Belarusian Photoblog Wins Deutsche Welle Weblog Award

The “Photo-Maniac” blog from Belarus is the winner of this year’s “Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards – The BOBs.” The English-language blog “Jotman” from Thailand was the winner of this year’s prestigious Reporters Without Borders Award. “Alive in Baghdad” won as the jury's Best Videoblog and “Valour-IT” took home the Best Weblog English.

Xenia Awimova, a 23-year-old aspiring photojournalist who lives and works in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, runs "Foto-Griffoneurei" (literally "Photo-Maniac"). The jury said that her collection of photos thoroughly expresses her life and surroundings and thereby fulfils the main purpose of a blog.

"With few words, this excellent blog succeeds in portraying the daily life of people in Belarus," said Christian Gramsch, program director of DW-WORLD.DE and DW-RADIO. “She thereby supplies information from a country that, to a large extent, separates itself from outside views.”

"In Belarus there are not many independent newspapers or other platforms where people can express their opinions," Awimova said after being told of the award. "That is why a lot of young people write blogs. These are often about politics. Even oppositional politicians use blogs to present their opinion and as a way to get the attention of potential supporters."

An anonymous blogger going by the name of Jotman won the 2007 Reporters Without Borders award – an inherent part of The BOBs. The blogger's coverage of the 2006 coup in Thailand and more recent reports from protests against the military junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma, made him stand out, jury members said.

Two blogs with different perspectives of the war in Iraq also won awards. Alive in Baghdad, a videoblog about the daily lives of Iraqis, received the jury's prize in the Best Videoblog category, and Valour-IT, a blog that raises money to buy laptops for injured soldiers, won the Best English Weblog award.

Award ceremony in Berlin

The fourth annual Best of the Blogs 2007 came to an end on the evening of November 15 with an awards ceremony at the Museum of Communication in Berlin. Thirty awards were given out, including users'-choice awards. Accompanying the event the jury discussed tendencies, characteristics and excellent examples from the international blogosphere. In her keynote speech on “Blogging in Iran and the Internet as an alternative medium of the women’s movement,” Iranian blogger and feminist Farnaz Seifi stressed that “in a society where the government controls the entire media, the Internet offers tool for repressed voices to express themselves.” The awards ceremony was hosted by the Dutch actress and singer Ellen ten Damme and the “Spreebllick” blogger Johnny Haeusler.

Internationally-established Weblog awards

More than 7,000 Weblogs in 10 different languages were nominated for this year's competition, 1,500 more than last year. The international jury made up of journalists, media experts and bloggers preselected 10 candidates for each category. Internet users were allowed to vote for their favorites for three weeks on the official website for the awards.

Members of the jury for The BOBs include internationally-renown bloggers and experts: Kaltmamsell (Germany), Mark Glaser and Andrew Baron (USA), Jean-François Julliard (Reporters Without Borders, Frande), Ladybird (Iraq), Ahmad Humeid (Jordan), Farnaz Seifi (Iran), Michael Anti (China), José Luis Orihuela and Hernán Casciari (Spain), Sonia Francine (Brazil), Anton Nossik and Alexander Plushev (Russia), Gilles Klein (France) and Henk Blanken (Netherlands).

Reporters Without Borders and Radio Netherlands Reporter are premium partners for The BOBs. Our media partners include: Handelsblatt.com, Zeit.de and newthinking.de (Germany), LeMonde.fr, TV5.org, arte and Categorynet.com (France), Clarin.com (Argentina), El Tiempo (Columbia), La Nacion (Chile), NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands), Global Voices, Rocketboom and Technorati (USA), Folha Online and UOL (Brasil), Lenta.ru and Livejournal.ru (Russia), Maktoob (Jordan), Iran-Emrooz.net, Radio Zamaneh and Gooya (Iran) and Sina (China).

The BOBs 2007 are sponsored by Toshiba, Archos, Terratec, O’Reilly and Sony Ericsson.

November 16, 2007

Contact Person:

Gabriel González – gabriel.gonzalez@dw-world.de – T. 0228.429-2684

List of Winners

Best Weblog

Foto-Mania

http://ak-bara.livejournal.com/

Best Videoblog

Alive in Baghdad

http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/

Best Podcast

Die Gefühlskonserve

http://www.gefuehlskonserve.de

Blogwurst

Little Galerie

http://www.littlegalerie.org/

Reporter Without Borders

Jotman

http://jotman.blogspot.com/

Best Weblog Arabic

Aljazeera Talk

http://www.aljazeeratalk.net

Best Weblog Chinese

Lian Yue's The Eighth Continent

http://www.bullog.cn/blogs/rosu/Default.aspx

Best Weblog Dutch

Frankwatching

http://www.frankwatching.com

Best Weblog English

Valour IT

http://valour-it.blogspot.com

Best Weblog French

Actualités de la république démocratique du Congo

http://cedric.uing.net

Best Weblog German

Behindertenparkplatz

http://behindertenparkplatz.de/

Best Weblog Persian

35 Grad

http://blog.35dg.com

Best Weblog Portuguese

Blog do Tas

http://marcelotas.blog.uol.com.br

Best Weblog Russian

/dev/karlson/mind.log

http://kitya.livejournal.com/

Best Weblog Spanish

A mis 95 años

http://amis95.blogspot.com