Treibhaus and Gemeindemuseum Absam commemorate the sceptical physician and publicist Werner Vogt from Zams in Tyrol, a pioneer of civil society.

Since the attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, in which around 1,200 mostly Jewish-Israelis were brutally murdered and 253 people were taken hostage, and according to UN figures, more than 30,000 people have died as a result of the ongoing attacks by the Israeli military on the Gaza Strip (March 2024) and many are threatened with starvation, the region has become the focus of global media coverage. However, journalistic work in the war zone in Gaza remains extremely risky: According to the Committee to Protect Journalists at least 95 journalists, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in Gaza since the war started. How does a Jewish-Israeli editor see the challenges for reporting now in a new time of war? How does she rate the media landscape(s) in the region? What perspectives does she see for the region?

Since the attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, in which around 1,200 mostly Jewish-Israelis were brutally murdered and 253 people were taken hostage, and according to UN figures, more than 30,000 people have died as a result of the ongoing attacks by the Israeli military on the Gaza Strip (March 2024) and many are threatened with starvation, the region has become the focus of global media coverage. However, journalistic work in the war zone in Gaza remains extremely risky: According to the Committee to Protect Journalists at least 95 journalists, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in Gaza since the war started. How does a Palestinian journalist from Gaza see the challenges for reporting now in a new time of war? How does he rate the media landscape(s) in the region? What perspectives does he see for the region?

In recent years, people like former CIA employee Edward Snowden or Australian investigative journalist Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, have put their own safety and freedom at risk to enlighten the public by disclosing secret information about state crimes. For this courage, the whistleblower pay a huge price. In exile in Moscow, Snowden is dependent on the benevolence of autocrat Vladimir Putin, while Assange has been imprisoned in the UK for five years and faces life imprisonment if extradited to the USA. Human rights lawyer Robert Tibbo, who arranged Snowden's escape, and British whistleblower and former ambassador Craig Murray discuss with Ilja Braun from Reporters Without Borders/Germany how to better protect those who bring the truth to light.

The streets and roads of Innsbruck belong to all who live here. And yet cars enjoy priority in the public space. The Radlobby Tirol has analysed critical points in the city centre and will explain on the city walk how much space is available for which form of mobility. And we will question if this is really fair. The route is around 1.6 km long and leads to the freight terminal, where the discussion will continue.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked a major reevaluation of Europe’s business, energy and political ties to Russia, vindicating those investigative journalists who had been raising the alarm about Russia’s corrupting influence in Europe for years. More than two years into the war, which topics are still under-reported, how can journalists approach them, and has the media caught up with the new reality? Ukrainian and German journalists and civil society experts will share findings from their research and reporting, and discuss what’s next when covering the Kremlin’s influence in Europe.