Best European Radio Documentary featured on Radio Atlas

If you can’t speak German, you might be happy to hear: Christian Lerch’s winning documentary is available on Radio Atlas with English subtitles in its original form.

The Radio Documentary Jury recognised ‘‘Papa, We Are In Syria’ - Joachim Gerhard’s Search for Lost Sons and Holy Warriors’ as ‘a story of our time’.
The praise continued: ‘a thrilling 21st century tale told through a treasure trove of audio messages, this documentary takes the listener inside the nucleus of a personal family tragedy set in the defining story of our generation.’

Find more information about the winner of the Best European Radio Documentary of the Year 2017, as well as other PRIX EUROPA 2017 winning productions, here.

Radio Atlas is an English-language home for subtitled audio from around the world. It is a place to hear inventive documentaries, dramas and works of sound art that have been made in languages you don’t necessarily speak.
It has made several audio works which were nominated for or won PRIX EUROPA available to broader audiences.

Radio Atlas itself received a Special Commendation in PRIX EUROPA 2016 Digital Audio category.

Kim Wall Memorial Fund

‘We can never get Kim back, but we can see to it that her spirit and will live on, and inspire other young journalists to go out in the world and find the stories,’

said the parents of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall, nominated last year for the PRIX EUROPA Outstanding Achievement Award. ‘More than ever, we need brave female journalists who give voice to the people that normally never hit the front pages.’

The Kim Wall Memorial Fund was created by The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), in partnership with Kim’s family and friends. Through the fund they seek to help other women with Kim’s adventurous spirit chase down important and underreported stories - the kind of stories Kim loved.

The Kim Wall Memorial Fund will distribute one $5,000 grant once a year. Winners will be paired with a mentor to assist them in their reporting.
Application deadline is 2 February 2018.

For all information visit the International Women’s Media Foundation’s (IWMF) website:
http://www.iwmf.org/blog/2018/01/11/kim-wall-memorial-fund-inaugural-grant-open/

Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) under threat

Ten Directors-General of public service companies in Europe sign statement in support of Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).

In a statement, published on 10 January 2018, Directors-General of ten of Europe’s most renowned public service broadcasters warn that proposed cuts of up to 25 percent could have significant and far-reaching consequences for DR’s ability to operate as a public service broadcaster.

In the letter the signatories also point out the important role that public service broadcasters play in a time of “increased polarisation and greater alienation between different groups in society. Against this background the importance of well-functioning, trusted public service broadcasters, side-by-side with high quality commercial media, can hardly be stated too clearly.”

It is also important to put this discussion in a broader European perspective. The signatories write: “free and independent journalism around the world is under greater pressure than it has been for a long time……increasingly authoritarian regimes in some parts of Europe have made public service broadcasters subject to comprehensive changes. For the time being two of the most troublesome cases are Hungary and Poland. It is no coincidence that both countries have plunged down the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index in recent years. ……The choice that Danish politicians must make when it comes to public service broadcasting can be seen in many other countries around Europe: Whether to cut budgets and increase the risk of political control; or to secure long-term funding and build up greater and more effective safeguards for the independence and stability of public service broadcasting. That the latter would promote democracy hardly needs to be pointed out.”

The signatories to the statement are:

Tony Hall, BBC (UK)
Thor Gjermund Eriksen, NRK (Norway)
Magnus Geir Thordarson, RUV (Iceland)
Gilles Marchand, SRG SSR (Switzerland)
Dr. Alexander Wrabetz, ORF (Austria)
Shula Rijxman, NPO (Netherlands)
Hanna Stjärne, SVT (Sweden)
Per Bergkrantz, UR (Sweden)
Cilla Benkö, SR (Sweden)
Tom Buhrow, WDR (Germany)

Source and full text of the statement: http://news.cision.com/sveriges-radio/r/danish-broadcasting-corporation-and-public-service-broadcasting-under-threat,c2428703