Erik Betermann is Director General of Deutsche Welle TV and radio broadcasting for abroad for two years now. His media experience had gone through many German print media, followed by a speed-up political carrier. He was an MP in Germany's Lower Chamber, the Bundesrat, for a long time. He was also Deputy Secretary General of the German Democratic Party.
Erik Betermann kindly answered questions of Novinite.com Editor Ivelina Puhaleva
Q: You were a politician before going to Deutsche Welle. How do you feel there?
A: I'm back to the roots, I'm back to the journalism. I can combine now, in this job, my journalistic engagements and also my interest in international and European affairs.
Q: So, you are not sorry for going back to the radio?
A: I have never been in the radio and TV before; I used to be in the print media. But my job now is more of a journalistic manager, and I like it very much.
Q: Considering the other means of communication - the TV, the printed media and the online news agencies - how do you see the advantages of the radio? Does the radio still have a place in modern life?
A: Yes, I do think it has. And I foresee a big change within the next years, coming with the digitalization. If you have a digital radio in mid-waves, broad-waves, and especially in FM. I'd say that there would be a real "Renaissance" of the radio, also because you can make more specific programs for different things.
Let's take young people for example, they want more music than older people or some want to have more classics, as far as music is concerned. That is why I think the radio will have a "Renaissance" but with a different program scheme.
That is what we start here, in Sofia - Deutsche Welle radio, with the same content like we used to broadcast on the short waves, but with another profile - a combination of music that we try to use in a digital form.
Q: Does Deutsche Welle support digital format?
A: Yes, we have started digital short waves - Digital Radio Mondial, that is broadcasted from our station in southern Portugal since summer time last year.
It takes some time because the listeners must buy a new radio, which is for now rather expensive. But with the prices falling down - Chinese people, for example, want to be involved into this business, for the Olympic games in 2008 - that means the prices can be reduced.
Q: Why have you chosen Bulgaria for launching the pilot project of Deutsche Welle? Is it for the far-back history of DW Bulgarian section?
A: No, this is not the main reason.
First of all, we have a very good orientated program on Bulgarian language and life and the team here is very engaged and enthusiastic to do it.
The second point is that we have the FM frequency here.
And third, I got the impression - and it was confirmed during my discussions today - that the interest of Bulgaria in Germany, as Germany is inside the heart of Europe, is very high.
We must make a pilot program in such a country, and find also people able to do this, to give comments. We are open to change the program, in line with the interests of the people involved in this pilot project.
What we need are the listeners of Bulgaria, to here their comments.
Q: Is this your first visit to Bulgaria?
A: No, I was here many years ago. I was here for the first time 1968, when I attended a youth student festival, taking place in Sofia. And afterwards I used to come several times.
And you know, I admire the development here. I find that Bulgaria has changed a lot, slowly but very efficiently.
Q: Do you support the idea of creating a Balkan news pool?
A: From my point of view, it is not necessary to focus on regional cooperation only.
Regions today, in the modern development of Europe, are much more than the purely geographical surroundings. I think you have to look on common interests shared in the regions, which can be hundreds and thousands of kilometers away from each other.
So, I think that the interest in Bulgaria is growing from the strategic partnership between Bulgaria and Germany. There is nothing bad in the idea to find common partnerships, to broadcast on common waves, but the important thing is to find common interests, common projects, common dialogue, which is much more than pure economic cooperation. I do hope that here we find good partners.
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Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (novinite.com)
