cafebabel.com, ‘intercultural innovation’ prize-winner thanks to UN Alliance of Civilisation and BMW group

Published on January 12, 2012

inside cafébabel

On the occasion of the fourth United Nation Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Doha, Qatar, the European online magazine cafebabel.com was awarded the third prize for its outstanding contribution to intercultural journalism.

The magazine, which is legally listed in France as an NGO, won the prestigious gong for its annual flagship feature reports project, ‘Europe on the ground’. The pan-European programme was selected out of 400 projects from 70 countries for this award. For ‘Europe on the ground’ cafebabel.com sends every year 50 to 80 young European or Europe-residing journalists of different nationalities ‘on the ground’ to report on the contemporary realities we experience in Europe.

In the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, three prominent personalities handed Alexandre Heully, co-founder and executive director of cafebabel.com, the award: former journalist Princess Rym Ali of Jordan, Jorge Sampaio, the former President of Portugal and High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, and Konstanze Carreras, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of BMW Group.

Princess Rym of Jordan declared: ‘As an intercultural media, cafebabel.com contributes to a better understanding between different cultures’. Of her acting role as ‘Godmother’ to cafebabel.com in 2012, she added that she would be working to ‘intensify links between European journalists from cafebabel.com and journalists from the Jordan Media Institute’.

During the ceremony, Alexandre Heully, co-founder and executive director declared: ‘After ten years of existence, this award from the United Nations is global recognition for cafebabel.com’s activity as a participatory media, edited by professional journalists in Paris and relying on the contributions of volunteers from all across Europe’. The 5, 000 dollar prize will be used to ‘expand cafebabel.com network of contributors and to develop a new internet platform’.

In addition to the cash prize, Alexandre Heully will be invited to join the World Intercultural Facility for Innovation group. WIFI is a platform for winners to connect with potential donors and mentors and among themselves.

Created in 2001 in Strasbourg, France, by a handful of European students, cafebabel.com is the first European online magazine, made by young people, for young people. Entirely translated in six languages - French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish - cafebabel.com publishes articles related to cultural, political and social issues from a pan-European perspective. ‘EOTG’ has evolved in its five years of existence as an annual ‘reporting’ mission, with each year bringing it a new editorial flavour:

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