DW Global Media Forum

Maria Ressa in the plenary hall during her keynote speech

DW Global Media Forum 2022 — Shaping tomorrow, now

Following two years of digital events, the DW Global Media Forum was finally held again in person on June 20 and 21. Delegates from all over the world had a chance to partake in Germany's international media conference.

Conference highlights | DW Global Media Forum 2022

An event to remember: Relive some of the best moments of the 15th edition of DW's international media conference.

Click here to revisit the 2022 conference 30.06.2022

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about "Shaping tomorrow, now"

DW Global Media Forum 2022 program.pdf

Fewer people, fewer problems?

Overpopulation is often presented as a future threat. But is this assumption really true?

Fewer people, fewer problems?

What's gender got to do with it?

Social media trends in 2022

Social media failures | GMF compact

Troll farms | GMF compact

How to report on Big Pharma | GMF compact

NFTs explained | GMF compact

What’s so bad about algorithms? | GMF compact

Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa: Journalism is 'at an existential moment'

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa delivering her keynote address at the Global Media Forum in Bonn

Speaking at the Global Media Forum in Bonn, Nobel laureate Maria Ressa noted that lies, laced with anger and hate, spread faster than facts. "Rebuilding trust with truth is vital to combat the rise of fascism," she said.

'Journalists should not become activists,' Global Media Forum urges

Should journalists embrace or shun activism? At this year's DW Global Media Forum, media experts warn not to blur the lines between value-driven journalism and activism.

DW honors Ukrainian journalists Maloletka and Chernov for Mariupol reporting

GMF 2022 | Freedom of Speech Award | Gewinner

Risking their lives, Evgeniy Maloletka and Mstyslav Chernov documented Russia's siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The journalists are the 2022 recipients of DW's Freedom of Speech Award.

Russia's blockade on Ukrainian grain 'is a disaster'

US historian Timothy Snyder has compared Russia's blockade of grain supplies from Ukraine with Stalin's terror of hunger. At the Global Media Forum, he called for more independent reporting from on the ground in Ukraine.

How will independent journalism survive the war in Ukraine?

Someone wearing a press helmet points to smoke rising from a building far away

Independent journalists in Russia and Ukraine work in violent, life-threatening conditions. They also must fight against propaganda, division and polarization. A panel at the Global Media Forum discussed their work.

Should African creatives leave or stay?

How can the arts move the continent forward? An Arts.21 debate at the Global Media Forum.

Shaping tomorrow in all of 2022 — Interviews and more

Making news truly inclusive - but how?

On the importance of transcripts and captions for inclusivity in media content. Transcript in video description.

Making news truly inclusive - but how?

Frances Haugen, what's wrong with social media?

Sham Jaff on bias in Western media

A Pakistani journalist and the power of local journalism

Futurist Angela Oguntala | GMF talk

Understanding AI with Stuart Russell | GMF talk

Pratap Bhanu Mehta | GMF talk

Arts dialog: Plunging into the future with Beethoven, Fela Kuti and Germanic legends

Host Karin Helmstaedt with film directors Kenneth Gyang and Sabine de Mardt (m).

How can arts and culture shape a more pluralistic and inclusive future? What can people from opposite ends of the globe learn from each other? DW Global Media Forum's new format "Arts dialog" wants to find out.

The power of global start-up ecosystems

Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative in Cape Town's skyline | GMF start-up ecosystems

Building on the success of the 2021 DW Global Media Forum start-up contest, we set out to explore start-up success stories by focusing on ecosystems around the world, where innovators seek solutions to big social issues.

Henriette Löwisch: Reporting starts with questioning own assumptions

How can journalism schools learn to cater to the needs of future journalism? The director of the German Journalism School shares her views on impartiality, diversity and the role of journalism for civilized discourse.

A platform to seek solutions — together

The DW Global Media Forum offers a unique interdisciplinary platform for media professionals as well as decision-makers from politics, civil society, culture, education, business and science from all over the world to get together and to learn from each other as part of an intercultural exchange since 2008.

In June 2022, we finally met again to shape the future of journalism together - both at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Germany and online.

Thank you to more than 2,000 media professionals from around the world for joining us!

Introducing the DW Global Media Forum

For 15 years, the interdisciplinary media conference has brought together media professionals from around the world.

Plenary Session: The future of local journalism

DW Global Media Forum on Social Media

Top speakers from around the globe

DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"Sometimes news, sometimes information is more important for human survival than even food. That thought allowed us to keep working."

Mstyslav Chernov, Ukrainian journalist and DW Freedom of Speech Award laureate (2022)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"If you don't have facts you don't have truth; if you don't have truth, you don't have trust."

Maria Ressa - Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2021, co-founder and CEO of the news website Rappler, Philippines (2022)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"I firmly believe that free and democratic societies need free media to inform citizens and hold those in power accountable.”

Annalena Baerbock - German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2022)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"The word 'disruption' has to be recycled. The idea of a local newspaper is disruptive. The idea to have iPhones and be on the internet is reactive."

Timothy Snyder - Historian, Yale University, USA (2021)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"In democratic societies where we are open to new developments, we have to keep thinking carefully about what freedom really means to us."

Angela Merkel - Federal Chancellor of Germany (2021)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"Independent fact-based journalism has never been as important as it is today."

Armin Laschet - Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (2021)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"We live in a microwave generation. Everyone wants everything too fast, but we have to put in the work."

Leymah Gbowee - Activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liberia (2021)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"It's a pity that when our demonstrations, because of violence and torture, disappeared from the streets, journalists lost a bit of interest."

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya - Belarusian opposition leader (2021)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"What we want in journalism is not optimism and not cynicism, but accuracy."

Steven Pinker - Cognitive psychologist, Harvard University, USA (2021)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"They kicked me out of Iran, but I am there every day through social media."

Masih Alinejad - Women's rights campaigner, Iran (2020)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"We need ombudsmen for algorithms. We need some insight into them if we are to maintain our democratic political system."

Anne Applebaum - Pulitzer Prize winner, USA (2020)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"Algorithms pick up on negative feelings such as fear and accentuate them. This has led to the creation of fear-based politics all over the world."

Jaron Lanier - Computer scientist and author, USA (2019)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"It's difficult to form a relationship with a politician who's acting like a tyrant. What questions can you ask when this person can put you in jail?"

Can Dündar - Former editor-in-chief of "Cumhuriyet", Turkey (2019)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"Do governments truly have the capacity to understand emerging technologies? Communication regulations from the 1970s are not going to work for 2019."

Juliana Rotich - Tech entrepreneur, Kenya (2019)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"We need to address the daunting challenges to development by engaging with multiple centers seeking balance rather than overreliance on one country."

Hamid Karzai - Former President of Afghanistan (2018)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"I believe that in the digital age, public broadcasters have a more important role to play than ever before."

Tom Buhrow - Director General of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Germany (2018)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

“As politicians, we need to keep and defend the values we deem constitutive for our democracy in the analog world in our digital lives, too.”

Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissionar for Culture and the Media, Germany (2015)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"The freedom of the press is facing pressure on a global scale, not just abroad. I want to encourage journalists: Democracy needs you all urgently."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier - Federal President of Germany (2014)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"We should all be protected by the same press freedom."

Sarah Harrison - British journalist and WikiLeaks section editor, UK (2014)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"Power must be in the hands of the wealth of the nation."

Noam Chomsky - Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic and political activist, USA (2013)
DW Global Media Forum: 15 years of top speakers

"Journalists must see themselves as members of a big family and stick together."

Shirin Ebadi - Lawyer, former judge and human rights activists, founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, Iran (2008)