, but a reader: With impressive reports, interviews and images, DW Akademie’s new publication takes a closer look at media and conflict.

Using concrete examples from around the world, the authors, most of whom come from the Global South, describe the conflicts that journalists face in their work. They focus on social conflicts such as dealing with fake news, looking at the history of one’s country, conflicts between refugees and host communities or the consequences of homogeneity in newsrooms on reporting. The publication questions the possibilities available to report differently. Other articles deal with hate against journalists on the Internet and how media professionals deal with trauma acquired in the course of their work — an important but often stigmatized topic.

“How close should we get? Media and conflict” is published in ­English and distributed primarily online. It is aimed at media professionals, journalism education institutions, media development organizations and their funders.

The publication can be accessed here.

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GLOBAL MEDIA FORUM

High profile, hybrid and for everyone Disruptive change needs innovative thinkers, inspiring topics and interdisciplinary exchange. On June 14 and 15, the Global Media Forum will provide the platform and the conference program to do exactly this — journalistically crafted, diverse across all borders and accessible for everyone at dw.com/gmf

by Martina Bertram, DW editor

Renowned experts from media, politics, culture and science as well as business and civil society will discuss “Disruption and Innovation” in the predominantly digital realm this year. Joining us, amongst many others: video blogger Nuseir Yassin, Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum and Jesper Doub from Facebook. They will discuss the challenges of disruptive innovations and at the same time address opportunities to influence these developments.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will open the conference. Armin Laschet, Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and leader of Germany’s governing CDU party as well as Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State for Inter­ national Cultural Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office, will also address the audience. The prominent line-up of the digital forum also includes Maria Ressa, who has just received the UNESCO Press ­Freedom Prize, and Irene Khan, UN rapporteur for press freedom (see interview). In addition, Liberian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee and EU Commission Vice President Věra Jourová will participate in panel discussions this year. Taiwan’s Digital Minister ­Audrey Tang will focus her contribution on the importance of technological innovation for democracy while Noel ­Curran, director general European Broadcasting Corporation (EBU), and Jessica Zucker from Facebook will discuss how media can regain

40 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

the trust that has been lost through misinformation campaigns. Also joining the 2021 Global Media Forum is Felipe Neto.

The Brazilian YouTuber is one of the most watched y ­ outubers in the world and is considered a harsh critic of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro. ­A rtificial intelligence and its global spread in surveillance technology will be the topic of the talk panel with Manny Maung, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, who will report on her work in Myanmar. U.S. historian ­Timothy Snyder will speak on “Disrupted democracies and the media.” Also confirmed are Ling Fan, founder and CEO of Tezign, and Philip Justus of Google. Iranian human rights activist Masih Alinejad will report on niches and opportunities for press freedom, the topic which Annalena Baerbock, chairwoman of the Green Party of Germany, will also address in her keynote. The importance of diversity for society and the media will be the topic of a talk with British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak and Ellen Ehni, editor-in-chief at Germany’s public broadcaster WDR. Constructive approaches to journalism will be explored by Ulrik Haagerup, founder and CEO of the Constructive Institute.

Imme Baumüller of the German newspaper Handelsblatt and Nic Newman, senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, will spotlight how data can be used to make journalism profitable and successful in the

digital world. Philip F. Howard from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and Thomas Schmid, director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, and chairman of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), will discuss social media, responsibility and regulation.

“Place made for minds” The DW Global Media Forum 2021 is accessible to everyone free of charge after registration on dw.com/gmf. You can expect two days full of discussion and exchange, including 14 partner sessions to deepen and expand your knowledge. Networking opportunities, an international start-up contest, an online game and the award ceremony for of the DW Freedom of Speech Award 2021 round up the conference program.

The partner sessions will host a variety of sessions and thus create their own streaming channel on the platform. These include contributions from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (based in Istanbul), the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (Berlin) and the Goethe-Institut (Munich). In addition, the Global Media Forum has invited startups worldwide to participate in a competition related to the topic “Disruption and Innovation.” After the pitch phase, an international jury will select three winners who will be presented at the Global Media Forum.

2021 partners The DW Global ­Media Forum is supported by its partners: the German Federal ­Foreign Office and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the City of Bonn and the Foundation for Inter­national Dialogue of the Savings Bank in Bonn.

©©picture alliance / Photoshot

Felipe Neto, Brazilian YouTuber

Elif Shafak, British-Turkish novelist

©©picture alliance / Pacific Press / Mario Rimati ©©EU / Chara Kaminara-Pipitsouli

As in the past years, around 200 fellows, digital media professionals from all over the world, have been invited to the DW Global Media Forum Fellowship Program. They will digitally join a series of capacity building workshops exclusively tailored for them. A unique part of the conference, the fellows will also contribute their ideas and experiences to the main program.

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Věra Jourová, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency

©©private

©©Bundesregierung / Steffen Kugler ©©Fabio Motta

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

Nic Newman, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

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GLOBAL MEDIA FORUM

Journalists face danger to life even outside war zones Irene Khan fears for the lives of journalists — especially women.

As UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression, she observes a worrying trend — and fights to reverse it.

Interview conducted by Martina Bertram, DW editor

When autocratic governments take over and expand their power, independent media outlets are typically the first targets in the eyes of such political actors.

What kind of reports of such violations do you currently have to address the most, and what methods of suppression are mostly being used against journalists?

The safety of journalists is an issue in every region of the world, from Mexico to Malta to Myanmar. The fact that journalists today are killed outside war zones is an indication of the gravity of the problem. Investigative journalists, in particular, are threatened for the work they do to expose organized crime, corruption and abuse of power.

Just this week, two Spanish journalists were ambushed and killed in Burkina Faso while investigating poaching practices.

Only one in ten killings of journalists is ever investigated.

In addition to killings and physical attacks, journalists and media workers are threatened with prosecution, arrest, imprisonment, and — especially in the case of women journalists — with sexual harassment and violence. Another worrying trend is the stigmatizing of journalists and their work by political leaders. We also see smear campaigns being widely used to discredit and attack journalists and to tarnish their honest reporting.

42 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

The use of laws to suppress and criminalize journalists is a truly disturbing trend. What can your mandate in the UN do in terms of legal support to protect journalists?

Unfortunately, criminal libel, a legacy of the colonial times in many countries, continues to be used as a major tool to threaten and silence journalists today. There has also been a spike in vague and overly broad “false news” laws that give unwarranted discretion to state authorities to prosecute journalists or curtail media freedom. Some governments have used the pandemic as an excuse to clamp down on media freedom. According to a study conducted by the International Press Institute, 17 countries worldwide rushed to pass “fake news” emergency laws in the first eight months of the pandemic.

My task as the UN’s independent expert is to press upon states to respect international human rights standards, to speak out when human rights are violated and recommend ways in which these laws can be revised or removed. The power I have is that of a moral advocate — to amplify the complaints I receive from civil society and media organizations and press for change.

Many politicians around the world are increasingly using intermediaries such as Facebook and YouTube to communicate

directly with the public. Does freedom of speech no longer need free media?

Digital technology has opened up communications possibilities tremendously. Social media platforms are a major means today of reaching out directly to large audiences, not just for politicians but for all of us. Unfortunately, they also provide opportunities for false or manipulated information to be easily spread and amplified at a scale, speed and reach never known before.

Unfortunately, legacy media, including local media, has come under pressure in this digital age, and in many cases is struggling to adjust to these new and challenging circumstances. However, what our experience across the world shows — whether in developed countries like the United States or the members of the European Union or in developing countries — is that social media platforms are no substitute for open, independent, and diverse media as source of public information and quality journalism, or as an antidote to disinformation and misinformation.

Media freedom is a major pillar of democracy and human rights and must be safeguarded and nurtured as an essential element of the modern information ecosystem.

Major tech companies and policymakers are rethinking how they use algorithms to

©©Getty Images / Fabrice Coffrini / AFP

deal with disinformation. At what point do states or confederations of governments need to intervene here and protect the public good of their citizens — and from whom exactly?

Tackling disinformation is a complex endeavor, and states, companies, civil society and media organizations all need to be ­involved. More than a decade ago the United Nations adopted the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It sets out the respective roles and responsibilities of companies and states. While companies do not have the same human rights obligations as states, they are obliged to respect human rights in their activities and operations.

States are obliged not only to respect and promote human rights themselves but also to protect human rights by ensuring that companies respect human rights.

In short, what that in this particular instance means is that states must ensure data protection by law and adopt regulation to compel platforms to adopt high standards of transparency and accountability, provide remedies to users and undertake human rights due diligence and impact assessment of their products and activities. The platforms must adopt human rights policies as the basis of the community standards and carry out human rights due diligence and also as impact of their work on all human

Irene Khan will participate in the Global Media Forum 2021 on June 14 in the panel on media freedom in times of disruption.

rights, including the freedom of opinion and expression.

You are the first woman to hold this mandate since its creation in 1993. When you look at the right to freedom of opinion and expression from a gender perspective, what are your main goals?

One of my top priorities is to put a gender lens on freedom of opinion and expression.

I want to bring a strong gender perspective to the work of the mandate, both by mainstreaming gender in all aspects of my work as well as highlighting some distinct issues relating to women and girls.

In a recent survey by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and UNESCO, 23 percent of women journalists and media workers who participated reported being targeted with offline abuse and attacks that

they believe were connected with online ­v iolence they had experienced.

There is also considerable gender discrimination in women’s access to information, a widening gender gap in internet use in developing countries, online harassment and violence against women, misogyny in the media and unequal treatment of women journalists to name just a few issues among others that require more attention.

dw.com/gmf

DW_GMF dw.gmf GMFconference

Deutsche Welle 43

PERSPECTIVES

Becoming: Michelle Bachelet From being imprisoned, going into exile, to achieving a lot of ‘firsts’ in her native Chile and Latin America: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet talks about her journey into politics and why she is a feminist.

©©picture alliance / AP Photo

Interview conducted by Oxana Evdokimova and Janina Semenova, DW editors

44 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

You are a woman of power with a lot of experience in political leadership. Where does your passion for politics come from?

Well, I think probably from my family.

They were not politicians but there was this conviction that human beings were all people who deserve the best. I was raised in a home where values and principles of solidarity, collectiveness and the need for everyone to have access to all their rights were important — that was something I learned from a very young age.

But also then, I realized that the way to change the world had to be through politics because that’s the way to address the structural root causes of those, if I may say, social, economic diseases.

And do you have a female role model, someone who inspired you as a young woman?

I did have one essential role model — my mother who always worked. She always told me, “you can do whatever you want in life, if you commit, if you don’t give up — but it won’t be easy for women.”

One of the ways to overcome the obstacles was through dialogue. The content, the substance, but also the tone of how you deal with things is important.

For many people these two words — women and power — still don’t go together.

How did you deal with this bias?

I worked in the ministry of health and that was not a big challenge. But then coming to a ministry where there hadn’t been a female minister, the challenge was gaining respect.

But of course, as I have studied those issues, they saw that I knew what I was talking about and that I can make good decisions.

For some women it has been very difficult to lead in their own way and not to try to lead like a man. I had a friend who was a trade unionist in the health sector and she said to me that if I don’t swear or say dirty

You need to consider arguments that can destroy stereotypes and work on eliminating stereotypes that are prejudicial not only for women, but also for men. A society where everyone has the same opportunities and rights is a happier society.

Here in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is the first woman to serve in her office, just as you were in Chile. When you met her, did you feel that you have a lot in common?

We had a very interesting conversation. We Latin Americans can be different from Germans, but I have lived in Germany, so I know it well.

And, of course, you always try to support other female leaders because I think all female leaders need support. Merkel has made really important achievements because, first of all, being the first female federal chancellor is in itself a huge achievement as it shows the German population and the world how important this is. She’s also a very good role model and motivation for other women to get involved either in politics, the economy or other areas.

A society where everyone has the same opportunities and rights is a happier society.

You lived through a dictatorship and became not only a witness, but also a victim of it. How did this experience shape your path into politics?

It made me able to play a role that I could only have imagined before, like being a minister of defense of armed forces who were in power in a dictatorship. I mean, my father died because of torture. We were in prison and many of the people who were imprisoned disappeared. So it strengthened my concept of human rights, the value of democracy and dialogue.

You became the first female minister of defense in Latin America and four years later, the first female president in Chile. It was a turning point, not only in your life, but also in your country’s history. Which obstacles did you as a woman have to overcome on your way to the top?

I was the first [defense minister] in Chile, in Latin America and the fifth in the history of the world. But I’m not saying this to show how proud I am, but rather how terrible the situation for women is.

words in meetings, then people won’t respect me. And I said, oh no, over my dead body, I will be as I am.

Unlike men with children, it’s still difficult for women to juggle both childcare and career for them to get to the top. What has to change?

FWe need to show good stories of very powerful and successful women. And I’m not talking about power in terms of power by itself, but rather to show that women can be very important. People need to see that women can succeed and not only in the political arena, but also as entrepreneurs or in other areas. This gives hope to people.

We also need to change the culture. I always use the following argument because Chile is a country that loves football. And I would say always, can you imagine winning one of these huge championships with only half of the team? Impossible.

Are you a feminist?

I do consider myself a feminist. I believe that we need to be feminists because that’s the way to support women’s rights.

We need to know that women are not in this situation because of a coincidence. There is a patriarchal system that produces those cultural values. If we do not understand that, we might not be able to tackle and address the root causes of fascism and sexism.

This interview was conducted as part of the series “Merkel’s Era: Women of power.” It has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Watch the full episode here.

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46 Weltzeit 2 | 2021

Fred Muvunyi has had a remarkable career. The DW West Africa correspondent shares his journey and tells us what it means for him to be back reporting African stories from the ground.

by Anne Samba, DW editor

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” The age-old question. For Fred Muvunyi, “journalist” was not the answer. Having been born in exile in Uganda, Muvunyi wanted “a more significant way” to make a difference.

Maybe a soldier or a politician, he thought.

Later, back in his home country Rwanda, he witnessed numerous injustices and human rights violations. Many of his compatriots and those in power remained silent.

This marked the beginning of what would later become a long and meaningful career in journalism. Muvunyi enrolled at the University of Rwanda to study journalism “because of the role the media played during the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994,” he says.

True to his mission, Muvunyi went on to do a lot of investigative reporting to “expose the abuses by the police and security agents.” He also played a significant role in expanding press freedom in Rwanda by advocating for greater media rights: Muvunyi was appointed the first chairperson of the media self-regulatory body Rwanda Media Commission. “I fought for the independence of journalism and ensured that state actors ceased from arresting and detaining journalists during my time in office,” he shares.

But this came with a price.

“State officials threatened to detain me or have me killed,” says Muvunyi. In 2015, he fled the country and sought political asylum in Germany. “I felt like my dream of serving fellow Rwandans was shattered. I was going to live a life where I will never see my son and my family again.”

Muvunyi later joined DW as an editor. He is currently DW’s West Africa correspondent based in Lagos, Nigeria. And how does it feel to be back? I ask him. “What a pleasure

to be a field soldier again,” he says, “how ­privileged I feel to be back in Africa telling African stories!”

Working in Nigeria comes with its challenges too. Muvunyi has been reporting on the situation in the country, covering the abductions which have become more indiscriminate across northern Nigeria. ­“ Nigerians, especially in the north, are going through hell. Kidnappings and killings

I wanted to do good and ethical journalism in a country where the profession was often discredited and disrespected. have become the order of the day. There’s little or no respect for human life,” he says.

As the West Africa correspondent, he is also often in the Sahel countries. “The suffering of communities in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Chad is heart-wrenching.”

But having an opportunity to tell stories of the people in this region has been a great deal for his career, he says. “I get fulfilling moments especially when stories of voiceless women and men make it to international airwaves.” Muvunyi’s career has had a few twists and turns, but he remains committed to his passion. “It is so satisfying to tell stories of fellow Africans. I can’t go back to Rwanda, but I can travel to many African countries, and I can still live my ­purpose-driven life.”

©©DW / F. Muvunyi

Fred Muvunyi at a camp in Niamey, Niger, where thousands of people have been displaced by rare flooding.

Deutsche Welle

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