2006-2009

Deutsche Welle reacts to the new media laws in India by founding its own company and is the first international broadcaster to offer programming in the Indian TV market.

Director General Erik Bettermann hands over DW’s operation plans for 2007-2010. For the 2006 World Cup, DW provides the most comprehensive informational offer for mobile Internet. Deutsche Welle opens multimedia info-terminals in the Goeth-Insitituts in Tel Aviv and Gaza. DW presents the “International Video Journalism Award” and announces the international Weblog award “The BOBs – Best of the Blogs” – both for the third time. The winner of the The BOBs is the “Sunlight Foundation” from the USA.

Deutsche Welle presents a six-part music documentary on DW-TV in cooperation with the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin (DSO) and Kent Nagano. DW expands programming in Belarus by 45 minutes daily and increases its presence in Turkey with new partners. euromaxx, the lifestyle magazine on DW-TV, is made available on VR China and Chinese programming on DW-RADIO is on-air for 160 minutes – 35 minutes more than before.

Killed in Afghanistan: DW reporter Karen Fischer.

Two Deutsche Welle employees are killed in Afghanistan: journalist Karen Fischer (30) and technician Christian Struwe (39).

Minister of State Bernd Neumann, Representative of the Federal Government for Culture and Media visits DW’s headquarters in Bonn and emphasizes the importance of Deutsche Welle as “the only worldwide voice that Germany has”. DW is irreplaceable and must “have a high standing in foreign policy and cultural policy”. He further said that he would “contribute to keeping and securing this standing.”

Director General Erik Bettermann (62) is unanimously voted to another six years by the Broadcasting Board in November. The new term begins on October 1, 2007. Russian and Asian programming on DW-RADIO can now be heard on the Internet, just like German and English.

2007

Plans are made to expand the DW-AKADEMIE’s training activities. Director General Erik Bettermann and the Prime Minster of North Rhine-Westphalia Jürgen Rüttgers present the project to the press on February 1: A bilingual Master’s program entitled “International Media Studies” will be offered starting in 2009.

Expansion of the DW-AKADEMIE: Prime Minister from North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers and Erik Bettermann explain the plans.

In Berlin, Deutsche Welle presents another project: Germany’s international broadcaster will offer journalists from Southeast Asia the opportunity to work in the Southeast Asia editorial department at DW-RADIO in Bonn for a period of six months.

The United Nations and Deutsche Welle agree on a large-scale cooperation. A corresponding agreement was signed by UN Under-Secretary General Secretary Sashi Tharoor and Director General Erik Bettermann on March 5 in New York. It outlines the cooperation in television, radio and Internet. For television the focus is on the development and joint broadcast of a weekly show about globalization. For radio, they look to intensify the exchange of programming with a focus on Africa.

On March 25 Deutsche Welle and TVP Polonia start broadcasting the television magazine “Zwischen Rhein und Oder” weekly instead of monthly.

Deutsche Welle also starts working closer together with the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA) by contributing to events associated with the IFA program “Media-im-Pakt”, as well as providing training for journalists with the DW-AKADEMIE in Eastern, South Eastern and Central Europe.

Starting in April, the DW-TV news program JOURNAL is shown in English and German in the departures area of the Berlin-Tegel airport.

Deutsche Welle begins a new Internet website for Iran: Farsi becomes a focus language for DW-WORLD.DE in April.

In April, regionalized, expanded programming from DW-TV goes on air in North America and Latin America. The new offer includes well-known programs from ARD and ZDF – talk shows, magazines and children’s programming. The basis for this expansion is an agreement between Deutsche Welle and the ARD Broadcasting Company as well as ZDF. Also knew to the line-up is the travel magazine Discover Germany.

Starting in July, Germany’s international broadcaster becomes available on many mobile handsets. This new offer meets the expectations of a growing target audience for Deutsche Welle – one that wants to be able to access TV content on their mobile phones or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant).

Awimova: Winner of The BOBs 2007

The Weblog “Photo-Mania” from Belarus is the winner of the “Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards – The BOBs 2007”. The Weblog “Jotman” from Thailand was awarded with the “Reporters Without Borders Award”. The best German-language Weblog went to “Behindertenparkplatz” from the UK.

2008

Talk show on DW-TV ARABIA with a partner in Cairo: “Youth Across Borders”, moderated by Sahar Najy.

Talk show on DW-TV ARABIA with a partner in Cairo: “Youth Across Borders”, moderated by Sahar NajyDW-TV begins two monthly talk shows in cooperation with broadcasting partners in the Arab World. In Algeria, the talk show discussions center on the concerns Europe shares with the Maghreb region, while the Egyptian program focuses on youth themes.

Deutsche Welle is a media partner of the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue”, which was developed to encourage awareness of cultural diversity and identity in Europe among EU citizens.

Deutsche Welle acts as a media partner for the 58th Berlinale film festival. The DW-AKADEMIE once again offers seminars for the staff of various African and Asian film festivals.

Deutsche Welle and the German broadcasters ARD and ZDF expand their collaborative efforts, thereby strengthening German broadcasting abroad. DW-TV begins offering more content from the public broadcasters in Germany and a variety of new shows in mid-April.

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Prize winner from Iran and guest of honor at the first Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.

The first Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum draws approximately 800 guests from around the world from July 2-4. The Forum opens with what will be a recurring theme: the role of the media in peacebuilding and conflict prevention.

Deutsche Welle is an associate member of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU). Deutsche Welle Director General Erik Bettermann and ASBU General Director Salah Eddine Maaoui officially agree to the membership in April at DW’s headquarters in Bonn. They also agree to continue the long-running collaboration between the DW-AKADEMIE and the ASBU training center while further expanding their institutional cooperation.

“The BOBs – Best of the Blogs,” Deutsche Welle’s International Weblog Award, is included in the top ten most significant awards worldwide for social networking and Web 2.0 sites, according to Mashable.com, a renowned American news portal in this field.

Young actresses at rehearsal for the “Learning by Ear” radio drama series: Production in Rwanda *** DW

By collaborating with the German Federal Foreign Office and partners in Africa, Deutsche Welle produces radio dramas for young audiences in Africa. The “Learning by Ear” project blends education and entertainment for an experience that is both fun and enlightening. Its themes include health, equality, the environment and globalization.

Deutsche Welle announces a Master’s Program entitled “International Media Studies” that will begin in winter 2009, especially designed for students from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The University of Bonn and the Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences act as partners in this project.

DW-TV CLIPMANIA is launched in both English and German. The program is a collaboration between DW and MDR and is produced by UFA Entertainment, showing the best Internet videos and their creators.

For the 2008 Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Deutsche Welle works with the festival on projects including Beethoven podcasts, Orchestra Campus Russia and a television project with the “Shooting Star” Gustavo Dudamel.

Deputy Chairman of the Broadcasting Board: Wolfgang Börnsen

Deutsche Welle’s Broadcasting Board is convened on September 19, 2008 at its new quarters in Berlin for its inaugural meeting. Valentin Schmidt, President of the Council of Evangelical Churches in Germany (EKD), is confirmed as Chairman of the Board, while Wolfgang Börnsen remains the Deputy Chair. Michael Sagurna is selected to be the new Chairman of the Television Programming Committee, and Dr. Hans-Uwe Erichsen is confirmed as Chairperson of the Committee on Radio and Telecommunications. Vera Szackamer leads the newly established committee for the DW-AKADEMIE.

DW-RADIO’s cultural affairs department collaborates with the endowment for “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future”, which was initiated by the federal government. The focus of the broadcast’s reporting is on the group “Europeans for Peace”. It is directed at young people in Germany, Eastern Europe and Israel that are involved in relevant themes both in the present and past.

As a UN partner, Deutsche Welle supports the initiative “Stand Up & Take Action”. This worldwide initiative is intended to remind government leaders at the state and national levels to keep their promise to enact each of the eight UN Development Goals by 2015.