Mayor of Hamburg Hosts Reception For Intajour Fellows

Just days after their arrival in Germany and the start of their training program at the International Academy of Journalism the Mayor of Hamburg held a reception for the twelve Intajour Fellows at City Hall. Olaf Scholz (SPD) spent an hour talking with the young journalists in the building’s magnificent Phoenix Hall, to learn first-hand about their personal experiences of press freedom and freedom of expression in their home countries. In a speech, the mayor of the Hanseatic city-state – who is therefore also head of government of one of Germany’s 16 federal states – made it clear that the right to free expression and dissemination of opinion was important and indispensable, but clearly not a given around the world. He also said how pleased he was that Bertelsmann had based Intajour in the media city of Hamburg.

“In Germany today, no real heroism is required to work as a journalist," Scholz told the Fellows. ". But some of you come from countries where press freedom was restricted until recently or still doesn’t exist. Man’s greatest freedom is not only to be able to express his own opinion, but also to disseminate it unhindered. I hope that your participation in the international program for journalists in Hamburg will give you a lot of strength and inspiration for your journalistic work in your own home countries."

The attempt to curtail people’s right to free expression and dissemination of opinions by no means always begins with arrest and prosecution, but usually as a subtler, gradual process. The different forms these restrictions take was made clear as the Fellows introduced themselves at the reception, responding to Scholz’s request to briefly describe their respective working conditions as journalists. Ludmila Boghenanu from Moldova summed up this aspect: "When I came here to Hamburg, I was convinced that we have no free press in Moldova. Now that I've listened to the reports from the other Fellows I know that although things are not all good in Moldova, and we still have a long way to go, in many other countries it is still much more difficult to freely express and disseminate opinion."

In the ensuing discussion with Mayor Scholz, the Fellows from all over the world asked a wide range of questions about topics ranging from the integration of immigrants in Germany and the future of the euro-zone, to rioting youths in London and whether Scholz could imagine something similar happening in Hamburg. But they kept returning to their core concerns about issues of press freedom and freedom of expression. For instance, they wanted to know how the Mayor rated his personal relationship with the media and if he had friendly ties to journalists, to which Scholz replied: "Friendship wouldn’t be the right term, but friendship wouldn’t be good for democracy anyway." He said he was not always happy with what the media reported about him and it was not always correct, "but that’s part of the game - and it’s a good game."

The Mayor added that he feels Germany has now mastered the game, and it has become a stable, established institution. However, he also reminded listeners of how young democracy and the accompanying press freedom is, even in Germany. "In the eastern parts of our country it is just 20 years old," he said, and concluded from this and from historic and current experience in other parts of the world: "The more countries develop economically and technologically, the more citizens' demands increase and the greater the pressure becomes on processes of political developments towards increasing democratization." And, he went on to point out, a free press plays a pivotal role in this process. „