Camarote.21 – DW’s new series in Portuguese for Brazil – will debut this weekend on Rede Minas. It features the latest events and trends from the world of European music, literature, art and film and will be shown every Sunday.

Brazilian born host, Francis França is excited by the possibility to convey German and European culture to a Brazilian audience. “Culture offers a wide range of possibilities to convey and transport information,” she said, “culture has many expressive forms and is not necessarily limited by language.” She hopes the show will help connect Brazil and Germany and foster understanding and an intercultural dialogue. França  also frequently invites Brazilian artists into the studio who are either currently based in or travelling through Germany.

Camarote.21 builds on DW’s Portuguese language programming in Brazil. On October 1o the Brazilian educational broadcaster Canal Futura began broadcasting the successful science magazine Futurando. The channel can be received by a potential audience of 94 million nationwide.

Europe

DW has created a platform for German-Turkish dialogue with Buluşma Noktası. The bilingual (German and Turkish) online specials will showcase how the two cultures are in constant exchange and dialogue. In the spotlight will be four culturally active individuals from Berlin and Istanbul – including the author and artist Werner Felten, journalist Sirin Manolya Sak, author Ahmet Tulgar and photographer Jochen Proehl. For six weeks, these individuals will be posting their views and opinions in a German and Turkish language blog.

Asia

DW has signed two new partners for Learning by Ear in Afghanistan. Radio Sabawoon and Radio Zindagi broadcast to the highly-populated and politically relevant provinces of Helmland and Herat. They join the existing partners Radio Ariana, Radio Nawa, the Afghan Independent Radio Association and Radio Amozgar as Learning by Ear partners.

DW gas been added to 15 new cable stations in Pakistan – including several in Islamabad, Lahore and Bahawalpur. The new cable stations reach a total of more than 270,000 households. There are now 262 cable partners that are including DW’s English program in their television lineup.

DW has also added a new television partner in Indonesia with the recently launched DTH provider PentaVision. The new pay TV provider will offer more than 50 channels in English and Bahasa and provide programming to viewers throughout Indonesia via the IPSTAR satellite. PentaVision is looking to expand to include 450,000 subscribers in the next three years.

Global

Deutsche Welle has signed an agreement with the United Nations expanding the partnership that was established five years ago. The agreement enables DW to supplement its television programming with materials from UN-produced documentaries. DW welcomes this as a way of enriching its internationally-focused television series like World Stories and Global 3000 with new perspectives and high-quality reporting from around the world.

For the second year in a row, we are looking for submissions for the KLICK! photo competition as part of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum. This year, we want photos from around the world that depict situations that you associate with education and culture. These could also be pictures of projects, actions and campaigns that bring attention to education and cultural diversity. We will use these remarkable images to create an online photo atlas, as well as feature them in publications from the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum. Users will also be able to vote for their favorite online and help us select the 10 most impressive images. These will be part of an exhibit at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum from June 25-27, 2012. Conference participants will then choose the three winners.

It’s that time of year again. DW is looking for your suggestions for the eighth annual Deutsche Welle International Blog Awards – better known as the BOBs. Like last year, we’re accepting your favorite sites in 11 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesia, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. This year our jury of media experts, activists and bloggers will meet up in Berlin in May to debate and decide who takes home top honors in the BOBs.

This year our “Special Topic Award” puts the spotlight on culture and education. This is also the focus of the 2012 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn. While we will certainly continue to commend the bloggers taking a stand for freedom of expression, we’ll also be playing special attention to projects and initiatives that look at the right to education and promote intercultural dialogue.

We have already received more than 1,000 suggestions. If you know of a blog that is worthy of a BOB, you better hurry up – we are only accepting suggestions until March 13!

Timeline

Until March 13: Suggest the blogs, websites and projects that impress you.

April 2 to May 2: Look over the nominees and in each category and vote for the ones you think represent the best of the best.

May 2: Sit back and find out who won as we announce the winners.

June 26: Come to Bonn, Germany, and meet the Jury Award winners at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.