Dokumentale'25 D'Hub Bearing Witness in the Face of Media Blackout
D'25 D'Hub Bearing Witness in the Face of Media Blackout
D'Hub

Bearing Witness in the Face of Media Blackout

13 Jun, 2025, 12.00 PM @ Atelier Gardens

Event language: English

How can journalists report on the reality on the ground when they are systematically barred from doing so? 

In this open conversation between experts, we will investigate the transformative role played by digital communication, documentary filmmaking, and crucial collaborations between local and international journalists in confronting and circumventing media blackouts. Our goal is to share knowledge and collectively reflect on how, in an age defined by global digital networks and real-time information flows, it is no longer possible for states to totally erase war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other forms of state violence. Across the globe, people affected by conflict and repression are using social media and other digital tools to tell their own stories— circumventing traditional gatekeepers and reframing narratives from the ground up. This represents a dramatic shift from the pre-digital era, for instance, during the Chechen wars, when banning journalists truly meant no footage, no coverage—and therefore no global awareness of the unfolding crimes. Still, many governments persist in trying to control what is seen, said, and remembered.

Tickets

D'Hub
13 Jun
12.00 PM
Atelier Gardens

Program Info

Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk

The panel will open with a visual presentation on Sepideh Farsi's film "Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk", along with a video message in which she reflects on her collaboration with the young photojournalist Fatma Hassouna. A Gaza photojournalist who was killed in a bombing on April 16, 2025. Her images—and now Farsi’s film—keep her story alive, highlighting the crucial role of local journalists and the power of first-hand narratives in breaking through imposed silences.

Guest

Sepideh Farsi

Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi experienced revolution and imprisonment before fleeing Iran at 18. She has directed numerous films, including Tehran Without Authorization, Red Rose, and The Siren. In Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, Farsi documents her friendship with Gaza photojournalist Fatma Hassouna, captured over 11 months of video calls—until Hassouna was killed alongside her family in an Israeli airstrike, one day after their film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

Talking about International Perspectives

Middle East Editor Lisa Schneider (taz) will discuss the ethical and logistical challenges of informing the public about the current conflict in Gaza without access and the Western media’s work with local journalists. She will be joined by Nicolai Sparkes (Saram), an expert on North Korea, and Rieneke van Santen (Zamaneh Media), who will contribute her insights into the strategies employed by the exile media outlets reporting on Iran and Afghanistan to showcase perspectives beyond the Middle East.Putting it all together from her perspective as an international journalist and working during the media blackout in Chechnya will be addressed by Nadja Vancauwenberghe.

Guests

Rieneke van Santen

Rieneke Van Santen is a media professional focused on independent journalism in repressed societies. She consults journalists and human rights groups in countries such as Iran, Sudan, Russia and more. After leading an independent Persian journalism platform, she founded Dendezo Media Support & Productions where she (impact) produces human rights documentaries. Her award winning film "Sānsūr" on censorship of women in Iran reached millions via satellite.

Nicolai A. Sprekels

Nicolai A. Sprekels is spokesperson and co-founder of SARAM – Foundation for Human Rights in North Korea. For over 10 years, he has worked with North Korean dissidents and international experts to raise awareness of the country’s human rights situation, verifying information and organizing hearings at the German Foreign Office and Bundestag. He has spoken at a side event of the ICC and gives regular interviews to international media.

Lisa Schneider

Lisa Schneider is an editor at the foreign desk of taz, responsible for the Middle East and North Africa. She did a part of her studies at Université Saint Joseph in Beirut, was a Ernst Cramer & Teddy Kollek fellow at Times of Israel in 2022 and has reported for taz and other media from Israel and the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iraq.

Moderation

Nadja Vancauwenberghe

Nadja Vancauwenberghe is a Berlin-based journalist and founder of Exberliner magazine, where she served as editor-in-chief for 21 years. A former Moscow correspondent for AFP, she reported undercover during the Second Chechen War's media blackout (France 2 , ZDF, Moscow Times). Nadja teaches journalism and currently coordinates a transnational team of researchers and journalists analyzing media coverage of Gaza in France, Italy, and Germany.
12.00 PM Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk
12.15  Talking about International Perspectives

Tickets

D'Hub
13 Jun
12.00 PM
Atelier Gardens

Atelier Gardens

Oberlandstraße 26-35
12099 Berlin

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