Radio Netherlands Worldwide is to intensify its cooperation with Deutsche Welle as of 1 June 2011. In the coming two years, the two international news organisations will share their internet content in Arabic, Chinese and Indonesian as well as other languages, and make a number of joint productions.

The media organisations, which both provide news and background to areas with an information deficit, expect the plans to enable them to provide a better service to their internet audience and to work more efficiently.

Editor-in-Chief of Radio Netherlands Worldwide Rik Rensen: “We are both involved in broadcasting to the Arab World, China and Indonesia. Some of our internet stories for these areas do not have a specific Dutch or German angle. It is this kind of content that we want to exchange and produce jointly. This way we can provide a better service to our audience and avoid overlaps.”

Director of Deutsche Welle, Erik Bettermann: “This is a historic moment. In this way we can, from Europe, solidify our shared values such as freedom of the press, human rights and democracy."

The editorial teams in Hilversum (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) and Bonn (Deutsche Welle) will periodically discuss which news issues can be covered jointly and which audio and video reports can be co-produced.

The two media organisations will also look into how they can combine efforts to better protect internet users and social media platforms. This is in response to developments in which press freedom is increasingly coming under threat across the world.

To avoid putting internet users in countries with little or no press freedom in danger (for instance in countries where they could face imprisonment or worse) the two broadcasters will look for ways to enable their readers to visit websites without risk. This will be done by developing software which protects the ‘footprints’ of internet users.

(as/gsh)

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide