Now is not the best time for press freedom. This is likely one of the reasons why two investigative journalists, Maria Ressa from the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov from Russia, were awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Their commitment to freedom of expression, which is an essential prerequisite for sustainable democracy and lasting peace, was praised so highly.
According to Reporters Without Borders, there are a total of 339 journalists behind bars around the world, as well as about 100 bloggers, citizen journalists and media workers. This is significantly more than last year, when the now-broken anti-record was reached. In addition, over 30 journalists were killed in 2021.
Press Freedom Auction
To pay tribute to our colleagues around the world, DW has produced a video with the word “freedom of the press” spoken in 30 broadcast languages of our media company. We are putting this video up for sale at an auction, and the proceeds will go to Reporters Without Borders.
Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021
The reason for this promotion was also a desire to learn more about an exciting and promising, but at the same time rather strange phenomenon: the video that DW is auctioning is equipped with the so-called NFT.
NFT (non-fungible token) – a non-fungible token is a kind of digital certificate of authenticity. With it, digital data, usually easily copied, can be identified as originals and distinguished from copies. The basis for this is blockchain technology, it is on it that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin also operate.
Tens of millions of dollars
There was a lot of buzz around NFT this year because some of the original digital products were selling for a lot of money. For example, in March of this year, a digital collage by the American artist Mike Winkelmann, known under the pseudonym Beeple, was sold for the equivalent of $ 69 million.
What propelled the previously little-known Beeple to the third place among the most expensive living artists – after Jeff Koons and David Hockney? This was the first time that the leader of the world art market, the auction house Christie’s, allowed an NFT auction to be held. However, most NFTs are auctioned on specialized platforms on the Internet.
There is also a lot of money that goes to buy a variety of original digital products – from a self-portrait of the whistleblower of the American intelligence services Edward Snowden to video clips of sports and Internet memes such as videos of cats. Of course, there are also real works of art. The New York Times’ NFT page on digital art has grossed an all-time high on sale.
DW profile on the foundation.app auction site
PressFreedomX30
In future articles, we will explain how the technology behind NFT works and how we have gained experience with it. We will also tell you why some have high hopes for NFT, while others see this technology as a financial pyramid fraudulent scheme, as well as a climate killer.
Our media company’s NFT token is called PressFreedomX30 and gives us the opportunity to learn more about this exciting development – perhaps comparable to a trial sale on eBay in 1995 or a test drive of Tesla’s first electric vehicle in 2008. If you want to place a bet, you will need a digital wallet with Ether cryptocurrency. You can participate in the auction here:
foundation.app/@DW.com
Trading starts on Tuesday 16 November 2021 at 17:00 CET. The auction will last 24 hours from the moment of the first bid.
All proceeds (minus commissions from the auction platform) will go to Reporters Without Borders Germany. This international non-governmental organization documents press freedom violations around the world and supports persecuted journalists.
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