Guest commentary
Oliver Linow, Technical Distribution at DW

It’s not always easy to deliver reliable information to audiences around the world. During the Cold War, Deutsche Welle (DW) had to regularly deal with broadcasting signals being disrupted, preventing listeners in Russia and the Eastern block from tuning in. At that time it was known as jamming.

Technology and distribution channels may have changed and the Cold War now seems like ancient history, but the problem remains: There are still those who try and prevent international broadcasters like DW from reaching their intended audience. The perpetrators are governments, most notably in Iran and China, who are looking to buffer their citizens from international news and information online. But we don’t take this lying down. The Technical Distribution department at DW is responsible for ensuring that content is available on censored networks. And, over the last few years, we have been utilizing a censorship circumvention system developed by Psiphon Inc. based in Canada.

Psiphon works by using a network of different proxy servers (an intermediary between a user and an online source). Psiphon has also developed software and applications designed for desktop and mobile devices that circumvent online censors. DW uses these networks and applications to make content available in censored areas. When logging on to the proxy URL or when starting an application, users in Iran for example, will be redirected to DW’s Farsi homepage and users in China to the Chinese page. Other users are directed to a landing page and can then reach the respective DW site.

Thanks to the introduction of Psiphon technology, users in countries like China and Iran have been given the power to access unbiased information from reliable sources. By engaging in this technology, we have sent a message: DW will never give up trying to provide unbiased, quality news and information to ALL audiences around the world.

Predicting how these issues will play out in the future is difficult. There are currently many indicators that the Internet will be even more regulated. Whether it is to fight crime and terrorism, preserving moral and religious precepts (like preventing access to pornography in Arabic countries), commercial interests (when content providers have to pay network operators for quality access) or political interests and influencing public opinion – there are numerous motivations for filtering online content. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, refers to such measures as “Internet regulation”. Conversely, online activists want to see continuous, uncontrolled traffic on the information superhighway, and will speak out against even the smallest amount of censorship.

Getting around censorship is a game of cat and mouse requiring software that is continually updated in order to circumvent firewalls that are also continually improving in functionality. Soon Psiphon will provide an Application Programming Interface (API), a type of software which will equip certain Smartphone Apps with a censorship circumvention function. This technology would make DW Apps available in Iran and China.

In the future it will surely not be a simple task for international broadcasters like DW to provide worldwide Internet services on every network in every country. One thing we do know is that as technology expands and politics become more complicated, the issues related to Internet regulation will become more and more important.

Our team from Global Ideas has never shied from adventures. They have been to the forests in New Guinea and Guyana, in the Favela in Rio de Janeiro, the coral reefs of Vanuatu and the streets of Mumbai. But the latest webdoc takes on even more unchartered territory – with a virtual safari in the Serengeti. Reporters from Global Ideas spent two weeks in May on the East-African savannah and recorded a majestic world. They witnessed the wildebeest migration and got close-up lions, zebras, rhinos and many other colourful creatures. The Serengeti is also in danger and the documentary brings experts together to explain how vulnerable this precious natural reserve really is. The project was produced in close cooperation with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS).

Serengeti – Toward an Uncertain Future combines breathtaking photography with high definition video and audio to give you a fascinating multimedia experience, deep inside the animal kingdom.

 

DW is now offering its core programming with Vietnamese subtitles. Viewers in Vietnam will now be able to watch programs like In Focus, Tomorrow Today, Drive it!, Discover Germany, Kino, Global 3000, Arts 21 and In Good Shape with Vietnamese subtitles.

“We already have a great standing among audiences in Vietnam, so I’m delighted with this new opportunity. We hope that this will help us to extend our relationship with Vietnamese audiences even further,” said Petra Schneider, DW’s Director of Distribution.

DW programs like Euromaxx, Bundesliga Kick off!, Tomorrow Today, In Good Shape and Drive it! are also broadcast with Vietnamese voice-overs via co-branded blocks on VTV and K+.  DW Vietnamese subtitled TV feed can be accessed via cable, DTH, IPTV, DTT operators such as VTV Cab, SCTV, Viettel, AVG, VASC MYTV, Digicom, FPT and VTC.

DW’s status as a worldwide leader in supporting German language learning was on display at the International German Teachers Conference that ran from July 29 to August 1 in Bozen. DW was praised at the conference for being instrumental in helping German learners master the language by promoting enthusiastic learning. During the event, DW presented the entire spectrum of its language courses with a panel, lectures and an information stand. Around 400 spectators attended the panel where unconventional teaching methods, such as using music, were discussed.  “Singing along is a good way to access and develop a language,” said Shirin Kasraeian, a language learning project coordinator at DW. As part of DW’s language-learning program, they recently enlisted the hip-hop group EINSHOCH6  – who performed at the conference.

Hans-Ulrich-Seidt, a former German diplomat and head of the Culture and Communication department at the German Federal Foreign Office praised DW’s role as an important worldwide mediator of the German language, especially in cooperation with the Goethe Institut, the world’s foremost German language school. The IDT conference is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

 

 

As reported by World Screen, Deutsche Welle (DW) has entered into a new partnership with TVB Network Vision to make its 24-hour English-language channel available to more viewers in Hong Kong. DW is now available in the basic package of TVB Network Vision for its fiber cable subscribers at no additional charge.

DW alrady has a channel of German-language programming available in Hong Kong, DW (Asien), which is distributed on nowTV and Hong Kong Cable. The English-language DW channel is also available on Hong Kong Broadband. Says Petra Schneider, DW’s Director of Distribution:  “We are excited to be expanding the distribution of our 24-hour English language channel, encapsulating the quality, breadth and depth of our programming. Hong Kong is an important market for DW and our partnership with TVB Network Vision further builds on our commitment to bring in-depth, reliable news, information and culture from Europe to our viewers in Asia.”

Felix To, the CEO of TVB Network Vision, said: “We are honored to have DW among the first batch of program channels to be incorporated in our service over the new fiber delivery network this year.”

The full release is available on the DW website.