German journalists arrive in USA for start of 3-week RIAS Berlin fellowship

A group of 14 German broadcasting journalists arrived in Washington DC on October 2 for the start of a three-week RIAS Berlin Commission fellowship — the seventh of eight planned RIAS exchange programs in 2023 in which a total of 130 journalists from the USA and Germany are taking part. The German journalists, many of them seasoned mid-career broadcasters, came from commercial and public broadcasting networks from across Germany. They will be spending their first week together in Washington DC meeting American and German journalists and politicians, their second week together in New York City and they will spread out across the country to spend their third week at local stations in the Midwest, South and Southwest with RIAS alumni from the USA. Here are short thumbnail sketches from the German journalist:

Aline Abboud, ARD, Hamburg

Abboud is an anchor at German public broadcaster ARD’s “Tagesthemen” news broadcast. She is the first woman born in the former communist East Germany to be one of the anchors on the ARD flagship evening broadcast. She studied Arabic at the University of Leipzig and has worked in Istanbul and Beirut. She has previously worked as a print and radio journalist. Abboud has family ties to Lebanon and speaks Arabic fluently.

Kirsten Gerhard, ARD, Hamburg

Gerhard is an anchor for the German public broadcaster ARD. She works for the ARD news channel tagesschau24 and for tagesschau. She has also worked as a radio journalist and as an anchor for commercial network Sat-1. She has also worked as a journalist for Der Spiegel newsmagazine and for Deutsche Welle TV.

 Katja Losch, WELT TV, Berlin

Losch is an anchor at the German all news channel WELT TV. She presents news shows and the WELT business magazine at the commercial network. She also works in the field as a reporter and produces TV reports focusing on business and environmental topics. Losch has also worked for the Sat-1 network and also spent part of her career in journalism working in Salzburg, Austria, Senegal and Paris.

Veith Karl Jänchen, RBB, Potsdam

Jänchen is a senior broadcast editor and reporter for the German TV network RBB in the state of Brandenburg. He works for various TV departments including political, current information and entertainment sections. He is heavily involved in selecting, developing and managing content and topics for the public network’s news broadcasts.

Clara Pfeffer, RTL/ntv, Berlin

Pfeffer is a political correspondent for the commercial TV networks RTL and ntv. She works for the daily news programs for RTL and ntv in Berlin, hosts a climate podcasts and a climate TV show. She is a specialist on climate politics and economics. She studied Economics at the University of Cologne and started her journalistic career as a field reporter at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Pfeffer has family roots in Brazil and spent several years living in South America. She speaks Portuguese fluently.

Hiba Obaid, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Berlin

Obaid is a journalist and social media editor at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. She is also a podcaster. She studied Arabic Literature at the University of Aleppo and has written for magazines and newspapers in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Germany. She has lived in Berlin since October 2015 and also writes for Die Welt daily newspaper, taz newspaper and Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. She has family ties in Syria and speaks Arabic.

Sven Knobloch, MDR, Leipzig

Knobloch is a TV reporter for the German public broadcaster MDR. He works for the regional daily news program MDR Aktuell and national news programs such as Tagesschau and Tagesthemen. Knobloch is a specialist on politics and social movements.

Julia Bestrich ARD, BR, Munich

Brestrich is a reporter and anchor for the German public broadcaster ARD. She works in news for the daily TV news program BR24 and BR24live and is well versed in social media. She crafts videos for young people on Instagram and TikTok. Bestrich has family ties to Poland.

Thomas Kempe, BR, ARD, Munich

Kempe is an editor and reporter for the German public broadcaster ARD. He mainly works for BR24 the TV-news department of the Bayerische Rundfunk / ARD-aktuell in Munich. Kempe specializes as news editor leading coverage for major events like the G7 meeting in Elmau, Bavaria (2022) or the annual Munich Security Conference.

 Julia Lange, Der Spiegel, Hamburg

Lange is a researcher and fact-checker at the foreign desk of the German news magazine Der SPIEGEL. She specializes in US politics and culture, transatlantic relations, and Russian politics. Lange holds a PhD in American Studies from Hamburg University where she still teaches. Lange has family ties to Russia and speaks Russian fluently

Timm Giesbers, ARD, funk, Deutschlandradio, Cologne

Giesbers is an anchor, reporter and digital developer for several German public broadcasters – such as ARD and funk. He hosts a documentary channel on YouTube specialized on topics for Generation Z. Giesbers also reports live for the nationwide daily ARD morning news program. Giesbers’ reporting focuses on poverty, education and social justice, including queer life and discrimination.

Constanze Semidei, NDR, Hamburg

Semidei is news editor at the German public broadcaster ARD. She works for daily news programs at NDR radio stations, including the ARD radio overnight program. Semidei writes, produces and presents radio news. She also writes texts for the NDR homepage and Twitter channel. Her work focuses on politics and history, especially East German.

Franziska Venjakob, ntv, Cologne

Venjakob is an editor for the German broadcaster ntv. She is responsible for political coverage. She previously participated in two exchange programs for journalists in Russia (Saint Petersburg and Moscow). Venjakob specialized in social policy, migration and climate issues.

Laura Wassermann, RTL, Cologne

Waßermann is a social media journalist at RTL Germany where she focuses on news and politics. She is primarily responsible for running the Instagram and TikTok RTL channels. She also presents workshops to journalists and students.