DW was in Dhaka this week to provide journalists and media professionals a look at the the new 24/7 English news channel presented in cooperation with local partner Bangladesh Television (BTV). The flagship program, DW News, features a programming block that focuses on regional issues for Asia and content with regional significance in cooperation with local partners. These co-productions will maintain DW’s standards while allowing partners the flexibility to use their own graphics and on air personalities – a method that succeeds in combining international expertise with regional appeal.

In Bangladesh, DW reaches an audience of opinion leaders and people who are curious about learning and seeking information. Dorothee Ulrichs, DW’s Head of Asia Distribution said theses are people who aren’t satisfied with tag lines or headlines and want to “discover new places and understand the ‘why’ in the world around them”.

Part of the global launch of DW News last June was a promotional campaign that focused on the audience and highlighted local heroes in regions all over the world. Local heroes are people who make a difference in their communities by working, thinking, creating and innovating. Two Bangladeshi local heroes were guests at the launch in Dhaka. Their work sets an exceptional example.

Mahfuza Akter is an Infolady – volunteers who bike hundreds of miles a month to provide advice and medicine to thousands of people in remote, impoverished villages around the country. Using the Internet, they connect people with modernized methods and ideas that they cannot access elsewhere. Their work also earned them a 2013 DW Bobs online activism award. And Korvi Rakshand founded the JAAGO foundation in 2007, which provides education for disadvantaged children living in slums. The school also promotes volunteer action groups in Bangladesh through the initiative Volunteer for Bangladesh. The project has organized over 10,000 volunteers in Bangladesh who are working to enact positive social change.

DW’s latest campaign puts the focus on people who are making a difference. People who rely on global insights and who think, reflect, reconsider and innovate. Who make rules, instead of playing by them and motivate instead of standing in the way. What DW refers to as “local heroes”.

Coinciding with the launch of its new television channel, flagship news show and app, DW is calling for viewers and users on social media to submit their own stories about people in their community who are making a difference. To submit their stories, users just need to fill out a form at dw.com/localheroes or join the discussion on Facebook.

The campaign also features DW’s stories about local heroes as a programming highlight. For example, the winners of this year’s The Bobs are being featured on Life Links. The show speaks with online activists like a refugee from Syria, a data protection activist from Bangladesh and a blogger from Mexico, who tell their stories about taking a stand and fighting for what they think is right.

Out of all the recent sacrifices made in the name of freedom of speech, the tribulations of the Saudi Arabian activist Raif Badawi poignantly exemplify the precarious condition of free speech in some parts of the world today. This year Badawi is the recipient of the first DW Freedom of Speech Award, which is being presented by DW in conjunction with “The Bobs- Best of Online Activism” awards.

Badawi was arrested in 2012 and charged with insulting Islam through electronic channels via his website, Free Saudi Liberals, which provided a public forum for social criticism in Saudi Arabia.  In May 2014 Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes to be carried out 50 at a time for 20 weeks. He was publically flogged 50 times in January. It is feared that he will die if subjected to the full extent of his sentence.

With this award, DW is actively taking part in the international protest against the treatment Badawi is receiving simply for publicizing his opinion. Amnesty International  has started a campaign calling for his immediate release. On social media , supporters have gathered around the hashtag , #iamraif. A group of academics and social activists from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom even offered to each take 100 of the lashes that would have been administered to Badawi rather than “stand by and watch him be cruelly tortured.”

Badawi will be regognized by DW at The Bobs awards ceremony during the 2015 Global Media Forum in Bonn on June 23.

For the past 11 years, The Bobs is where DW has honored the world’s most courageous, creative and compelling international online activists and bloggers.

The 2015 competition is kicking off with new categories that introduce a fresh focus on how digital activism is changing the world. The Bobs jury categories will now put the spotlight on the critical issues of privacy and security, arts and media and social change. Judges will determine how contestants have used their digital skills and activism to create positive impacts within these fields. The new format also allows for more than one contestant to stand out for their exemplary work.

How can a digital crusader improve economic development and living conditions? Who is producing the most innovative or avant-garde formats to speak out online? What is the most cutting-edge software for protecting data and digital privacy? On June 22 at the Global Media Forum in Bonn, we will all get the chance to find out.

The core values of the Bobs remain the same, even if they will now be presented more directly. Last year’s winner of best blog was the Egyptian photo blogger, Mosa’ab Elshamy, who showed courage combined with a brilliant eye for powerful imagery. His blog is an example of where fine art meets journalism. In 2013 the “grand prize” winner was the Chinese blogger Li Chengpeng, whose tireless efforts for freedom of speech made him a digital celebrity in China and a salient example of contemporary activism as well as a trendsetter for those living under oppression. No matter the year or the format, the Bobs have always looked for the bravest and the best.

If you are a blogger or online activist you can submit your website now. You have until March 12 to enter your submissions.

There were more than 3,000 submissions to this year’s Bobs awards. Our jury is currently selecting this year’s finalists and users will be able to scroll through 14 language’s worth of interesting and inspiring people’s work starting April 2. The Bobs’ jury members will get together for two days of discussions starting on May 4 to decide on the winners of the 2014 Jury Awards. They’ll dig into the details of each of the nominees before reaching their verdict in the six multilingual categories.

On April 2, we’ll also start the online voting phase at www.thebobs.com for the People’s Choice Awards in all the contest’s categories.

The Bobs awards honor websites and projects  in 14 languages that champion the open exchange of ideas and freedom of expression. When the annual awards launched in 2004, blogs were just beginning to establish themselves as a new type of media and The Bobs aimed to show that this new form of communication was worthy of being taken seriously and to point to the excellent example of work being done online to foster dialogue across language barriers.  The Bobs represent one of Deutsche Welle’s ongoing efforts to contribute to promoting freedom of expression and the upholding of human rights on the Internet and around the world.