About Stichting Democratie en Media

Stichting Democratie en Media has its origins in Stichting Het Parool, which was founded in 1944. On 11 August 1941, Het Parool was published as the Netherlands' first illegal printed newspaper aimed at providing independent reports as a counter viewpoint to the official 'news service' controlled by the occupying forces.
When Het Parool was acquired by Belgian media conglomerate de Persgroep, the name Stichting Het Parool was changed to Stichting Democratie en Media. The objectives remained the same, however. In keeping with the past, Stichting Democratie and Media strives for the radical innovation of democracy, in a political, social and economic sense. On the one hand this endeavour involves forcefully combating all totalitarian developments in social and political life, both nationally and internationally. On the other, the foundation continues to press for an effective democracy and the promotion of plurality opinion media in a democratic state structure. In order to achieve its aims, the foundation provides financial assistance to institutions, persons or organizations at home and abroad whose work or projects are aligned with its objectives.

www.stdem.org

De Balie is a political, cultural theatre and debate platform, which in addition to three theatre halls offers the famous Grand Café restaurant at Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, located on Amsterdam's Leidseplein. 
De Balie specializes in a variety of disciplines: politics, art, society, media and cinema, and regularly organizes challenging programmes.
The programmes are always characterized by a sharp and analytical flavour, in which De Balie adopts a central societal point of view and leaves no question unasked. By means of chat shows, lively discussions, intensive debates and theatre shows, De Balie mixes various perspectives in an original and creative manner. 

www.debalie.nl