DW has taken a big step forward in developing closer cooperation with Egyptian partner ONTV, one of the most popular news and information networks in Egypt. The new DW-ONTV co-production, Women at a Turning Point, represents the first time the two broadcasters have worked together on a production and is a turning point in their ongoing four-year partnership. Women at a Turning Point will begin broadcasting May 2 on DW (Arabia).

The host of Women at a Turning Point, Reem Magued, is a highly recognized media personality in Egypt and has been described as one of the most vocal Egyptian journalists when reporting the truth about important internal events to local audiences. DW’s new partnership with Magued is just the latest example of ongoing close cooperation with Egyptian media. Last year, famous Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef was a keynote speaker at the Global Media Forum. Other cooperative initiatives with Egyptian media include  development workshops with DW Akademie.

As an international broadcaster, DW has an important role to play in providing Egyptians with an impartial international perspective they can use to better understand events affecting their lives. Press and media oppression in Egypt is a pervasive issue and journalists or bloggers can face severe punishment for doing their jobs. Egypt ranks 158 out of 180 in the 2015 Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders.

 

 

Latin America

DW presented the winners of a multimedia journalism competition with their prizes in Colombia at an awards ceremony held at DW’s Colombian partner station, Señal Colombia, in Bogotá. The contest received a lot of attention from Colombian media and the awards ceremony was attended by many prominent journalists and media producers. Two grand prize winners received a trip to Bonn for the Global Media Forum and four others also received prizes. Around 60 participants competed in the contest which was centered on environmental and ecological issues. The contest ran from the end of last year to April and was divided into video and print categories.

Asia

DW has a new web TV partner in India. Zenga TV, one of India’s leading portals for TV live streams will now carry the English-language channel, DW. The channel is also available via Zenga on mobile devices. The service currently has 21 million registered subscribers.

Indonesia’s largest pay-TV platform, Indovision, is now including DW in its expanded IPTV service, Playmedia. The provider expects to draw 1.5 million new subscribers with the service.

The Taiwanese cable provider Digidom will now carry the English-language channel, DW. The provider delivers local and international TV channels to Taipei.

The power of modern communication is being felt around the world, particularly in the form of organizing public protest. What is the role of the media?  Both traditional and new media affect the dynamics of how protest movements are formed and publicized.

At this year’s Global Media forum, a panel discussion organized by the international news agency Pressenza titled Big media vs. social media in the global, nonviolent and humanist revolution, will focus on how protests are organized from the ground up by using social media. The talk will emphasize how social media fosters effective forms of non-violent protest. Speakers include a member of the Occupy Wall Street movement and Pressenza bureau chiefs.

Covering another angle, the global activism network, Avaaz, will be sharing some of their secrets and networking strategies in a panel discussion: The secret of mobilizing 34 million people.  Avaaz helps local issues gain global recognition by using the power of community-powered politics. The discussion will shed light on where Avaaz wants to go in the future and on best practices in creating positive change through community activism.

The international campaigning and advocacy agency One, will be also host a discussion: How digital activism can help achieve real change. The talk will feature insight on how digital petitions can translate into tangible action and how online activism combined with traditional campaigns can be particularly effective.

The 2014 DW Global Media Forum is starting soon and there will be a rich variety of experts and thinkers gathering in Bonn who represent organizations from all over the world. In the weeks leading up to the Global Media Forum, we’ll give you a sneak preview of the partners, issues and hidden gems you can look for at this year’s conference. There is an intriguing variety of issues that will be discussed.

Next week we will be previewing three further Global Media Forum events on cyber security and data protection in the oft-perilous digital world.

You can find all information on the Global Media Forum here.

What did participants think of this year’s Global Media Forum? We have put some links together for you. Orange Magazine dedicated its latest issue to this year’s conference and the editor-in-chief emphasized that the conference tackled important issues such as the media’s duty to remain independent from corporate influence.

The United Nations University (UNU) wrote that the conference “allowed UNU to join the debate on the future of growth before a massive media audience. It enabled us to share our recent work and aspirations”.

A reporter from the Brunei Times wrote a review  of the conference and commented that, “one key lesson that is reiterated in the forum is the importance of dialogue, of open and transparent discussion and sharing of ideas, of the willingness to listen and compromise.”

And the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union said that “the sentiment throughout the conference was the importance of citizens as being the key drivers of change”.

The 2013 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum hosted more than 2,500 participants from all over the world to discuss the future of economic growth, values and the media.

Even if you aren’t in Bonn, you can get involved in the sixth Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum. You can tune in to the live stream from the main session or go to the website to get more detailed information. You can also follow the conference on Twitter and watch footage from past conference events on YouTube. A highlight from yesterday was Avram Noam Chomsky’s keynote.

You can also check out all of the conference photos on DW’s Flickr page.