Zain Raza

Zain was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1987 and moved to Karachi in Pakistan with his family in 1993. After living there for 13 years, he returned to Germany. He spent the first few years researching why countries like Pakistan, unlike countries like Germany, are constantly struggling with terrorism, political problems and poverty. In doing so, he came across geopolitics and in particular the role that the West has played in creating and maintaining these conditions not only in Pakistan, but also in many other countries and regions around the world.

In 2014, Zain founded the non-profit, independent and international journalistic media network acTVism Munich e.V. Its aim is to to provide information that is rarely or not at all covered by the big media stations and conglomerates. The channel highlights historical contexts and sheds light on the foreign policy of the West from a critical perspective. acTVism Munich now has 151,000 subscribers on YouTube and employs 15 people.

acTVism Munich is a non-profit and independent online media portal. Zain and his team produce video reports, organise discussion panels and debates, translate English articles into German and publish guest articles. The portal provides a platform for investigative journalists, academics, scientists, analysts, activists, artists and committed people. Through this diversity of contributions and perspectives, acTVism Munich makes an important contribution to the public discussion of current social issues.

acTVism Munich is perceived as a reliable, independent and polyphonic place of public discourse – a platform that enables users to obtain well-researched information on socially relevant topics from different perspectives.

acTVism Munich produces and publishes four to five videos per week on YouTube and other channels on a variety of topics such as foreign and geopolitics, economics, climate change, European and US politics, media analyses and much more. The information can also accesed as text on the website or on the podcast platform. acTVism Munich also works with other independent and non-profit media networks, translating and publishing their investigative work in German on its YouTube channel, providing information that the major German media houses do not report on.

acTVism places particular emphasis on issues relating to social, economic and environmental justice by providing a platform for progressive activists working to improve society. These include activists in the climate change and anti-war movements, civil rights advocates, etc. In addition, acTVism organises multicultural events such as ‘Pakistani on the Menu’ to promote empathy and understanding between different nationalities, religions and ethnicities.