Dunja Hayali

Hayali is the daughter of Iraqi Christians from Mosul. Her mother is Chaldean Catholic, and her father is Syrian Orthodox. Hayali herself was a Catholic and was an altar server when she was young.[1] However, she has left the church.[2] Her parents initially moved from Baghdad to Vienna to study medicine and pharmacy. At the time of Hayali's birth, her father ran his own practice in Datteln, where her mother helped out.[3] Hayali's older brother is also a doctor, and her older sister first worked as a physician's assistant and later in a hospital. In her youth, Dunja Hayali intensively pursued various sports. She played volleyball and soccer, trained judo and played tennis as a competitive sport until the age of 15.[4]

Hayali studied at the German Sport University in Cologne from 1995 to 1999, majoring in "Media and Communication."[5] During her studies, she completed internships at German radio and television stations.

After graduation, Hayali worked as a sports presenter for Deutsche Welle in Cologne and Bonn, as a freelancer for the private station Radio Cologne and as a presenter of the news program Journal on DW-TV in Berlin. Additionally, she presented some sports and news broadcasts on tv.nrw, a regional TV station in North Rhine-Westphalia that ceased operations in mid-2005.

In April 2007, Hayali became the presenter of ZDF's daily news programme heute, especially the weekday heute – in Deutschland news block and the weekend editions, and co-anchor of the Heute Journal, usually with chief anchor Steffen Seibert. Since October 2007, she has also hosted the ZDF Morning Magazine;[6] in October 2010 she succeeded Patricia Schäfer as chief anchor of the second half of the programme, from 7 to 9 am. Her last appearance as co-host on Heute Journal was on 21 September 2010.

Among other international leaders, Hayali has interviewed Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria. In addition to her work for ZDF, she has also been a presenter at events such as the 2012 Berlin Conference on Renewable Energy, organised by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft).[7]

In summer 2015 and 2016, Hayali stood in for Maybrit Illner as host of the ZDF program ZDFdonnerstalk. The talk magazine was broadcast seven times in 2017 under the new title Dunja Hayali. Since July 2018, it has been broadcast once a month.

Hayali also hosted events such as the Renewable Energies Congress.[8]

Dunja Hayali was criticized because, in addition to her job as a journalist, she also moderated trade conventions for companies and events in the gambling industry. She received money from Amazon and BMW, among others. This was reported in 2018 by the media magazine Zapp from NDR.[18][19] She herself does not see this as a loss of impartiality in her critical work as a professional journalist, as it is not a matter of advertising appearances. "I often make myself available on a voluntary basis or ask to donate the intended honorarium," she emphasized. "Just as, by the way, I donate any prize money I receive through awards."[20]

Volker Lilienthal, professor of journalism, criticized that Hayali might not be able to report neutrally about her clients in the future. Furthermore, in contrast to commissioned moderations, good journalism includes being able to choose topics and interviewees oneself. The appearances were not to be regarded as journalistic services, but as PR for companies and associations in the private sector.[21]

• 2016: Goldene Kamera in the category Best Information
• 2016: Robert-Geisendörfer-Preis: Special jury prize for exemplary journalistic or artistic achievements
• 2016: Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia[22]
• 2016: Annemarie Renger Award of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland[23]
• 2017: Radio Regenbogen Award for Media Woman 2016
• 2017: Theodor Heuss Medal of the Theodor Heuss Foundation
• 2018: Benedict Prize of Mönchengladbach for value-oriented and against the background of the Christian-occidental experiences in a special way outstanding action
• 2018: Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon
• 2019: „Die Blaue Zunge“
• 2020: Tolerance Award of the Protestant Academy of Tutzing in the category Civil Courage[24]
• 2020: Walter Lübcke Democracy Award (together with Robert Erkan and the "Mobile Counseling System against Right-Wing Extremism and Racism - for Democratic Culture in Hesse")[25]

Hayali has extensive tattoos on her right arm and back; these were first seen at the presentation of the Deutscher Fernsehpreis on 9 October 2010 in Cologne; on television they had always been covered.[26][27]

Hayali is lesbian;[26] in 2008 she announced that since 2007 she had been in a relationship with Mareike Arning, the vocalist of the punk-pop band Uschi's Orchester.[28] The couple separated in 2011.[29]

In February 2016, the State Court of Hamburg issued a preliminary injunction forbidding a Facebook user from making offensive hate comments on Hayali's Facebook page and setting a fine of up to 250,000 euros for any violations of the injunction.[30]

• with Elena Senft. Is’ was, Dog? Mein Leben mit Hund und Haaren. Berlin: Ullstein, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86493-021-8; 2015, ISBN 978-3-548-37592-2 (in German).
• Haymatland: Wie wollen wir zusammenleben?. Berlin: Ullstein, 2018 ISBN 978-3-550-20017-5

• "Dunja Hayali", in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 06/2011, 8 February 2011, Munzinger-Archiv (free preview) (in German).

• Dunja Hayali at IMDb
• Dunja Hayali on Facebook
• Profile at Barbarella Entertainment
• Fernandes, Irina (March 2009). "E-Mail vom ZDF: Journalistin kehrt regelmäßig in ihre Heimatstadt Datteln zurück" (PDF). Westfalenspiegel (pdf; 90 kB). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-23. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
• "Interview mit Dunja Hayali – Die Power-Frau". karrierefuehrer.de (in German). Retrieved 2013-09-07.