Firas Alshater – M100 SANSSOUCI COLLOQUIUM

Firas Alshater

Firas Alshater, born 1991 in Damascus, studied acting. In the revolution against Bashar al-Assad, he began working as a journalist and cameraman for foreign news agencies. He was arrested several times and brutally tortured. He has lived in Berlin since 2013. Together with Jan Heilig he shot the documentary “Syria Inside” as well as various YouTube videos for the web series Zukar. Firas Alshater is currently studying at the Film Academy in Babelsberg. He believes steadfastly that integration can work. Firas Alshater is a normal Berliner with hipster beard and glasses, a comedian and successful YouTuber. Only that until two years ago he was arrested and tortured in Syria for his political videos by both the Assad regime and Islamists. Only the work on a film brought him the desired visa for Germany, and Firas entered the largest cocoon in the world: the West. Since then he has tried to understand us: the deposit system, private mailboxes, ticket machines and the German language (“One life is not enough for”). But when his brother comes to Europe via the Mediterranean with his family, Firas realizes: “I am already totally German. So there’s something else that can be done with us and this new country. Firas tells of his experiences in Germany and Syria in a funny, tragicomic, open-minded and always endearingly cheeky way.

I am very moved, especially because I was not expecting to hear these words, which are like an embrace for me. So I want to thank you for this award, for the incredibly moving words of Giovanni di Lorenzo, for this wonderful sky that has welcomed me to Potsdam, and also to thank the Federal Chancellor for her touching words, and for her encouraging presence. Because the awareness raised heartens me a lot more than words. Roberto Saviano, M100 Media Award laureate 2016
It is a great honour for me to be here and receive this great price. It's a very big day for me. I thank Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dr. Joachim Gauck for the kind and strong words, and for their appreciation. Thank you, I will never forget this day! Kurt Westergaard, danish cartoonist, M100 Media Award laureate 2010
At the same time, today’s prize is an appeal to all persons who hold positions of responsibility in governments, in culture and in the media: be steadfast, value-oriented and also COURAGEOUS when irresponsible persons and powers undermine or relativise our values of freedom. It is a virtue to yield to a convincing argument, but it is cowardice to yield to a threat from enemies of freedom. Joachim Gauck in his laudation to Kurt Westergaard, 2010
I receive [this award] with an immense joy, happiness and humility also, because I think by being with you today here, I am receiving this price in the name of those who are still suffering in the jungle of Colombia and of those in the world that are living in similar conditions and who cannot speak for themselves freely. Ingrid Betancourt, M100 Media Award laureate 2008
But I have to say that in our modern society the media has a very, very particular responsibility, also for the European idea. And I hope that the event today – and the events which will follow – will help us to communicate better, to explain better and to convince people that Europe – and acknowledging all the problems, the mistakes and the deficits – […] that at the end of the day the idea of European integration is the best idea that we have ever developed in our history. Günther Verheugen, former EU-Commissioner, in his keynote speech 2005

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