Pankaj Mishra opens M100 Sanssouci Colloquium

13 July 2023. Indian essayist, literary critic and writer Pankaj Mishra will deliver the opening speech at this year’s M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, which takes place on 14 September at the Orangerie Sanssouci in Potsdam.
The author, who was born in North India in 1969, became internationally known in 1995 with his non-fiction book “Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India“. In this travelogue, he describes the social and cultural changes in India in the context of ongoing globalisation. His latest book, “Bland Fanatics”, is a collection of essays in which he questions the myth of the so-called “superiority of the West” and describes the pitfalls or dangers of this myth.

You can read more about Pankaj Mishra here.

M100 Media Forum in Tbilisi: Struggle for democratic space

12 July 2023. Independent media and an active civil society are the foundations of democracy which are threatened by autocratic governments. At the M100 Media Forum in Georgia, some 30 national and international media and civil society representatives discussed how to strengthen public spaces for social discourse and change.

Democracies worldwide – and the liberal international order – are facing multiple challenges that question the foundations of their values and institutions. The new geopolitical competition of our time is thus also a struggle for the role, meaning and, ultimately, the future of democracy. These developments were the focus of intense, sometimes sombre, but always insightful discussions at the one-day M100 Media Forum entitled “Between Ambition and Disarray – The Future of Democracy”, which we organised together with the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft (AHG) in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on 22 June. The discussions took place under Chatham House Rules.

read more M100 Media Forum in Tbilisi: Struggle for democratic space

The participants of the M100YEJ have been selected!

10 July 2023. Almost 50 young journalists from 17 European countries applied for this year’s M100 Young European Journalists Workshop on ” Reporting on climate change – and its significance for democracy“.
It was therefore not easy to select the 20 who will be invited to Potsdam from 10 to 14 September: they show what great young journalists are growing up between Norway and Greece, between Ireland and Georgia, what impressive skills and experience many already have, how motivated, reflective and excellently trained they are.
We would like to encourage all those who did not receive an invitation this year and are under 30 to apply again next year –  if they like the topic!
We will publish this year’s participants on the website soon.

The workshops will be led by experienced experts: Sven Egenter, Editor-in-Chief of Clean Energy Wire (CLEW), our Advisory Board member Prof. Dr Alexandra Borchardt, who produced this year’s EBU report on “Climate Journalism that Works”, Alexandre Brutelle, co-founder of the Environmental Investigative Forum (EIF) in Paris and M100 alumnus, n-ost, who will lead a workshop on climate change as a topic for cross-border journalism, as well as AFP, Deutsche Welle and dpa, who will present best practice examples from their newsrooms.
The agenda is available here.

China, Russia and the International System

by Dr George N. Tzogopoulos

7 July 2023. Much emphasis is currently placed on Sino-Russian relations. The partnership of the two countries is multifaceted and has the potential to impact on the world order. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine perplexes matters as it is testing the limits of this partnership. While the interests of Beijing and Moscow intersect in opposing American foreign policy objectives, they are not always identical. As long as the war in Ukraine continues, dilemmas are emerging and scenarios are being debated about the future direction of the international system, Russia’s position in it, and China’s responses.

read more China, Russia and the International System

Sanctioned Russian propaganda channel Ruptly still broadcasts from Berlin

30 June 2023. The Russian propaganda channel RT, which has been sanctioned since December 2022, is still operating in Berlin without any restrictions. M100 alumna Olga Konsevych and her colleague Christoph M. Kluge investigated this unbelievable fact for Der Tagesspiegel.
Meanwhile, reactions from German politicians are beginning to emerge, with members of the Bundestag calling for more decisive action against Russian propaganda and Ruptly in particular.
“The Ruptly case clearly shows that the current sanction mechanisms are obviously not working,” said one MP.
Sergei Sumlenny, former Regional Director for Ukraine and Belarus at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, interviewed Olga about her research and this scandal:

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Application Call: M100YEJ 2023

Reporting on Climate Change – and its Significance for Democracy

10 – 14 September 2023, Potsdam
(Arrival 9 September, departure 15 September)

Climate change poses new challenges not only to society, politics and the economy, but also to journalism. Climate journalism, until recently a marginal phenomenon, is increasingly moving into the focus of media houses and editorial offices.
Climate change is one of the greatest threats of the 20th century, affecting all aspects of our lives: society, the economy, supply chains, work, agriculture, health, food, mobility. It is fuelling fear, insecurity, social division, lack of freedom, migration, poverty – and thus the health and resilience of democracy around the world. In this context, high-quality, fact-based and objective journalism is particularly important. How we report on climate change, its consequences and societal options for action is crucial to addressing this major threat.

read more Application Call: M100YEJ 2023

Summary “How to run a journalism start-up?”

2 June 2023. On Thursday, 25 May, M100 has organised the online Q&A “How to run a journalism start-up?” With three founders and one editor in chief of three media start-ups.
Speakers were:
Julius O. Fintelmann, co-founder of “The European Correspondent“, which was only launched at the end of November 2022;
Florian Vitello, co-founder and Viktoria Franke, editor-in-chief of “Good News Magazin“, which aims to counteract the daily flood of bad and threatening news;
Matthias Bannert, co-founder and managing director of the online magazine “Medieninsider“.
The event was moderated by Sabine Sasse, Head of Programme of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium.

read more Summary “How to run a journalism start-up?”

Can Dündar about the Turkey election

17 May 2023. There was a certain disappointment in Can Dündar’s and his wife Dilek’s face, when the first predictions of the Turkish election were published last Sunday: No landslide victory for Erdoğan’s challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, no immediate removal of Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from office. If the opposition had won, Dündar and his wife would have returned to Turkey immediately. Now they have to stay here indefinitely.
It’s not that they don’t like it here, they tell us on election day in the garden of the Maxim Gorki Theatre, from where Dündar commented live on the election. But they miss their home, their families, their house (confiscated by the AKP), and both of them has seen their old and sick parents for years.
A large part of this result is due to the fact that two-thirds of the 1.5 million Turks eligible to vote in Germany once again voted for the increasingly autocratic Erdoğan without even living in Turkey, says Dündar: “I have been observing and trying to understand this for 20 years.”
read more Can Dündar about the Turkey election

AHG is partner of the M100 Media Forum in Tbilisi and the M100 SC in Potsdam

15 May 2023. We are very much looking forward to working with the Alfred Herrhausen Society at the M100 Media Forum in Tbilisi and the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium in Potsdam!

The M100 Media Forum will take place on 22 June under the M100 annual title “Between Ambition and Disarray: The Future of Democracy” in the Georgian capital. It is jointly organised by the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, the Institute for Media and Communication Policy (IfM) and the Alfred Herrhausen Society. Cooperation partners are Radio Free Europe and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Tbilisi is the capital of a young, emerging democracy that is under enormous pressure. Since the Russian invasion in 2008, Georgia has not only had to contend with a constant security threat from Russia, but also with the concrete consequences of the war in Ukraine in the form of tens of thousands of refugees. It is a country with an impressively vibrant civil society and committed journalists who need our support. The conference will bring together media professionals, NGOs, policy makers and the interested public to discuss the future of democracy in an international perspective.

read more AHG is partner of the M100 Media Forum in Tbilisi and the M100 SC in Potsdam

HOW TO RUN A JOURNALISM START-UP?

25 April 2023. Have you ever thought about creating your own media start-up? But you don’t know how to get started, how to survive in an information jungle that is getting denser by the day, where and how to reach your target audience and – last but not least – how to make money? Or have you already started and want to know what other people’s experiences are with their journalistic business model?
To answer these questions, we invited the founders of three very different young media start-ups to talk about their motivation, their first steps, their set-up, their financing, but also about their doubts and problems:
Julius O. Fintelmann, co-founder of “The European Correspondent“, which was only launched at the end of November 2022;
Florian Vitello, co-founder and Viktoria Franke, editor-in-chief of “Good News Magazin“, which aims to counteract the daily overload of bad and threatening news;
Marvin Schade, founder of the online magazine “Medieninsider” in 2020.

Our free Q&A session will be moderated by Sabine Sasse, head of programme of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium.
The event will take place on Thursday 25 May 2023 from 18:00 – 19:00 hrs (CET) in English on Zoom.
To register, please write an email to events(at)m100potsdam.org.

We look forward to your registration and to an interesting, exciting discussion!