Belltower.News

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Belltower.News (subtitle: Network for digital civil society ) is a journalistic internet portal of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation . It was founded in 2007 by the weekly newspaper Die Zeit . Until April 3, 2017, it was known as Netz gegen Nazis .

Support and organization

Former logo

The portal was initially founded by the time under the name Netz gegen Nazis . The portal of its editor, was initiated Giovanni di Lorenzo , and the publisher Stefan von Holtzbrinck end of 2007. The model was the very day in the time online editorial Affiliate Blog fault indicator . According to di Lorenzo, the intention of the project is a nationwide forum in which “those affected can give each other advice on what to do if right-wing extremist ideas intrude into their everyday lives”. Information for laypeople and experts should make right-wing extremist topics and possible counter-activities "understandably available". The main concern is to provide “argumentation aids and options for action” for people who “deal with right-wing extremist propaganda or violence” in schools, sports associations or other clubs. The editor Toralf Staud described the project as an "encyclopedia and moderated forum ". Overall, the editorial team consisted of one permanent employee and numerous freelance authors.

Founding partners were the German Football Association (DFB), the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB), the German Football League (DFL), the German Fire Brigade Association and the Second German Television . As the media for the first occurred Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck belonging VZ networks StudiVZ, schülerVZ and meinVZ on. The campaign was supported in several stadiums with short video spots from celebrities such as the national soccer player Michael Ballack , Philipp Lahm or Christoph Metzelder . Initially, the portal achieved 500,000 page views per day. In 2008 an average number of visits of around 30,000 per day was still expected. In 2015, an average of 177,770 visitors a month called the site (2014: 142,800, 2013: 128,000, 2012: 108,000, 2011: 90,500, 2010: 85,000; 2009: 70,000).

On January 1st, 2009, Zeit passed the sponsorship of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, but continued to support the portal, especially in technical matters. Since then, the foundation has been solely responsible for the content. The support from the Second German Television as a TV partner ended on June 30, 2009.

On April 3, 2017, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation renamed the site Belltower.News - Network for digital civil society , under the logo of a bulldog . The reason given was that the site no longer only has right-wing extremism in view, but also wants to deal with “the facets of group-related enmity, strategies and argumentation patterns (...), but also more intensively with digital violence and communication culture”. With the name change, the cooperation with the time and with all other partners also ended.

The editorial areas “Group-related enmity current” and “Gender” are funded by the federal program “Living Democracy” of the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). The Freudenberg Foundation is another sponsor .

Structure and content

Belltower.News mainly took over the content of the previous page Netz gegen Nazis , which dealt with group-related misanthropy (including from right-wing extremists to right-wing extremists). Topics were and are accordingly neo-Nazism , (everyday) racism , right-wing extremism and right-wing populism . With the renaming, two new categories were introduced: Under the keyword "Debate" there are now articles that deal with the culture of debate and media competence , arguments and discussion strategies, and the keyword "Press Review" collects articles from other sites that deal with right-wing extremism, Deal with right-wing populism and group-based enmity. There is also a lexicon.

Reactions

The Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, Maria Böhmer, welcomed the project in 2008 and emphasized the role of the media and sport, which "due to their broad impact" would have a special responsibility. The action would "help to reduce right-wing extremism and xenophobia and better enable potential victims to defend themselves".

On May 21, 2008, Die Welt published an article by Thomas Lindemann in which the author questioned the success of the Netz gegen Nazis project. In particular, he criticized the fact that content was too superficial and sometimes even counterproductive.

Awards

In 2010 the network against Nazis was awarded the Civis-Online-Preis - Europe's media prize for integration .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Netz gegen Nazis: Imprint .
  2. Stefan Krempl : Netz gegen Nazis: “Vigilant Lions” on the Internet and in associations against the law. In: Heise online , May 5, 2008.
  3. Alan Posener : How an online portal fights against neo-Nazis. In: Die Welt , June 15, 2008.
  4. Netz-gegen-Nazis.de 2015: The review on our own behalf. In: Netz gegen Nazis. Retrieved April 26, 2016 .
  5. ^ Robert Scholz: Amadeu Antonio Foundation takes over "Netz gegen Nazis" ( Memento from February 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Endstation Rechts, December 23, 2008
  6. Robert Scholz: ZDF no longer media partner of "Netz gegen Nazis"  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Right end of the line, August 18, 2009@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.endstation-rechts.de  
  7. Press release: The network against Nazis becomes Belltower News - network for digital civil society. Amadeu Antonio Foundation , accessed April 21, 2017 .
  8. Acknowledgments. Belltower.News, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  9. Imprint. Belltower.News, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  10. Netz- gegen-Nazis.de becomes Belltower.News. Belltower.News, April 3, 2017, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  11. Böhmer welcomes "Netz gegen Nazis" . ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Press and Information Office of the Federal Government . May 5, 2008.
  12. ^ Thomas Lindemann: Useless network against Nazis? In: The world .
  13. ^ Civis-Online-Preis Award for anti-Nazi portal , Kölner Stadtanzeiger, April 20, 2010