DW is helping to spark discussion and disclosure with a new Russian-language talk show Nemtsova.Interview hosted by Zhanna Nemtsova. It offers viewers a chance to hear from guests with a close relationship to Russian politics and culture who can shed light on important issues. Nemtsova joined DW’s Russian news department in August 2015.

Nemtsova’s father Boris Nemtsov was a very popular opposition politician in Russia and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. He was shot and killed in Moscow in 2015  and his death shocked Russia and symbolized the deteriorating social and political climate for opposition and dissention. Nemstova has called her father’s murder a “politically motivated assassination.”

Her new talk show on DW creates a platform for free speech and an open discussion of Russian issues that would not be covered by Russian media. Programs like these build a direct connection to Russian-speaking audiences and help foster a community of independent thought and open debate.

As media homogenization and restriction in Russia continue, there is a growing demand for independent sources of news and analysis for Russian-speaking audiences. With a network of Russian-speaking correspondents and connections to Russian media, DW can provide a valuable, alternative perspective.

DW has a strong tradition of promoting free speech and media freedom in Russia. The Russian-language news program Geofaktor is broadcast daily and presents unbiased coverage of news in Russian. One of Russia’s last independent media outlets TV Dozhd broadcasts the program.

Boris Banchevsky, Head of Distribution for CIS

With the ongoing events in Ukraine and new international pressure building against Moscow, there is an acute need for accurate and objective information both domestically and abroad. As an international broadcaster based in Europe, DW can play an important role, not just through its own independent news coverage but also by supporting Russian media that tries to tell a different story than the state-controlled channels which are pervasive in the Russian media landscape.

There are a few points of light on the horizon for Russian journalism. TV Dozhd is one of the last truly independent media outlets in Russia and they also have recently added DW’s Russian-language news magazine, Geofaktor, to their programming catalogue. With this acquisition, DW can contribute directly to providing independent journalism to Russian audiences while making a statement for independent journalism.

TV Dozhd (“TV Rain” in Russian) first went on the air in 2010, operating in a Russian media landscape that was lacking impartial and independent news coverage. TV Dozhd’s audience grew quickly as they was doing what other channels weren’t– providing unbiased live broadcasts, interviews and independent global news along with critical, alternative coverage of important events and public personalities in Russia.

Despite this success, TV Dozhd nearly met its demise earlier this year after publishing an opinion poll asking if St. Petersburg (former Leningrad) should have been surrendered to the Nazis during World War II, in order to spare the immense loss of life.

Ostensibly for publicizing this question, nearly every major Russian cable and satellite provider dropped TV Dozhd, even after they removed the poll and apologized. As a result, TV Dozhd lost 90 percent of its advertising. According to an article written by Tikhon Dzyadko, the Deputy Editor at TV Dozhd, certain network heads revealed off the record that they were pressured to drop the channel by the Kremlin. TV Dozhd currently broadcasts online and charges a yearly subscription fee.

This proxy attack on independent journalism is no surprise in Russia, where many of those in charge see the purpose of the media as nothing more than a propaganda factory and real, investigative journalism is actively subverted both publically and in secret. The outspoken Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was brutally murdered in 2006 for a still unknown client, comes to mind. She wrote in 2004 about her experience covering the Beslan school massacre by Chechen terrorists, “We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the Internet, where information is still freely available.”

Now there is a new conflict being covered, but we also have more resources to tell the truth and publicize independent opinions. Independent media is critical for the development of a free society in Russia and through our active involvement, DW is making a statement that there should always be more than one voice telling the story.

Europe

The compact online version of DW’s Russian-language news program Geofaktor has been a big success since it was launched in mid-March. The 13^th broadcast alone was watched 430,000 times. Almost all of the video content was accessed via DW’s online Russian-language media center. The majority of viewers were directed there via a banner-ad campaign on the popular Russian news website, news.mail.ru. On YouTube, Geofaktor episodes were accessed an additional 50,000 times during the second half of March.

The ongoing geo-political tensions in Ukraine have created a high demand for unbiased news coverage delivered in Russian. This is made clear by the burgeoning rise in page visits on DW Russian. The number rose by nearly 4 million visits between February and March 2014. A large amount of that traffic came via DW’s Ukrainian online partner, ukr.net, as well as the Russian search engine, Rambler.ru. Also In March, visits to DW Ukrainan doubled from 1 to 2.2 million, with most of that traffic coming via ukr.net.

North America

After a series of extensive and lengthy negotiations, a new transmission contract has been successfully arranged between DW and Canada’s largest cable provider, Rogers Cable. Rogers will now carry the English-language flagship channel, DW, and the German-language channel, DW (Amerika). Previously, only DW had been offered as a part of the English news package. Starting at the end of May, DW (Amerika) will be offered à la carte as a single subscription channel. Rogers brings DW’s quality programming to a large audience of political and business leaders with a coverage area that includes Canada’s capital Ottawa and its largest city, Toronto.

South America

The Peruvian online news portal, Peru.com, is a new DW partner and will regularly include full articles from DW. The website belongs to the El Comercio group, which occupies 75 percent of the market share in Peruvian print media. A tracking code developed by DW’s market and media research will count how often DW articles are accessed.

Europe

DW and the Russian search engine Rambler.ru have expanded their ongoing cooperation. Rambler, one of the Russia’s top three most popular web portals and a longtime DW premium partner, now includes a selection of news teasers from DW’s Russian website on its news platform. In March the links drew around 600,000 visits to DW’s Russian website in two days.

A compact web version of DW’s Russian news magazine Geofaktor has also been well received by Russian-speaking audiences. The 10-minute online format was recently created as a response to the increased demand for information in regions affected by the current political and social tension between Russia and Ukraine. It took only three days for the format to go from concept to reality– an excellent cooperative achievement for DW’s editorial, distribution and multimedia departments. The modified Geofaktor receives between 30,000 and 100,000 views every day.

Asia

The Indonesian DTH provider BiG TV is now broadcasting DW around the clock. The English language channel from DW is included in each of BiG TV’s five basic programming packages. The provider bundles 177 channels from all over the world and broadcasts them via satellite to subscribers everywhere in Indonesia. In the next two years, the company estimates it will reach 300,000 subscribers.

Noor Communications from Lahore, Pakistan is a new DW partner. Located in Pakistan’s second largest city, the station provides around 55,000 households with DW’s English TV programming.

Since the beginning of the uprising against the government in Ukraine, DW has been providing comprehensive coverage both on location and in the background. Expanding on this is Geofaktor, a new TV magazine for Ukraine launched by DW on January 31.  The 26-minute news program will be broadcast in Ukrainian once a week on the popular private broadcaster TVi based in Kiev.

Geofaktor will deliver European and German perspectives and reactions to the events in Ukraine along with coverage of political, social and economic issues that have relevance to daily life in the strained eastern European nation. The program is the newest element of DW’s widely expanded coverage of the pivotal social protests in Ukraine. Since the protests broke out, DW has been providing continuously updated reporting that is bolstered by extra correspondents sent to Kiev. The number of visits to DW’s online platforms in Ukrainian and Russian has skyrocketed in recent weeks, a sign that DW is providing those in affected regions with essential independent and accurate news coverage.

After its first broadcast on January 31, the program will be rebroadcast by TVi Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Episodes can also be seen on-demand on DW’s Ukrainian website. The magazine will be anchored by Kristina Nikolaychuk, who has been with DW since 2004.The program is being produced in Bonn by members of DW’s Ukrainian editorial team. Geofaktor was previously broadcast only in Russian.