Africa
The news websites Focus Guinée und Guinée Signal are now DW partners for online content in French. The radio stations RTCT, Radio Télévision Communautaire Oasis and Radio Télévision Communautaire Ondese are now DW partners in Congo. They are broadcasting DW’s radio program daily in French and Kiswahili.

R2A Radio Azur in Togo is now broadcasting Learning by Ear, as well as the morning and evening shows in French and the evening show in Hausa.

In Cameroon, DW has three new partners for TV and radio. TV+ Cameroun will be including DW’s English channel in its portfolio, Canal2 will be broadcasting select programs like Made in Germany and Conflict Zone and CBS will broadcasting radio programs like Learning by Ear and AfricaLink.

UTV Ghana and Light TV are now DW partners as well, broadcasting programs like Kick Off! and Business Brief. Also in Ghana, Vision 1 is now broadcasting DW’s radio program AfricaLink as part of its lineup.

North America
DW is now working with MHz Networks in North America to distribute the English channel DW. MHz will now be broadcasting a three-hour block of DW from 15:00 to 18:00 (Eastern Time), which is picked up by DirectTV, more than 31 PBS stations and many other cable networks. It’s available in markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and reaches more than 40 million households.

Online
DW will be one of the first media companies to be included in Apple News with its own channel. The app has been included in the iOS9 launch.

Asia
The Indonesian website kompas.com is a new DW partner. Kompas will be integrated DW’s online content in Indonesian to its portfolio. It’s the 11th most popular website in Indonesia with 20 million active users and 40 million page impressions per month.

Europe
As part of a new coproduction, DW’s award-winning lifestyle program Euromaxx is now available in Lithuanian and broadcast on the public broadcaster LRT. DW’s Arts.21 is also being produced and broadcast by LRT in Lithuanian.

Veteran interviewer Tim Sebastian has forged an uncompromising style over his 40-year career that is more direct than diplomatic – but he isn’t looking for easy answers, he is looking for accountability.

In his first interview as the host of DW’s Conflict Zone he sat down with Yanis Varoufakis, the embattled and outspoken former Greek Finance Minister. Yaroufakis is someone who is experienced in fending off tough questions with what Sebastian has called a “hard edge” combined with “well-developed spin”. Indeed, Varousfakis began the interview saying, “you didn’t invite me on your program to give you powerless statements”.

Sebastian’s job was to break through the talking points and reveal a new side to the story and the person.  With the ongoing Greek economic drama reaching a new level of crisis over the summer, Varoufakis emerged as a controversial and divisive figure in European politics. Sebastian went straight to the heart and what emerged during the interview was a unique outline of the crisis and a personal look at the positions held by the Greek finance minister as a tense situation unfolded. After his resignation Varoufakis said of the so called Troika that he would “wear their loathing with pride”. Sebastian asked why he wanted to make it so personal and Varoufakis replied that they had made it personal by distorting the truth about him through the media on many occasions.

This wasn’t a comfortable discussion and Varoufakis’s barbed style proved an excellent match for Sebastian’s line of questioning. After the interview, Sebastian said it had been a “good battle”. Sebastian who has come up against masters of spin like Bill Clinton or the intellectual prowess of Noam Chomsky said that the interview revealed why many of the other European finance ministers were fed up with Varoufakis. “He is very convinced that he is right and that he is the only person who is right.” During the interview Varoufakis said that his former colleagues lacked “sophistication” and that there was “no discussion” of macro-economics in the Eurogroup.

The interviews on Conflict Zone make a difference because of the time and effort that goes into producing questions that poke holes in arguments and challenge interviewees with facts. As the intensity of this first interview indicates, the next guest on Conflict Zone should come well prepared.

 

DW has brought back The New Arab Debates – with Tim Sebastian for its viewers around the world. The first of six new episodes was broadcast yesterday on DW, DW (Europe) and DW (Arabia). For the first time, the show is also being produced in Arabic for its viewers in the Arab world.

Each episode will focus on current affairs from the Arab world, with two guests offering their opinions and perspectives. Veteran journalist and television host Tim Sebastian is back for the English version and Egyptian TV journalist Mai El Sherbiny will be hosting the Arabic version.

 

DW has a new show looking at the changes taking place in the Arab world: The New Arab Debates – With Tim Sebastian. It offers a spotlight on the Arab revolutions – inviting a new generation to get involved in politics and help shape history. Tim Sebastian asks the vital questions and insists on the answers.