DW Global Media Forum

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 2023, we welcomed 2,000 participants, including 150+ speakers, from more than 100 countries in Bonn, Germany and online for the 17th edition of the conference, on "Overcoming divisions." Thank you to everyone who shaped these two intense days!

And stay tuned: #GMF24 will take place on June 17-18, 2024. We look forward to having you join us again.

Watch the #GMF23 sessions on YouTube 05.06.2023

Inspiring impulses from around the world

Media scholar Ethan Zuckerman: “Be right, not fast”

Person wearing a helmet saying Press from behind

Journalists covering conflicts and crises need to slow down, says Ethan Zuckerman. As social media diversifies and platforms like X become more and more unreliable, he calls for a new role for public service media.

Oscar Martinez: 'Journalism is indispensable'

DW's Freedom of Speech Award is a glass cube mounted on a wooden base

DW has awarded the Freedom of Speech Award 2023 to Central American investigative journalist Oscar Martinez.

GMF Talk with Ron Haviv

Sophie Kirby talks to photojournalist Ron Haviv, who has spent a long career in covering wars and conflict zones.

GMF Talk with Ron Haviv

GMF Talk: Zahra Joya

GMF Talk: Josephine Karianjahi

GMF Talk: Zuraidah Ibrahim

GMF Talk: Javier Garza Ramos

GMF Talk: Glenda Daniels

Top speakers from around the globe

DW Global Media Forum: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 years of top speakers

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

Masih Alinejad - Journalist and women's rights activist, Iran/USA (2020)
DW Global Media Forum: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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: 16 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)