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DW suspends partnership with Jordanian broadcaster

DW is suspending its cooperation with Jordanian media partner Roya TV. The decision comes following the emergence of anti-Israel and antisemitic comments and caricatures spread by the broadcaster on social media.

DW headquarters in Bonn, Germany Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER/S. Ziese

DW vehemently distances itself from this kind of content and regrets its initial assessment that Roya TV is not anti-Israel.

"We are truly sorry that we did not notice these disgusting images. Following the posts in question by Roya TV we must re-evaluate our cooperation," says Guido Baumhauer, Managing Director Distribution, Marketing and Technology at DW. "Several pieces of content disseminated via the broadcaster’s social media channels are definitely not consistent with the values of DW. We will now even more critically review our partner selection internally, especially with regard to antisemitism and racism."

DW originally decided to enter into a partnership with Roya TV because the broadcaster addresses and supports in its programming topics such as promotion of media literacy of young people, equal rights for women and the rights of minorities in Jordan.

The DW partner strategy

The law states that DW is to add German and European points of view to the international discourse. This can only be achieved by maintaining a dialogue. The partner strategy has proven successful for decades, especially in countries with regional conflicts and limited freedom of expression, and has helped DW enter into active dialogues with media partners in many countries. Although not all media companies around the world share German and European values (and with that those of DW), it is vital that DW continue using its content to help spread other points of view.

When partners use journalistic content from DW, they bring additional information that is very relevant but may otherwise not be available to the people in the target markets. In these cases, the journalistic integrity of content from DW is guaranteed. DW content always remains unchanged, as stipulated in all partnership contracts. The high usage rates of media partners' far-reaching platforms bring DW content to relevant market shares. In the long term, this promotes the spread of democratic values.

The partner strategy becomes an especially important concept when the media partners are active in regions with a heavily polarized media landscape. They all operate in the environment of media and public opinion that exists in their region. By delivering its own journalistic content and its co-productions to the region, DW can make a long-term contribution to diverse and objective reporting.