Hoping to fill what it views as a missing link in news coverage in the United States, DW has launched WorldLink – a new weekly, sound-rich radio magazine providing coverage of events viewed through the perspective of those whose lives are shaped by the news.

DW will provide an hour-long program (55 minutes running time) fueled by the week’s international news – like the building of democratic movements in the aftermath of the Arab Spring or the economic crises that has shaken the foundations of Europe. The program is produced by DW’s editorial team in Bonn.

“WorldLink is a news magazine with timeliness and urgency that foregoes breaking news coverage and analysis to focus on the impact – often selecting one or two major events and going to the source of the story to find the peo-ple whose lives have been changed by events,” says Sylvia Viljoen, DW’s Head of Distribution America.

WorldLink will be available every Saturday with a rights window of seven days. The program is available via PRSS and from DW’s own AudioDepot file server. WorldLink joins DW’s other weekly news magazine, Inside Europe, which has been on public radio in the U.S. for more than 25 years.

 

DW was once again recognized for outstanding TV production at the World Media Festival in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday. “The XX Factor” won the intermedia-Globe Award in (gold) in “Documentaries: Lifestyle” category. The series looks at three women in Europe who have broken into typically male-dominated fields. Euromaxx also received silver in the same category for its feature on adventurous vacations.

DW also picked up two silver awards in the category “Political Documentaries” – one covering the challenges and opportunities that Europe is facing because of the situation in the North Africa, and one covering a center for treatment in Lindau, Germany.

 

Education for all – that is UNESCO’s central aim when it comes to the world’s school systems. But where do we stand today? DW has developed a new multimedia project that examines innovative education initiatives and the areas where the international community still has much work to do. With “Education for all – Five bloggers, five countries, one dialogue”, young people discuss the state of education in their home countries as well as their own experiences in the school system. DW is relying on five bloggers from Iraq, Germany, Argentina, Russia and Kenya to provide discussion points for the online community. Interested? Join the discussion today.

Our 12 jury members decided on the winners of the 2012 Bobs – Deutsche Welle’s Blog Awards. After an exciting month of voting, the people’s choice winners have been decided, so go check them out! In addition to the User Prizes, the jury of bloggers, media experts and activists also got shut into a conference room for a day to cure the best blogs, and campaigns and media project in the main six multilingual categories.

Blogger and journalist Arash Sigarchi was this year’s big winner, taking the Jury Award for Best Blog with “Window of Anguish” where he writes about human rights, social and political topics about his homeland. Window of Anguish is widely read inside and outside of Iran for its objective view of current events. Currently in Washington, Sigarchi maintains close connections to many sources in Iran.

This year’s other Jury Awards went to:

Best Social Activism Campaign
Free Syrian Blogger& Activist Razan Ghazzawi

Special Topic Award Education and Culture
Fasokan

Best Use of Technology for Social Good
Harassmap

Best Video Channel
Kuang Kuang Kuang

Reporters Without Borders Award
Abu Sufian’s Blog

Go to the Bobs website for more information.

Learning by Ear for Afghanistan is available in Dari and Pashtu.

Asia
Radio Nawa has been signed on as a radio partner in Afghanistan and has been broadcasting DW’s Pashtu program since the middle of March. Radio Nawa is a subsidiary of the Saba Media Organization that specializes in informational programming and is available in 20 of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan. Along with the nightly DW broadcast, Radio Nawa will be broadcasting “Learning by Ear” once a week in Dari in Pashtu.

MioTV in Singapore has integrated the all-English television channel DW into their IPTV line-up. MioTV is considered a pioneer in the realm of IPTV in Asia and provides programming to the culturally-diverse public in Singapore. It is a subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) – one of the largest in Asia.

The Indonesian cable provider Megavision has also integrated DW’s English chanel into ist line-up and broadcasts it 24 hours daily. Megavision bundles international and local television channels for viewers in Bandung, Bogor, Semarang and Malang.

Europe
Euromaxx is now available in most of Russia as the result of a new partnership with STP-Content. The Russian syndication network is the largest in Russia and provides content for regional TV networks in. This will make Euromaxx available to more than 40 million viewers throughout Russia. The Russian version of the award-winning lifestyle show is being produced by Kanal 100TV in St. Petersberg.

America
DW has a new online partner in Brazil with O Povo. DW will provide a content box for the website as well as Global Ideas videos in Portuguese. O Povo started off as a daily newspaper in 1928 and has expanded to include three radio stations and one television station. The website has more than two million unique visitors monthly.