00:00All right, let's hear more about this DW Award and its latest recipient now from the head of DW.
00:05Peter Limberg is the Director General of DW and we call him boss around here.
00:10Glad to have you in the studio, Mr. Limberg.
00:13So undoubtedly there were a number of remarkable nominees in consideration for this award.
00:18What made Tamar Kinsurashvili stand out?
00:21I think Tamar is a very impressive person.
00:23I've met her last year in Georgia and she's doing a lot for press freedom and media freedom.
00:31All the nominees were really good.
00:34But I think it's also an important sign that we don't leave people alone who are fighting for the values.
00:42Also DW stands for, that's democracy, that's freedom of expression.
00:45And Georgia is in a very difficult position with a government which is really working against free press,
00:55which is trying to control everything and bring it into a sense which is a pro-Russian directive.
01:03So I think it's somebody who is really working for a long period.
01:08She's doing this, media literacy, her work, she's doing this for a lot of years and I think it's worth recognition.
01:17How significant would you say is courage in this award and in the way the Freedom of Speech Award was granted?
01:23I think courage is essential and it's admirable to see how people, because it's sometimes for us,
01:31we are sitting in a relatively safe place and we can talk about press freedom and freedom of expression.
01:38But these people, and Tamar also, she gets threatened regularly.
01:44She risks a lot, her family.
01:47And we see this around the globe.
01:49Journalism is getting more and more under pressure by autocrats and by other forces, criminals, clans, whatever.
01:56It's getting more and more dangerous for journalists and it takes a lot of courage.
02:00And I think it's important to show that we recognize also this courage.
02:05And I do want to talk about that.
02:06But let's talk a bit more about Tamar first, because beyond her role with Georgia's Media Development Foundation,
02:12something that DW supports financially, she is also head of something called Myth Detector.
02:17How important is something like that in the times that we live in?
02:20I think it is very important to do fact-checking and to bring in the discourse which is dominated by social media
02:32and a lot of fakes and falsifications and propaganda disinformation is around.
02:41It's important to have institutions who are really working on this.
02:46And we as DW do this, also with a fact-checking unit.
02:49But it is very important that this happens also locally.
02:54And it's not only international media doing it.
02:57It's important that it happens locally, because there's also a lot of trust into local organizations.
03:01And I think this is something which is important.
03:05And I think it's also important to see it's not the question that we think we should oppress some kind of opinion.
03:13It's the question that we have to stick to facts.
03:17And facts are not something which we can just dispute on and say,
03:23well, I don't believe in this fact.
03:25Facts are facts.
03:26And I think this is important in this discourse.
03:29Going back to something that you were mentioning earlier, this clampdown on journalists and freedom of the press globally,
03:35especially for Tamar in our home country of Georgia and, dare I say it, arguably in what was once the beacon of press freedom, the United States.
03:44How important is such an award in this year?
03:48It is, I think, always important to cherish people who are working for the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press.
03:57And yes, it is getting more and more difficult, especially within the United States.
04:04But also that the United States is retiring, obviously, from its international media scene,
04:11like the presumably shutdown of Voice of America and the danger Radio 4 Europe is in.
04:17So I think these are also moments where we as Europeans must try to step in and also we cannot do all of this.
04:27But I think we have to get our act together and see that press freedom is worldwide so much under pressure that we have to invest more.
04:36We are talking here, of course, also about authoritarian governments, which are clamping down even further on the press freedom.
04:41And these times seem to make the job easier for some of these governments.
04:44What does that mean for journalists moving forward?
04:47What is it that they are up against?
04:49I think they are up against a worldwide phenomenon where autocrats who are working together,
04:58who are also working together in trying to block freedom of expression,
05:03trying to block, for instance, international media like DW or the BBC or France Media Monde.
05:08And I think it's a worldwide phenomenon.
05:12And the most important thing, I think, is to interconnect the journalists who are working in this field
05:21and to show that they are not alone.
05:24And this is also why we have this award, the Freedom of Speech Award,
05:30to especially show a light into maybe areas where not everybody is looking the whole day.
05:36Is there a light at the end of what sounds like an increasingly dark tunnel?
05:41I mean, do you see more people like Tamar standing up and putting their beliefs and their faith in their work on the line?
05:49First of all, I'm an absolute optimist.
05:52So I think there's always light at the end of the tunnel and it's not always the train coming.
05:57So don't worry.
05:58I think it's something where we have to invest.
06:01If we just hope it won't change, but we also have to invest in free journalism.
06:07We have to support people like Tamar.
06:09And I think at the end, I'm absolutely convinced that the freedom of expression
06:14and freedom at itself will prevail.
06:17Peter Lindbergh, DW's Director General.
06:19Thanks so much for coming into the studio.
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