Language
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Eastern Europe
War leads to huge demand for books in Ukraine
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, bookstores in the country are flourishing. Ukrainians are determined to preserve their cultural memory. Ukrainian literature that was almost forgotten suddenly appears in the list of bestsellers again. New book cafés are popping up regularly. Since the initial shock of the Russian…
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Central Europe
Schools in Saxony are forbidden to use gender language
The Ministry of Education in the German state of Saxony said no to gender language. The Minister wants to follow the official spelling rules in Germany. The Ministry itself, but also every school in Saxony is now obliged to ban gender language, Die Tagespost writes. In addition, external partners of…
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Central Europe
How Austria's church newspapers deal with gender-neutral language
Editors of Austria’s church magazines have decided to write “discrimination-sensitively” concerning gender. However, individual newspapers follow different approaches. The Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress (KAP)](https://www.dersonntag.at/) surveyed the different publications. It concluded that most church publications in the dioceses had accepted the gender-neutral language. A striking thing, according to the Austrian…
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Central Europe
Germans in Hamburg fight against gender language
Citizens in Hamburg use a referendum to fight against the introduction of gendered language. They are supported by the local CDU party. Christoph Ploss, CDU chairman and part of the initiative “Stop gender language in administration and education”, gathers signatures in a shopping centre of Hamburg, NZZ reports. Ploss points…
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Central Europe
German politician wants officials to include gender in their e-mails
All officials should include their gender in their signature under their e-mails to prevent misidentification, Green senator Daniel Wesener from Germany argues. His idea led to many critiques. To prevent wrong salutations when addressing someone in an e-mail, all public employees should include their gender in their e-mail signature, Daniel…
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Central Europe
German petition calls for end to use of gender language in official institutes
In Hamburg, an initiative was set up against the use of gender language in politics, administration and the media. According to the spokesperson for the petition, gender language does not contribute to more rights for women. The petition “Speak our language – the German common language” wants an end to…
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Northern Europe
No general applause for new Norwegian Bible translation
Even before its publication, the new Bible version in Norway attracts attention. Some choices reflect a different taste. But there is debate about a “theological shift” as well. The Norwegian Bible Society will publish the new translation in 2024. Most attention goes to John 3:16. In Norway, this verse is…
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Western Europe
French publisher succumbs to LGBT pressure and changes family definition
A French publisher has changed the definition of ‘family’ in a dictionary. With that, it succumbs to pressure from LGBT activists who started a social media storm on the issue. “We made a lot of changes to the definition of the family from the beginning of the 2000s”, Géraldine Moinard,…
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Central Europe
Broadcaster edits answer to make it more 'inclusive'
A German public broadcasting company has come under fire for editing the words of an interview with a forest ranger. According to Bild, the incident occurred while interviewing one of Germany's youngest forest rangers on Instagram. During Mainz's “Das Ding” interview, 21-year old Fabian Förster says on Twitter: “As a…
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Western Europe
The language war on gender has come to the French workplace
As more French employers have gender-neutral terms enshrined into their policies, a small, yet vocal minority of young employees, are rebelling. Some see the new changes as a time to leave their job or end the interview. A 31-year-old startup director who goes by “Thomas” said that he was contacted…
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