"Media must perceive themselves as providers of education"

This was the message of the Deputy Director General of Deutsche Welle, Reinhard Hartstein, on June 25 at the opening of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn. Through June 27, more than 1,800 participants from around the world will be discussing the subject of “Culture. Education. Media - Shaping a Sustainable World.”

“Education for all is key to a country's economic progress and prosperity - which in turn drives the growth of the global economy,” Hartstein said. Conversely, educational emergency leads to poverty and social tension. Even many armed conflicts are rooted in lack of education or the poverty and social inequalities it causes. “So our goal must be to better distribute education opportunities around the world. This is a task of global importance,” Hartstein stressed.

He pointed to the importance of the media. Their task is “to get the public involved, create transparency about education shortfalls and raise awareness of the topic.” Moreover, they “must perceive themselves as providers of education and embrace education as their objective.”

Knowledge and education are “an important resource - for developed and less developed countries alike.”

The Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum provides a venue for media professionals to interact with academics and lawmakers, people from the business and cultural sectors, to share and develop ideas about “how to do even more, even better,” Hartstein said.

The Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2012 takes place under the patronage of the German Commission for UNESCO. The conference is co-hosted by the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Sparkasse in Bonn and also supported by Germany's Federal Foreign Office, the European Regional Development Fund, the State Chancellery of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia, the City of Bonn, Deutsche Post DHL, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well as the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.