As a result of the revelations about abuses at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), the CDU and CSU are now demanding a fundamental reform of the public broadcasters. The SME and Economic Union (MIT), which is influential in the Union, calls for an examination of whether individual offers from public service broadcasting (ÖRR) “are still necessary in terms of basic service”. Broadcasters should be merged, the license fee should be reduced.
“Public service broadcasting needs to be reformed – now. And without bans on thinking,” said federal chairwoman Gitta Connemann (CDU) WELT. “He has to focus on his core tasks again: that is the basic supply of information, education, advice, entertainment and culture to the population. Point.”
The board of MIT has drafted a reform concept for the transmitters. In it, the Union representatives confess to ARD and ZDF – these are “essential for the free formation of opinion” and thus “indispensable” for securing our democracy. However, after more and more cases of mismanagement and criticism of the program design, a revolutionary reorientation is all the more important.
All programs and formats should be examined to determine whether they correspond to the actual task of the ÖRR or whether they “really represent publicly financed competition for private competitors”, as the paper says.
According to the concept, the financing of broadcasting stations is to be placed on a fundamentally new basis. Germany affords the most expensive public service system in the world. According to the Commission for Determining Financial Needs (KEF), he has an annual budget of 9.7 billion euros, including 8.4 billion from broadcasts, the rest comes primarily from advertising and licenses. “These financial excesses must be stopped,” demands MIT.
“The pressure for change comes from the employees,” says Jan Redmann, parliamentary group leader of the CDU Brandenburg, on the current situation at RBB. From the Schlesinger case one must now also learn for other broadcasters.
Source: WORLD
MIT proposes the introduction of a – lower – basic service contribution per person from the age of 18. Legal entities should no longer have to pay any contributions, since private individuals are already paying contributions. The institutions should generally refrain from advertising and sponsoring, these are “not necessary for the fulfillment of the basic service mandate and are even harmful, since any appearance of venality is prohibited, especially for public organizations”.
With a view to the RBB scandal and the use of funds from the broadcasting contribution, the Union representatives are calling for a system that establishes a complete and detailed overview of how the income is handled: “The contributors must be able to understand where every cent goes,” is one of the main demands.
The implementation of the proposals, especially with regard to the contributions, would mean that the public broadcasters should save. This fits only to a limited extent with the other proposals made by MIT, which at the same time suggest strengthening and improving the range of information, education and culture.
She calls for more correspondents at home and abroad, an expansion of regional reporting, more documentaries and additional live broadcasts of politically, economically, socially and culturally relevant events. The broadcasters would therefore have to make cutbacks elsewhere – such as the equipment on the executive floors and the payment of the broadcaster bosses.
According to the MIT plan, savings should also be achieved through leaner structures – one or the other broadcaster should be dissolved as an independent unit. In order to fulfill the information mandate, “we don’t need 21 public TV stations and 83 public radio stations,” explains MIT boss Connemann. “These multiple structures must be dissolved. That is why we are committed to merging public service broadcasters under one roof in the long term. The bloated administrative machinery needs to be deflated. More money for content instead of structures.”
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