Something like that comes from something like that. More than 2,600 submissions were received for online participation in the planned reform of public broadcasting in Germany. The great response shows “that people are not indifferent to our media system with public broadcasting as an essential pillar,” explained the coordinator of broadcasting policy in the federal states, Heike Raab (SPD).
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The evaluation by the Broadcasting Commission will take some time. Broadcasters, associations, parties as well as companies and people from the media industry were able to comment on their first proposals for the reform of public service broadcasting, as were citizens.
Public transport order
The first phase of the intended reform is about the mandate of public service broadcasting, making the range of programs more flexible and updating the online mandate. Questions of financing are not the subject of the current proposals. They should be clarified in a second step.
The state government of Saxony-Anhalt, in particular the CDU parliamentary group, which sees itself as the Gallic village in broadcasting Germany, not least since the failed blockade of the increase in broadcasting fees, has caused a stir and confusion in this context. “We support the proposal by Minister of State (Rainer) Robra to abolish the station ‘Das Erste’ as an independent channel in the long term,” quoted the “Mitteldeutsche Zeitung” (Tuesday) as saying the parliamentary manager of the CDU parliamentary group, Markus Kurz. He told the newspaper accordingly: “The ZDF would remain as a national broadcaster.” The closure of the first is a long-term vision. “We know that we cannot implement this politically at the moment. But that is our long-term goal.”
No shutdown of the first
The CDU parliamentary group, on the other hand, announced that it had not been decided at their closed meeting to switch off the ARD main program. There was never any talk of a “current shutdown of the first”, nor was it decided. “The core of the proposal was that the first one serves as a showcase for the regions and the ZDF as a nationwide broadcaster.” Finally, Kurz said that his choice of words was unfortunate. He meant “convert”. When the CDU Saxony-Anhalt goes into the public forest, they like to have the ax with them. The difference to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gradual, but not general. The right-wing populists also go into the forest, albeit with chainsaws.
According to the AfD website, Joachim Paul, a member of the federal executive board, explained: “In Germany, only the AfD is committed to a complete cancellation of the compulsory broadcasting fee and a streamlining of the transmitter complex.” According to Paul, the basic radio should be reduced to a tenth of its size and become a slim one Heimatfunk will be rebuilt, which is free for the citizens and is paid for by a cultural contribution from the large private media. “As a showcase for the regions, this basic radio service should broadcast what is not worth it for the private sector: culture, politics, education, documentation, sports and entertainment from Germany’s regions,” explained Paul. Reducing the programs of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio by 90 percent would be a chainsaw massacre.
Enthusiasm about Nadine Dorries
With his demand, Joachim Paul explicitly referred to the announcement by the British Minister for Culture Nadine Dorries in the Tory government that the public service BBC would abolish the contribution financing in the medium term and replace it with new financing options such as a subscription model. “That was the start in Great Britain,” Paul rejoiced, “which is still taboo in Germany: namely a reform of ARD, ZDF and Co., head and limbs.” ’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has come under heavy pressure, is that public pay TV must follow the laws of the market and thus give up the core idea of ‘public value’, something that chain saw Paul didn’t want to include in his considerations. If the AfD wants to draw attention to itself through its followers, it has to move from demanding to thinking, or from thinking to challenging.
But the AfD is not alone. The statements that have been made public so far are interspersed with party politics and particular interests. Vaunet, the association of private media, sees “considerable need for improvement” despite some positive approaches to the order and structural reform of public service broadcasting. The statement states that “the intended focus on culture, education and information and the requirement that entertainment should only be part of the contract if it corresponds to a public service profile” are promising signals.
Ban on Advertising
Then, in the undergrowth, the legislature has to step in: a complete ban on advertising and sponsoring on television from ARD and ZDF, and on radio the reduction in advertising to 60 minutes per day. In addition, Vaunet rejects making the order more flexible. According to the Broadcasting Commission, ARD and ZDF would only have to organize ARD, ZDF, the third parties, 3sat and Arte, what happens to Kika, Phoenix or ZDFinfo would be up to them. Surprisingly structurally conservative, Vaunet calls for a must-order and “bilateral talks”.
The ARD committee conference also looked at the draft and came to the conclusion that it provided “a reliable framework for continuously sharpening the public service profile in the further process of digital transformation”. He thus creates important prerequisites for future-proof development. The paper does not become more specific, the GVK only gets energetic on one point: “Entertainment, as an integral part of the substantial core area of the public-law basic service mandate, is not up for discussion.” Any narrowing, for example to an elitist entertainment term, should be rejected.
The proposals, opinions and demands for the reform of public service broadcasting are now on the table of the Broadcasting Commission. According to the chairman, the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD), the final draft should come in the summer if possible. It is time that the discussion took place on a reliable basis.
