Jamaram, who have been considered as the unsinkable eight of reggae ever since their foundation at the turn of the millennium, is far from done! The band stands for peace, cosmopolitanism, and respect; but also against war, intolerance, and isolation. Join Jamaram and Jahcoustix in the fight against the decline of clubs and festivals, against courtship through the phone and couch potatoes with junk and schnaps and Netflix. It´s a massive workout for the legs and sweating is guaranteed!

After its premiere at the 2023 edition of Journalismusfest, Germany’s most entertaining stage performance for journalists is back in Austria. The Reporter Slam entails five journalists reporting from their investigations in a varied manner. But there is only one who can become slampion of the night. Who? Our audience will decide. Our guests cover the entire German-speaking area – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol and Luxembourg – ensuring an exhilarating but informative opportunity to round off the night. The winner of the night will be able to participate in the Berlin yearly finale.

SLAPPs – strategic and abusive lawsuits aiming at intimidating and halting critical coverage or activities by environmental or human rights NGOs. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Sometimes, their aim is not even to succeed in court. Rather, their purpose is to prohibit critical public participation, one of the building blocks of democracy. Behind the suing parties, we often see financially powerful companies, lobby groups or political parties and organisations who have more money on their side than the defendants—so much more that they can put up with losing the case. The lawsuit, or just threatening to file one, aims at intimidating the other party. After abundant political efforts at European level, in spring 2024, the EU adopted a directive to protect people affected. Its implementation requires action by the individual member states.

The whistleblower hands over the secret data to the reporter whilst dusk shrouds the alley in darkness just like the hood that blankets his face. Investigative research makes us imagine quite adventurous scenes. But do these actually reflect reality? Also the #RotenbergFiles began with leaked information and were then published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in German magazine Spiegel, Austrian daily newspaper Standard, German public-service broadcaster ZDF and Swiss Tamedia Gruppe: We are talking 50,000 documents from the environment of oligarch brothers and Putin confidants Arkadi and Boris Rotenberg. For the first time, they show in detail how both of them managed to protect and conceal their wealth from sanctions – also in Kitzbühel. Antonio Baquero, Timo Schober and Maria Retter will tell the adventurous story behind this research and how investigative research of such scale is actually conducted: How do you track down concealed assets? Why are such disclosures important? Why do people hide their assets in Austria and who are their accessories? 

Access to reliable journalistic information in the vicinity of one’s own reality of life is of paramount importance. On the one hand, our everyday world has grown more prone to the consequences of economic and political links in the globalised world – as seen with Covid-19 and the ramifications of the climate crisis. On the other hand, regional economic, political, cultural and social developments continue to shape our environment. Regional quality coverage is therefore essential in order to impart information about such developments. At the same time it is increasingly met with its own challenges. Editorial regional journalism too must face a rapidly changing media landscape and altered user behaviour. The increasingly connected – multilingual – Euroregion Tyrol – South Tyrol – Trentino invites us to a comparison of regional (media) realities and to a discussion about common challenges. 

Opening and Presentation by Claudia Reiterer. omen represent 80 percent of people affected by hate speech on the net. Once they have attained a certain level of recognition, they are even more likely to become targets. Comments often strike below the belt, address their look and sexualise them, instead of providing a content-based discussion about their arguments. Journalists thus have to manoeuvre through a special field of tension; because due to their media presence, the broad public will often perceive them in a greatly empowered role. Readers do not experience them as victims and are less likely to intervene.