People – New York City – ZDF Director Bellut awarded International Emmy – Society

New York (dpa) – ZDF director Thomas Bellut has been awarded the International Emmy. The 66-year-old journalist was honored on Monday evening in New York (local time) with the award for his almost ten-year leadership of the TV station. In his acceptance speech, Bellut emphasized how important quality is for the success of television: “Great content is and will remain the most important success factor in our business.” He was also in the fortunate position of being able to work in Germany without pressure from authorities or governments – something that fewer and fewer journalists around the world are able to say about themselves.

Bellut was actually supposed to receive the award in 2020, but the award was postponed due to the corona pandemic. The organizers of the International Emmys had described him as an “outstanding television journalist and executive” when they announced the award. The laudation for Bellut was given on Monday by the German ex-basketball star Dirk Nowitzki, who praised public television as strong, independent of politics and business and for its contribution to the promotion of democracy. The International Emmys are the worldwide offshoot of the most important television award in the world. The awards given for non-American productions are also very popular, but do not have the same status as the US awards given in Los Angeles.

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