Werner Bätzing: “Homo destructor”
In light of the massive environmental destruction that is now affecting the entire planet and challenging human existence, a question urgently arises: Is the human being a Homo destructor who destroys its environment always and everywhere? Or do we have a destructive side that only becomes visible under certain circumstances? Do humans only turn into Homo destructor at a certain point in time?
The well-known geographer and doyen of Alpine research Werner Bätzing gets to the bottom of these questions in a comprehensive history of man and the environment. Cultural self-limitation in earlier times is called into question by the industrial revolution, modern science, enlightenment and the market economy. This is the beginning of a way of thinking and acting that exploits nature and the environment on a short-term basis and destroys the limited earth. Bätzing pleads in his Opus magnum “Homo destructor” (Beck, 2023) for a new cultural self-limitation.
Fuocoammare
Documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi spent over a year on the Italian island of Lampedusa, observing how refugees arrive here every day in the hope of a better life and how the people react towards them. Twelve-year-old Samuele, who witnesses a great human tragedy with his family, is at the centre of the film, which also deals with media coverage. Through his everyday observations, Gianfranco Rosi approaches a place that is as real as it is symbolic as well as the emotional world of some of its inhabitants, who are exposed to a permanent state of emergency. And at the same time, the film, which does not need a narration, describes how even in the smallest of spaces, two worlds barely touch.
Eastern Europe: Controlled media in Hungary
Ever since Victor Orbán has been in power in Hungary, the media has gradually been taken under the control of the government. In Reporters Without Borders’ ranking of press freedom, Hungary comes last in the EU. The weekly newspaper HVG remains one of the last independent newspapers and its editor-in-chief is a guest at the Journalismusfest.
Large foundations have recently become involved in Eastern European countries in order to preserve the remaining media diversity and thus strengthen democracies. In 2021, the Dutch Plūrālis Foundation was founded with the aim of investing specifically in Eastern European media. The Austrian ERSTE Foundation is also invested in Plūrālis.
Hotspot Méditerranée
The Mediterranean region is a hotspot in which crises and challenges overlap. The sea is warming up more than the global average, the ecosystem is being severely affected by oil and gas extraction, climate change is having a socio-economic impact on coastal areas and large-scale fishing is robbing traditional fisheries of their livelihoods. But there are also pioneers of sustainability and there is a great deal of commitment to rescuing refugees.
The journalist Stefano Liberti and the photographer Francesco Bellina are travelling throughout the Mediterranean for a large documentary project: The research trip leads them to Murcia and Favignana off Sicily, to Tanger and the Kerkennah Islands off Tunisia, to the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal, to Cyprus, to the islands of Antikythera and Jabuka, all the way to Venice.
Fueling the Invasion
In November 2022 shocking allegations were made about German oil company Wintershall Dea. German media alleged links between Wintershall and the Russian military, claiming that companies owned jointly by Wintershall and Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom had been drilling for gas in western Siberia and produced fuel used by Russian fighter jets as they attacked Ukrainian civilians.
Wintershall denied these accusations, claiming a lack of evidence. But in April 2023, an investigation led by Global Witness revealed new evidence of the supply chains connecting Wintershall’s Siberian gas fields to Russia’s military supply chains, showing how gas condensate from Wintershall’s fields in Western Siberia feed a refinery which sends diesel to Russian military suppliers.
This short film looks at the human stories behind our investigation. Filmed largely in Ukraine, it includes powerful testimonies from survivors of Russian air attacks. It asks the question: whilst western governments decry the war in Ukraine, how has this been allowed to happen?
Far Away and yet so Close
Following the Hamas massacre on October 7th 2023, war in Israel and Palestine has erupted once more and has also been dominating German speaking media. For the Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish diaspora the war is closer than just an image on the news: They are worried about relatives and friends and facing hostilities and a tense discourse themselves. Jewish Israelis and Palestinians sharing a panel has become an exception by now. Alena Jabarine and Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus will do just that. With Bascha Mika they will talk about their view on the conflict, being seen and being ignored, and the debate in the German-speaking world.
Servus. Grüezi. Hallo.
At a gig in the autumn of 2023, Berlin-based editor for the German weekly newspaper ZEIT Lenz Jacobsen spoke about Austria and Switzerland: “(Sounds like) beautiful countries. If that is the case: Why the hell are we sitting in a grey fairground hall instead of in the Alpine idyll?” This is why the third gig of the three ZEIT editors at Journalismusfest Innsbruck will take place against a unique backdrop for the first time – live at Seegrube cable car station above Innsbruck. Just like every week, the journalists from Innsbruck / Vienna, Zurich, and Berlin will discuss current affairs in their podcast. This time, in the midst of an Alpine idyll.
Migration Routes
On October 3rd 2013, a boat sinks off the coast of Lampedusa. More than 300 people die and the then mayor Giusi Nicolini knows: something needs to happen. A few days later, she holds an impressive speech at the EU summit. In 2015, one year after the discontinuation of the Italian state-run rescue operation Mare Nostrum, the organisation for the rescue of life at sea SOS Méditerranée was founded. Since then, it saved 38,500 lives and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2023 for its operation. By now, civil-operated sea rescue has become a difficult undertaking. Europe is closing down its external borders, at times, resorting to violence. Time and time again, we see reports about EU Border Guard Agency Frontex being involved in pushbacks of migrants on the Greek coast.
Disguised as a Secretary for the Nazi Campaign Newspaper
She was probably the first investigative journalist in the German world. 1923, at the age of 24, Paula Schlier, who had previously published articles against the Nazis as a journalist, sneaked into the party leaflet of the NSDAP, the “Völkischer Beobachter”. Disguised as a secretary she also documented Hitler’s attempted putsch on November 8th/9th 1923. Her diary reports were published in 1926 as a celebrated first work by the Brenner publishing house in Innsbruck: “Petras Aufzeichnungen oder Konzept einer Jugend nach dem Diktat der Zeit” (Petra’s Records or the Concept of Youth under the Dictate of Time) was a statement against a world that was radicalising to the right. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Hitler putsch, Innsbruck-based Germanists Annette Steinsiek and Ursula A. Schneider have published a commentary on Paula Schlier’s report. Based on that, the Bavarian Broadcasting (BR) has produced the documentation “Hitlerputsch 1923. The Diary of Paula Schlier”.
Atlas of Globalisation.
The Atlas of Globalisation by Le Monde diplomatique has been setting standards in journalistic cartography for 20 years. It represents a comprehensive and clear illustration of what globalisation means in the 21st century: for the freedom of movement of people and goods, for political participation, and for social progress. The current Atlas of Globalisation labelled “Ungleiche Welt” (Unequal World) is showcased as part of a collaboration between Journalismusfest with Le Monde Diplomatique / Berlin.
