Europe

DW’s Focus on Europe is now being broadcast in Georgia in cooperation with local broadcasting partner Starvision. The European culture and political program will be broadcast weekly with a Georgian-language voiceover and the program design will be adapted for the Georgian market. Starvision reaches 700,000 viewers and is also available on a free app for iOS and Android. This partnership expands DW’s presence in Georgia, where DW’s Russian-language news program DW Nowosti is currently being broadcast by Georgia’s national public broadcaster.

Latin America

WIPR, Puerto Rico’s largest public broadcaster, has expanded cooperation with DW and will soon be broadcasting more DW programming. WIPR currently broadcasts Euromaxx and DW Noticias during prime time. The channel, which focuses on educational and cultural content, can be received by more than 1,6 million households in Puerto Rico and will significantly increase the reach of DW’s Spanish-language programming.

Brazilian partner Claro will be providing DW’s German-English language channel DW (Amerika) to all of the Olympic villages in Brazil during the 2016 summer games.

The Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro will also be including reports from DW’s Futurando! and Camarote.21 in its “Anthropozän” exhibit, which is visited over 100,000 times each month.

Guatemalan news website Siglo 21 has embedded DW content boxes in Spanish with articles and videos from Enlaces, Cultura 21, Global 3000 and En forma.

North America

Three Spanish-language programs from DW are being carried on Telecentro, a Hispanic-American broadcaster in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Telecentro reaches 30,000 households.

Africa

DW (Deutsch) will now be available in 10 countries in southern Africa via pay-TV partner Multichoice. Countries included are South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland und Zimbabwe. The channel will also be available to Multichoice hotel subscribers.

Angola’s first private television broadcaster, TV Zimbo, is broadcasting Futurando!, Camarote.21 and Africa on the Move in Portuguese. TV Zimbo will also become a coproduction partner for Euromaxx. The partnership is a positive step into a broadcasting market that had previously been inaccessible due to political conditions.

What does the Russian information war mean for the news industry? International media play a major role in forming the narrative on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine – and polarization is increasing as opposing sides try to take the lead in covering events for people living in affected regions.

DW prides itself on providing a unbiased voice to the media landscape. And to ensure that even more people can benefit from fair and balanced news and information, DW is producing two new 10-minute news formats in Russian and Ukrainian. From Monday to Friday, DW Nowosti and DW Nowyny provide audiences with news coverage on regional and European issues that they won’t find elsewhere with the support of local Russian and Ukrainian correspondents.

Broadcasting partners of DW Nowosti are currently TV Rain in Russia, LRT in Lithuania, Yerkir Media in Armenia, GPB 2 in Georgia and YES TV in Israel. There are on-going negotiations to include more partners soon. All broadcasts of both formats are always available online.

Across the spectrum of issues, there is bias and a need for objective information. Since the beginning of the current conflict in Ukraine, DW has provided a third perspective that can help people get the big picture. Geofaktor, DW’s news magazine for the region has been on air since January 2014. This information conflict looks likely to continue into the near future and DW will continue to provide a standard of journalism that everyone can count on.

Russian media outlets are afflicted by a  lack of objectivity – especially when reporting on events in Ukraine and eastern Europe. In a context that is packaged as professional journalism, innuendo, half-truths and outright lies can be propagated without any measure of veracity.

Media outlets from the “west” that take a hawkish stance on reporting Russian affairs tend to exacerbate the problem and can lend credibility to the assertions of Kremlin-controlled media. The best approach to address the tangled web of information coming out of Russian news outlets is to continue producing steady, solid and serious news reporting that maintains the core principles of journalism.