“They deserve our respect, our esteem and our utmost support”

Mathias Müller von Blumencron, member of the Board of Tamedia (Switzerland) and member of the M100 Advisory Board, on the decision to honour the people of Ukraine with the M100 Media Award:
“The value of freedom: no nation on earth has so passionately made this clear in the past six months as Ukraine. The country is fighting a heroic battle for its values: independence and freedom. Values that it defends day after day, hour after hour under deadly fire. What we take for granted, Ukrainian men and women have been risking their lives to preserve for themselves for months. They deserve our respect, our esteem and our utmost support. And therefore also the M100 award.”

The award ceremony will take place on 15 September in Potsdam. Wladimir Klitschko will accept the award on behalf of the people of Ukraine.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz holds the political keynote. The laudationes will be delivered by US Ambassador to German, Dr Amy Gutmann, and Donald Tusk, Chairman of the Civic Platform, Poland.

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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