Deutsche Welle kicks off seventh annual ‘BOBs’

Deutsche Welle began its seventh annual international competition "The BOBs - Deutsche Welle Blog Awards" on Wednesday. The online community around the world has until March 11 to submit their favorite blogs in 11 languages and six multilingual categories. Visit www.thebobs.com for all the details.

Deutsche Welle puts the spotlight on human rights this year and is looking for blogs and videos that promote – among other rights – freedom of expression and the rights to education and health. For the first time, the contest will also hand out an award for Best Social Activism Campaign. The international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders will once again take part in the international blog award.

Best Blog honors will also be given to a blog in each of the contest's 11 languages.

The 2011 international jury of bloggers and media experts includes Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, one of the organizers of the Chinese Blogger Conference that has been held in the People's Republic of China since 2005. International journalist and blogger Amira Al Husseini also returns to the jury panel this year from Bahrain.

The BOBs has established itself as the most influential blog award. “We support the use of this form of communication to promote an open, multilingual conversation,” said Marc Koch, Editor-in-Chief of Deutsche Welle's radio and online services.

Another of the contest's goals is to highlight and support the work of bloggers in countries with limited press freedom.

“The events in Tunisia and Egypt have shown what an important role social media and networks can play,” Koch added.

Timeline

Submissions to the BOBs will be accepted until March 11, at which point the finalists will be decided.

From March 22 until April 11, the winners will be decided. The international jury will name one set of winners and a separate and independent online vote will decide which blogs win the people’s choice award.

All the winners will be announced on April 12 at Deutsche Welle in Bonn, Germany.

Winners in the multilingual categories will receive their awards at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum on June 20 in Bonn. The focus of the three-day conference is “Human rights in a globalized world: challenges for the media”.