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5 January 2004
BERLIN – A Berlin daily newspaper, the Berliner Morgenpost, appeared Monday containing almost nothing but good news.
Editor-in-chief Jan-Eric Peters said bad news had not be suppressed, but confined to small boxes on the page.
On Tuesday, the newspaper will go back to the usual mix of news, but for a day, readers will be able to learn about more positive news events. Political and sports news and features will also be positive.
“We’ll have a report from South America for example that a leading Colombian rebel has been caught. A terrorist leader being caught is good news too,” said Peters. (Captured Simon Trinidad is a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).)
The German newspaper, which normally has 32 pages, will be expanded to 48 pages to contain all the cheering reports.
“I’m sure it’ll be a success, because I’m an optimist myself,” said Peters, who is also editor of a national paper, Die Welt.
The idea had come from newspaper staff, who pointed out there was much to praise in the city. To ensure the positive stories were not swamped by the gloom, they were being concentrated one issue.
“Fortunately, nothing really negative happened today, but of course if a bomb were to go off, we couldn’t confine that news to a little box,” said Peters on Sunday afternoon, just a few hours before the paper went to press.
DPA
Subject: German news