Olaf Scholz and Věra Jourová at the M100 Media Award: “The end of the world as we know it?” – Europe’s media order after COVID-19

Potsdam, 11 September 2020. On the evening of 17 September, Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz will give the political keynote speech for the presentation of the M100 Media Award, which closes the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium in Potsdam. EU Commission Vice President Věra Jourová will open the awards ceremony. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic will present the award. The entire event will be broadcast live on the internet.

The presentation ceremony for the international M100 Media Award, which will take place on 17 September from 18:00 to 20:00 in the Raffael Room of Potsdam’s Orangery Palace in Park Sanssouci, is the formal conclusion to the international M100 Sanssouci Colloquium media conference. The main conference will take place that afternoon, with the theme “NEUSTART: Shaping the Post-Covid Media Order.” With the award of the prestigious prize to Hungarian journalist and former index.hu Editor-in-Chief Szabolcs Dull, the M100 Advisory Board expresses its emphatic solidarity with Dull’s commitment to fundamental press-freedom rights and his struggle against external interference in editorial decisions.

EU Commission Vice President Věra Jourová, who also highlighted the significance of press freedom and pluralism for democracy and for Europe in a message of solidarity to the employees of index.hu, will open the awards ceremony. In her speech, the Czech EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency will address the future of Europe‘s media order.

The evening’s keynote speech by Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz will focus on the crucial significance of press freedom, the need to protect high-quality journalism and the challenges for journalism arising from COVID-19.

For the first time, a panel discussion will be held in conjunction with the awards ceremony, with the theme of “The end of the world as we know it?” Vice-Chancellor Scholz, Russian-American author Masha Gessen, Swedish SVT Director Hannah Stjärne, Internet expert and author Marina Weisband and author John Kampfner will discuss issues relating to media and democracy in the pandemic era.

The presentation of the award will be streamed live on YouTube, at www.m100potsdam.org and by M100 media partner rbb inforadio.

Interviews and posts by individual conference participants can be found beginning today on the M100 conference blog, located here.

Launched in 2005, the M100 Media Award has been given to figures whose creative work has left a mark on Europe and in the world. The award honors service for the protection of the freedom of expression and the deepening of democracy, as well as special achievements in the cause of European understanding and communication. Previous award recipients include Bob Geldof, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, Vitali Klitschko, Erdem Gündüz, “The Standing Man,” French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Italian author Roberto Saviano, Russian journalist Natalja Sindejewa and journalist Deniz Yücel. Last year, the award was given to Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

An initiative of Potsdam Media International e.V., M100 is held in conceptual cooperation with the Institute for Media and Communications Policy, and is primarily sponsored by the city of Potsdam. Additional support is provided by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Press Office and the Land Brandenburg. Cooperation partners include the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten, Reporters Without Borders and the German Newspaper Publishers Association (VDZ). Medienlabor serves as a sponsor. The conference’s media partner is rbb inforadio.