New media actors – media freedom worldwide
Honouring outstanding dedication to strengthening freedom of expression, human rights and civil society online
“The Bobs – Best of Online Activism”: International online competition in 14 languages
- Directing attention to people who cross language and cultural barriers to champion society and human rights in their countries - Awarding “The Bobs” in the categories of Social Change, Privacy and Security and Arts and Media (as of 2015) - Awarding an audience prize in each of the 14 languages of the competition (Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian) - In 2015: Bestowing the Freedom of Speech Award for the first time
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
- In 2015, Bobs were awarded to the blogger community “Mukto-Mona” (Free Mind) in Bangladesh, one of the country’s most important platforms for secular thought; to “Rancho Electrónico” from Mexico for its work in the area of protecting personal data security and online privacy; and to “Zaytoun [Olive], the little refugee” from Syria, Palestine and Spain. - In previous years, Bobs were awarded to Yoani Sánchez from Cuba, Lina Ben Mhenni from Tunisia, Ushahidi from Kenya, the Sunlight Foundation from the USA, Li Chengpeng from China and Alaa Abd El-Fattah from Egypt for Manal and Alaa’s bit bucket. - Prizes are awarded during the Global Media Forum annual international media congress hosted by Deutsche Welle in Bonn. - In 2013, 364 applicants were chosen as finalists; in 2015, a total of 4800 applications were submitted. List of winners and jury members by year: https://thebobs.com/english/category/history/?year=history-2015