Dunja Hayali (born 6 June 1974) is a German journalist and television presenter for public broadcaster ZDF. She has an interest in sports, and is also known for her social activism.

Dunja Hayali
Hayali in 2018
Born (1974-06-06) 6 June 1974 (age 50)
NationalityGerman
Occupation(s)Journalist, TV presenter
PartnerMareike Arning (2007–2011)

Early life and education

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Hayali is the daughter of Iraqi Christians from Mosul. Her mother is Chaldean Catholic, and her father is Syrian Orthodox. Hayali herself was a Catholic and was an altar server when she was young.[1] However, she has left the church.[2] Her parents initially moved from Baghdad to Vienna, Austria, to study medicine and pharmacy. At the time of Hayali's birth, her father ran his own practice in Datteln, where her mother helped out.[3] Hayali's older brother is also a doctor, and her older sister first worked as a physician's assistant and later in a hospital.

In her youth, Hayali intensively pursued various sports. She played volleyball and soccer, trained judo and played tennis as a competitive sport until the age of 15.[4]

Hayali studied at the German Sport University in Cologne from 1995 to 1999, majoring in "Media and Communication".[5] During her studies, she completed internships at German radio and television stations.

Career

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Early beginnings

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After graduation, Hayali worked as a sports presenter for Deutsche Welle in Cologne and Bonn, as a freelancer for the private station Radio Cologne and as a presenter of the news program Journal on DW-TV in Berlin. Additionally, she presented some sports and news broadcasts on tv.nrw, a regional TV station in North Rhine-Westphalia that ceased operations in mid-2005.

ZDF, 2007–present

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In April 2007, Hayali became the anchor of ZDF's daily news programme heute, including both the weekday heute – in Deutschland and the weekend editions. She co-anchored of the heute-journal, usually with chief anchor Steffen Seibert.

Hayali has also been hosting the ZDF Morning Magazine [de] since October 2007.[6] In October 2010 she succeeded Patricia Schäfer [de] as chief anchor of the second half of the programme, from 7 to 9 am. Her last appearance as co-host on heute-journal was on 21 September 2010.

In summer 2015 and 2016, Hayali stood in for Maybrit Illner as host of the ZDF program ZDFdonnerstalk. The talk magazine was broadcast seven times in 2017 under the new title Dunja Hayali. From July 2018, it was broadcast once a month. In 2021, the show was discontinued.[7]

In 2023, Hayali re-joined the heute-journal, this time as anchor in rotation with Marietta Slomka, Christian Sievers and Anne Gellinek.[8]

Among other international leaders, Hayali has interviewed Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (2012), Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria (2018) and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (2021).[9] In addition to her work for ZDF, she has also been a presenter at events such as the 2012 Berlin Conference on Renewable Energy, organised by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft).[10]

 
Hayali in 2013

Other activities

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Public engagement

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Commitment to Open Dialogue

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In March 2017, Hayali gave an interview to the weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit.[13] In it, she pleaded for open dialogue regardless of political positions: "We must be able to put up with each other's opinions without immediately denigrating them or getting personal." She called for journalists to treat citizens with understanding and respect and vice versa. Although journalists will sometimes make mistakes, this is not automatically fake news.[14] The interview led to controversial reactions. Heribert Prantl, German journalist and jurist, spoke of a mistake, since Hayali was paving the way for a new readership for the newspaper that "does not necessarily feel at home on the far right." Jan Fleischhauer, also a German journalist, countered that anyone who was not a politician did not have to worry about driving up the newspaper's circulation: "They do their thing. They ask me, I give them an answer."[15] Hayali commented on the criticism on Twitter.[16]

Commitment to children and young people

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Dunja Hayali has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the DFL Foundation, a charitable foundation dedicated to social projects since 2017.[17]

Commitment against hate speech

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In her speech at the awards ceremony of the Goldene Kamera award on 6 February 2016, she also addressed the hatred she has been facing for some time. She said, "In a country where freedom of expression is such a high good, everyone is allowed and must be able to express their concerns and their fears without immediately being put in the right-wing Nazi corner. However, if you make racist comments, then you are a racist, dammit." She received a standing ovation in the hall for her speech.[18]

Commitment against racism and xenophobia

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Hayali is a supporter of the association Gesicht Zeigen![19] As an ambassador, she supports the initiative Respekt! Kein Platz für Rassismus.[20] In 2018, Hayali was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for her commitment against racism and xenophobia.[21]

Criticism and orders from the industry

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Dunja Hayali was criticized because, in addition to her job as a journalist, she also moderated trade conventions for companies and events in the gambling industry. She received money from Amazon and BMW, among others. This was reported in 2018 by the media magazine Zapp from NDR.[22][23] She herself does not see this as a loss of impartiality in her critical work as a professional journalist, as it is not a matter of advertising appearances. "I often make myself available on a voluntary basis or ask to donate the intended honorarium", she emphasized. "Just as, by the way, I donate any prize money I receive through awards."[24]

Awards

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Personal life

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Hayali has extensive tattoos on her right arm and back; these were first seen at the presentation of the Deutscher Fernsehpreis on 9 October 2010 in Cologne; on television they had always been covered.[29][30]

Hayali is lesbian;[29] in 2008 she announced that since 2007 she had been in a relationship with Mareike Arning, the vocalist of the punk-pop band Uschi's Orchester.[31] The couple separated in 2011.[32]

In February 2016, the State Court of Hamburg issued a preliminary injunction forbidding a Facebook user from making offensive hate comments on Hayali's Facebook page and setting a fine of up to €250,000 for any violations of the injunction.[33]

Publications

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  • with Elena Senft. Is' was, Dog? Mein Leben mit Hund und Haaren. Berlin: Ullstein, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86493-021-8; 2015, ISBN 978-3-548-37592-2 (in German).
  • Haymatland: Wie wollen wir zusammenleben?. Berlin: Ullstein, 2018 ISBN 978-3-550-20017-5

References

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  1. ^ "Die katholische Araberin". Die Zeit (in German). 29 April 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Dunja Hayalis Glaubenssuche hat Mario-Barth-Niveau". Thomas Schmoll. welt.de. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Dunja Hayali". No. 8 October 2010. FBI zum Morgenmagazin. 8 October 2010. Archived from the original on 20 October 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  4. ^ "DUNJA HAYALI: ICH LIEBE MENSCHEN". Chantal Louis. emma.de. 1 March 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Bekannte Studierende und Alumni". Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  6. ^ "ZDF-Morgenmagazin: Vor der Kamera" (in German). ZDF.
  7. ^ ZDF: Keine neue Staffel von „Dunja Hayali“-Talkshow RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, 13 March 2021.
  8. ^ ZDF stockt auf: Dunja Hayali präsentiert ab Februar das „heute journal“ Der Tagesspiegel, 28 January 2023.
  9. ^ ZDF-Morgenmagazin vom 19. Mai 2021 - John Kerry: "Emissionen reduzieren" ZDF, May 19, 2021.
  10. ^ "Programm: BDEW-Kongress 2012" (PDF) (pdf, 3.9 MB) (in German). Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  11. ^ Board of Trustees DFL Foundation.
  12. ^ Supervisory Board Save the Children Germany.
  13. ^ ""Wenn der Dialog endet, können wir alle einpacken"". Moritz Schwarz. Junge Freiheit. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  14. ^ ""Wir müssen die Meinung des anderen aushalten können"". Welt. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  15. ^ "Wirbel um Hayalis "Junge Freiheit"-Interview". Caroline Schmidt. NDR.de. 5 April 2017. Archived from the original on 6 April 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Ein Besuch im "ideologischen Mutterschiff" des Rechtspopulismus". Gaby Mahlberg. Welt. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  17. ^ "DUNJA HAYALI Mitglied des Kuratoriums". DFL Stiftung. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  18. ^ "Goldene Kamera: Dunja Hayali sorgt für großen TV-Moment". news.de. 7 February 2016. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Prominente Unterstützer". Gesicht Zeigen!. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  20. ^ "Botschafter - Kultur und TV Dunja Hayali". Respekt.tv. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  21. ^ "Ordensverleihung zum Verfassungstag". Bundespräsident.de. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  22. ^ "Prominent präsentiert - Hayalis Nebentätigkeiten". Robert Bongen and Sinje Stadtlich. NDR.de. 15 August 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  23. ^ "Dunja Hayali will "noch selbstkritischer prüfen"". Frankfurter Allgemeine. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  24. ^ ""Das bedaure ich sehr" – Hayali rechtfertigt sich für Nebentätigkeiten". Welt. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  25. ^ "Verleihung des Verdienstordens des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen". land.nrw.de. 18 November 2016. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  26. ^ "Dunja Hayali erhält Annemarie-Renger-Preis des ASB". Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  27. ^ "Journalistin Dunja Hayali erhält den Toleranz-Preis für Zivilcourage". Evangelische Akademie Tutzing. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  28. ^ "Dunja Hayali erhält Walter-Lübcke-Demokratie-Preis". Welt. 22 September 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  29. ^ a b "Dunja Hayali, die volltätowierte ZDF-Moderatorin". Die Welt (in German). 11 October 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  30. ^ "ZDF-Moderatorin Dunja Hayali erklärt ihre Tattoos". Bild (in German). 23 November 2010.
  31. ^ "Moderatorin Dunja Hayali outet sich als lesbisch". Die Welt (in German). 20 October 2008. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  32. ^ "Dunja Hayali und die rothaarige Punk-Rock-Sängerin getrennt". Die Welt. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  33. ^ "Gericht: Hasskommentare gegen Dunja Hayali verboten". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). DPA. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.

Other sources

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