Whitaker urges journalists to keep giving voice to voiceless, hope to hopeless in their work

Celebrated CBS news correspondent Bill Whitaker issued a stirring appeal to journalists in the United States, Germany and around the world to keep working tirelessly to cover the news as accurately and honestly as possible in his keynote speech at the annual RIAS Media Prize Awards Ceremony at the historic RIAS Funkhaus in Berlin on Thursday evening, where six prizewinners were honored for their outstanding TV, radio and digital reports on transatlantic themes.

The “60 Minutes” correspondent and a former winner of the RIAS Media Prize himself, Whitaker noted that journalists and journalism in the United States have faced increased scrutiny and criticism in recent years but that should not slow or stop their efforts to keep digging for the truth. He said it was important to “keep on keeping on” — a phrase from the 1970s emphasising the importance of perseverance in the face of hardship rather than give into despair.

“Bad things happen when nobody’s watching,” Whitaker said in his speech to a gala audience of 200 at the annual awards ceremony that was hosted by RBB journalist and RIAS alumni Petra Gute.

“Journalists aren’t perfect and journalism isn’t perfect. we make mistakes. But then so do presidents and politicians and so do democracies.” Whitaker noted that a free press is written into the constitutions of both the United States and Germany and noted he had worked as a foreign correspondent in countries, such as China in the late 1980s, where that was not the case.

“So what is a journalist to do in this current era of fake news? This era where social media can manipulate our believes and magnify our fears. How do we weather these storms? Something we used to say way back in the ’70s comes to mind: ‘keep on keeping on’. So keep digging, keep looking under rocks, keeping shining lights under the shadows, keep voice to voiceless, hope to the hopeless. Keep reporting with honesty, integrity and facts. When the winds die down, the truth will prevail. It will be clear who is telling the truth and who is not. In the meantime, you, me and all of us: Just keep on keeping on.”

Also speaking at the annual awards ceremony was Deutschlandradio General Director Stefan Raue, who had worked for RIAS TV as a reporter and then as a senior editor, or chef von dienst, for the TV station in the early 1990s. He recalled the history of RIAS as an important and valuable source of information during the Cold War.

The Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy, Kent Logsdon, also spoke to the guests about how much he enjoyed coming to the annual awards ceremony over the last three years . Logsdon has served as the honorary chairman of the RIAS Berlin Commission for the last 15 months.

ARD correspondent Jan Phillip Burgard, who won the award for best TV film for his documentary
on climate change’s impact on glaciers and islands in Alaska, told the audience how he had

dreamed of one day winning a RIAS media prize award after seeing an earlier trophy won in 2004 by another ARD journalist Claus Kleber in the Washington DC bureau on his first visit to the ARD studio there. “He left it there as a memory of his time there and I saw it when I was a trainee there and was full of awe and admiration of it. And to win one myself now means a lot to me.”

Lara Wiedeking received the Best TV Short film prize for two films that shed light on major societal and policy differences between the United States and Germany — “Letzte Hoffnung Crowdfunding” (Last Hope Crowdfunding) that appeared on 3Sat and “Public Shaming” that appeared on ZDF heute+.

Arndt Peltner won the best radio story prize for his fascinating 28-minute radio feature for Deutschlandradio about the history of barbed wire and the major role it played in the development of the United States — and how it is dividing the country but also society and people from one another.

Kerstin Zilm won the best radio series prize for her series of four radio reports for

Deutschlandradio on the impact that President Donald Trump’s policies are having on some.

Ainara Tiefenthäler and Shane O’Neill won the best digital media story award for their gripping multi-media account “Land of Good – Seeking Asylum in Germany and Finding Hatred”.

The prizewinners also took part in a riveting panel discussion at a RIAS alumni meeting at the RIAS Funkhaus on Friday, May 18 looking at the issue of whether there has been any change in the climate towards foreign correspondents working in the United States in recent years.