DW becomes more global, launches 24-hr English TV 

Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has launched a new 24-hour English TV channel as part of its effort “to be more international”.

Nurul Islam Hasibfrom Bonnbdnews24.com
Published : 22 June 2015, 11:13 AM
Updated : 22 June 2015, 11:23 AM

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The German government’s Commissioner for Culture and the Media Monika Grütters joined DW Director General (DG) Peter Limbourg for the ceremonial launch on Monday at the opening of the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn.
 

With this new English-language TV channel launch, the DG said, they would “provide more information, be more international and address people more regionally”.
“....we want to be heard – loud and clear – as the voice of freedom and peaceful cooperation,” he said as more than 2,000 participants from over 100 countries witnessed the launch at the international conference centre.

DW has developed regional television lineups in English, German, Spanish and Arabic, with radio and online content available in 30 different languages including Bangla.

It has more than 4,000 partners across the world.

Located in the heart of Europe, the DG Limbourg said, they want “European values to be more widely perceptible”.

“The launch of our English TV service is an important step in that direction,” he said.

The start has been greeted widely in the social media particularly in the micro-bogging site Twitter with people sending wishes and writing their expectations.

“I hope to see a different approach to reporting on Africa,” one tweeted.

But the speakers who joined the launch, including the German ministers, stressed on responsible journalism particularly in the current digital era.

“In the digital age, we still need professional journalism for the development of informed opinion,” Dr Marc Jan Eumann, state secretary for federal affairs, Europe and Media of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, said.

“Public service broadcasting must stand against the ‘mega tons of bullshit’ that flows through the internet,” Dr Georg Kofler, media manager, founder and chairman of the supervisory board, Kofler Energies, Germany said.

“DW is a well managed and financed media company. You must live up to your tagline ‘Made For Minds’,” he said speaking as a ceremonial speaker at the opening of the global forum.

DW DG Limbourg in his speech also said quality journalism was “becoming increasingly difficult to implement”.

He said everything was not “bright and rosy”.

“We must also take a look at the darker shadows,” he said, highlighting the “worrying” aspects of journalism, despite having the benefits of digitalisation that gave global flow of information and communication on an unprecedented scale.

The eighth edition of the annual conference series is examining the opportunities and risks posed by “Media and Foreign Policy in the Digital Age”.

Participants of this three-day gathering include politicians, media, and social activists. Limbourg said from the Global Media Forum they were “sending out a clear signal to the world that we fully defend media freedom and security”.