For the group of journalists the 8-month-long fellowship at Massey College is a welcome break from their editorial daily routine before they are returning to the media outlets in Toronto, Montréal, Beirut and South Africa. During a week in April, the group was able to complete an impressive, dense programme in Berlin meeting and talking with a broad spectrum of German media representatives like Der Spiegel, Tagesspiegel, taz, think tanks like SWP, Berlin Institute for Empirical Research on Integration and Migration as well as government agencies like the Federal Press Office, Canadian Embassy and, of course, representatives of the German Foreign Office – Auswärtiges Amt. Amongst others, the journalists discussed the war in Ukraine and the German and European response to the Russian aggression in detail. Other topics during their plethora of meetings and talks were migration and integration, ethics in war journalism, climate change and renewable energies, memory culture and much more. The fellows euphorically welcomed this opportunity to meet German colleagues and dive deeper into discussions that they hope to expand in the future into a German-Canadian media dialogue.

After a two-year, COVID-induced pause, this trips marked the continuing of the Visitors Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany, and we are thrilled to be able to welcome our Canadian friends and Partners back to Germany.

To learn more about the current and previous Massey Journalism Fellows and the program: https://www.masseycollege.ca/journalism-fellows/