On the last weekend of June 2014 a Street Art Workshop under the title of “Against Exclusion! Transcending walls and building bridges via Street Art” took place in Berlin-Friedrichshain. It was held by 14 km in cooperation with the Egyptian El Takeiba Centre for Artistic and Cultural Development, the youth club Jugendclub Feuerwache and the beach club YAAM (both in Friedrichshain) in an endeavor of showing the young participants ranging from the age of 13 to 17 a modern and artistic way of protesting and commenting on life conditions that they might dislike or be critical of. The workshop has been a complete success as the participants received the content through an active learning methodology and supporting material; our main rationale was showing the participants how can they reject something yet be ready to express this view through art and painting. At the same time, the participants had the chance to familiarise themselves with the role of street art as a political instrument in the so-called "arabellions". The first day started at the youth club with an introduction about graffiti and its role in the Arab protest movements with examples of different graffiti paintings and stencils from the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. It was followed by a workshop where the participants were taught by a professional graffiti artist (Pjotr Obuchoff) how to make their own stencils and try them out on wooden plates. They were working side by side and had lots of fun with the multicultural team of 14km, including members from France, Egypt, Great Britain, and Germany, and Ahmed Hassen from the El Takeiba Center in Egypt, who is visiting 14km via an Anna Lindh exchange scholarship. We finished in the evening with a nice open air barbeque at the youth club. The second day started with a joint walk along the Berlin wall, where the young participants approached the famous symbol of the German separation and the graffiti paintings of the East Side Gallery by means of a “Wall-Quiz”. On arrival, everyone was ready to finish cutting their stencils and embark on the spraying part and we had the luck to have an “authorized graffiti area” in form of a wall available for the workshop, thanks to the generosity of the YAAM beach club which is located close to the East Side Gallery of the Berlin wall. There, everyone started spraying their own stencils, tags, and even some styles, with some being positively surprised by the rewarding stencil technique which enables even the less talented ones among us to produce impressive artistic outcomes very quickly. Thus, the day ended with an extremely colorful outcome and many happy faces, and with a 14km team proud to have achieved both our artistic and intercultural aims. More photos are available on our Facebook page.   This is a project of the Local Action Plan ('Lokaler Aktionsplan') Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Möchtest du StreetArt-Techniken wie Schablonentechnik (Stencil) und Graffiti ausprobieren? Und dabei etwas über die Revolutionen in Ägypten und Tunesien erfahren, in denen Graffiti eine große Rolle spielte? Möchtest du lernen, wie man mit Graffiti die Gesellschaft verändern kann?   Dann bist du herzlich eingeladen! Was? StreetArt Workshop mit Infos zu arabischen Protestbewegungen Für wen? Jugendliche von 13 - 19 Jahren Wann? Am Wochenende 28./29. Juni (jeweils 12:00 bis 19 Uhr) Wo? Jugendclub Feuerwache (Friedrichshain) Du entwirfst deine eigene StreetArt, arbeitest zwei Tage lang mit anderen Jugendlichen und Profis zusammen und du lernst etwas über StreetArt als politisches Instrument. Abends grillen wir und tagsüber gibt es Snacks und Getränke. Preis? kostenlos! Wenn du dabeisein möchtest, melde dich bitte bald beim Jugendclub Feuerwache unter 030 / 293 479 440   - wir freuen uns auf Dich! flyer herunterladen und verteilen! StreetArt Facebook-Event   14 Kilometer e.V. veranstaltet diesen interkulturellen StreetArt-Workshop in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Jugendclub Feuerwache in Berlin-Friedrichshain und dem El-Takeiba Center for Artistic and Cultural Development in Ägypten. Weitere Partner sind Pjotr Obuchoff als StreetArtist und der KULT. Verein für Jugendkultur e.V., der das Yaam in Friedrichshain betreibt. Das Projekt wird im Rahmen des lokalen Aktionsplans Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg gefördert. Dies ist ein Projekt des Lokalen Aktionsplans Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Shortly before the elections in Egypt, on May 21 Egyptian media experts discussed the state of the media in Egypt. The event was organised by 14km and Reporters Without Borders and took place at the  Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (ZK/U) . First, the panel participants outlined the Egyptian media landscape and gave information on the working conditions of journalists in Egypt. A first conclusion was that the number of the imprisoned, harassed and murdered journalist in the country has reached a record, while fact-based journalism is still rare. A reason for hope is, however, the burgeoning citizen journalism.   Mohamed Selim Khalil, Egyptian journalist, lecturer at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster and media analyst with research focus on political communication in the Arab world criticised the lack of basic journalistic ethics in Egypt : "The media system always adapts itself to the winners." According to him, in Egypt there is only one narrative, and it is controlled by the state. The media are not independent but closely linked with the Ministry of Information. Thus, in this politically turbulent time, the media are also in a chaotic state. The Egyptian journalist and former vice-director of the Egyptian state-owned TV station Nile-TV Shahira Amin, who quit her job during the protests in 2011 to join the demonstrators and to protest against the state-controlled reporting on the revolution, told the audience that until now she is being ignored by some of her colleagues or is even treated with hostility because she is being seen as a traitress. She noted that journalists in Egypt are hardly trained in journalistic techniques, instead they learn how to follow the official line of the authorities. Currently this line is defined by the military, "censorship is back". Christoph Dreyer, press officer and Middle East expert at Reporters Without Borders, explained this with the fact that the freedom of press, which is recognised in the new Egyptian Constitution, is not being implemented; permanent exceptions are justified by the necessity of fighting terrorism. Large parts of the political landscape are censored, and there is no public discourse about the political events in the country. Also Farid Farid, media coordinator for Middle East and North Africa at  Transparency International, saw no practical effects of the civil rights and liberties defined in the Constitution. He criticised the journalistic practices of the corrupt state media which even fabricate and exaggerate artificial news, thereby distracting from the really important issues. Following the first panel discussion, various independent blogs and bloggers from Egypt were introduced in a brief overview, to discuss the meaning of citizen journalism for critical reporting in Egypt. Regarding this development, all panelists saw reason to hope for an improvement of the situation, as an alternative reporting through social media and open media platforms is now becoming more and more possible. The Egyptians acquired a liking for this new-discovered freedom, said Shahira Amin, and also Farid Farid saw in the new blogs a symbol of hope. However, Christoph Dreyer critically noted that the online social media in Egypt are used only by a minority of people and that still numerous censorship options exist. A question from the audience inquired into who really stands behind the censorship in Egypt. The answer was that censorship needs to be regarded as a mix of several measures. The major media institutions in Egypt are state media, which set the agenda, or media outlets influenced by the state media, who stay loyal to the businessmen from the Mubarak era. In addition, there is a self-censorship of the journalists who do not want to lose their jobs and who therefore adapt to the state narrative. At the same time, critical journalists are always in danger of being accused by prosecutors as terrorists or being attacked on the street by mobs. In the face of the recent turbulent political developments in Egypt, more and more people desire peace, order and security and many of them hope to get this from the presidential candidate Al-Sisi. For Mohamed Selim Khalil this hope lies elsewhere. Asked by the audience whether one could even speak about a revolution, given that everything remained the same concerning the ruling elites, he replied: "We do not need a revolution, we need media, real media. » --- The event was presented by Frédérique Lang (14km). Other contributors from 14km included Anja Gebel, Helena Burgrova, Eugenie Rooke, Elisa Totino, Andreas Fricke and Steffen Benzlers, and Christoph Dreyer from Reporters Without Borders.

Egyptian citizen journalist Lilian Wagdy provides evidence of military abuses in an interview with a local TV station. Picture courtesy of Hossam el-Hamalawy on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). 14km e.V. and Reporters Without Borders e.V. would like to cordially invite you to our upcoming event on the state of the Egyptian media. In the form of a panel discussion we would like to discuss the Egyptian media landscape and the working situation of journalists in Egypt. In addition, we would also like to deal with the topic of citizen media and its (actual and potential) role in the Egyptian media landscape and for critical reporting in Egypt. We are happy to discuss this topic with you as well with the following interesting guests who will be on the panel:  Christoph Dreyer, Middle East expert and responsible for public relations at Reporter without Borders since 2013. Previously he wrote reports about the Arab and Muslim world for radio channels, online media and newspapers. He was editor for Reuters und regional correspondent for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Shahira Amin an Egyptian journalist and former deputy head of Egyptian state-owned Nile TV. She resigned from the position on February 3, 2011, in the midst of the Egyptian revolution, due to her disapproval of the channel's coverage of the events. Shahira Amin has been a correspondent for CNN’s weekly program Inside Africa for 8 years. Mohamed Selim Khalil, Egyptian journalist (e.g. for the Daily News Egypt) and media analyst with a research emphasis on Political Communication in the Arab World, currently lecturer at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany. In several articles he criticised the lack of press freedom and the deterioration of journalist's work conditions in Egypt. Farid Farid, Middle East and North Africa Media Coordinator at Transparency International. Previously, he worked as an online journalist with SBS World News Australia. He has also published in academic and news publications such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Al Jazeera English, Social Semiotics and Sydney Morning Herald. We would be happy to see you at the event: «The State of the Egyptian Media» on May 21, 2014 from 7 pm at Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (ZK/U), Siemensstraße 27, Berlin. The event will take place in English.

Egyptian citizen journalist Lilian Wagdy provides evidence of military abuses in an interview with a local TV station. Picture courtesy of Hossam el-Hamalawy on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). 14km e.V. and Reporter ohne Grenzen e.V. would like to cordially invite you to our upcoming event on the state of the Egyptian media. In the form of a panel talk followed by an audience discussion with you and several interesting guests we would like to speak about the Egyptian media landscape and the working situation of journalists in Egypt. In addition, we would also like to discuss citizen media and its (actual and potential) role in the Egyptian media landscape and for critical reporting in Egypt. We would be to happy to see you there and kindly ask you to save the date of the event:  « The State of the Egyptian Media » on May 21, 2014 from 7 to 10 pm  at Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (ZK/U), Siemensstraße 27, Berlin. Soon a more detailed programme will be available. The event will take place in English.