"Je reste Charlie": Axel Springer Academy Launches Multimedia Documentation Project on Terror and the Fight for Freedom

BERLIN, July 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Exactly six months after the attack on "Charlie Hebdo" and shortly after the most recent Islamist attack in Tunisia, the Axel Springer Academy is publishing jerestecharlie.eu - a video website about religiously motivated terrorism and its impact on society.

19 young journalists describe on the website how people throughout the world have not ceased to defend their cause and fight against terror. 

At the center of the video website is a lavishly produced, moving documentary film from Paris: In some cases for the first time since the attack, members of the editorial team at "Charlie Hebdo", relatives of those who were killed, and others who were affected relate how they have continued with their lives after the assault and how the terrorist attack has changed both them and French society.

"There was a wave of solidarity after the assault in Paris, but in the meantime the signs of fear and preemptive self-censorship are becoming increasingly numerous," says Marc Thomas Spahl, Director of the Axel Springer Academy. "Through this website, we want to show how important it is not to allow yourself to be intimidated in the struggle for freedom of expression, but to remain courageous. That's why the project is named 'Je reste Charlie'  - I remain Charlie."

Among other stories, the reporters tell the fate of a young man who survived the massacre on the Norwegian island of Utøya in July 2011, and is helping with the redevelopment of the summer youth camp there today; they talk with a young fireman in New York who followed in his late father's footsteps after 9/11; or with a man from Belfast who lost his wife to an IRA bomb explosion, and is in the meantime working as a peacemaker. Team 17 from the Academy also researched for their video reports in Madrid, London and Jerusalem. In addition, there are numerous background reports and exclusive stories, such as the first interview with the man who filmed the assassination of the police officer Ahmed Merabet in Paris, posted the video on the Internet, and has regretted it ever since.

"Je reste Charlie" is a trilingual project, all of its content will be published in German, French and English," reports Kristin Schulze, Head of Cross-Media Studies at the Axel Springer Academy. "Our young journalists no longer see themselves simply as reporters for the German-speaking world, a factor with great significance for the circulation of this project in particular."

The launch of the website will be accompanied by comprehensive social media activities, for example a campaign featuring prominent personalities avowing on signs: "Je reste Charlie", among them the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and numerous international artists, sportspeople and journalists. The attitude and claim of the project are accordingly as follows: "It's why we must carry on."

The website will - particularly in view of the recent events in Tunisia and France - be continually updated over the next few months and supplemented with new articles and guest contributions.

About the Axel Springer Academy 

The Axel Springer Academy is considered the most progressive journalism school in the German-speaking world. Every year it offers up to 40 young talented individuals the opportunity to learn cross-media journalism from scratch. The Academy, which is also the publisher's think tank, has won numerous awards for its digital projects, including the Grimme Online Award, the CeBIT AppStar and the European Newspaper Online Award. For more information visit: http://www.axel-springer-akademie.de

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SOURCE Axel Springer Academy