This week will be remembered for a long time at Norddeutscher Rundfunk – after research by “Business Insider” had previously revealed allegations of a “political filter” imposed by the editorial board in Kiel in reporting and a close, sometimes protective proximity to the government apparatus in Schleswig-Holstein. Holstein had become public, after the directorship of the four-country institution had to respond to the events in an internal hearing and after its own media magazine “Zapp” published a special edition on all of this, there were the first personal consequences: Norbert Lorentzen, editor-in-chief for Schleswig-Holstein, as well as head of politics Julia Stein, had been released from their duties at their own request until further notice, until the allegations were clarified, the state radio station said on Wednesday.
And just one day later it became known that the director of the NDR state broadcasting center in Schleswig-Holstein, Volker Thormählen, was going on unpaid leave for a month. In connection with the allegations, he asked NDR director Joachim Knuth to do so, writes the Norddeutscher Rundfunk on its website. According to the information, Thormählen wants to contribute to the fact that the clarification process can begin “without giving the impression that I can influence it”.
NDR director Knuth thanked him for the offer and accepted it, it said. “In the past few days it has become very clear to me that the state broadcasting center in Kiel not only needs to be clarified, but also that things need to be changed,” the NDR report quotes the director as saying. “We are now initiating a process for shaping the future in order to establish a climate of courage in Kiel in the future,” Knuth continued. The allegations from the ranks of the employees are directed against the political reporting of the state radio station.
NDR employees had accused the executives Lorentzen and Stein in particular of influencing the reporting in the interest of the state government and fomenting a “climate of fear”. The NDR state broadcasting council in Schleswig-Holstein has announced a comprehensive review of the allegations. In the evening, the editors of the NDR television format “Schleswig-Holstein Journal” made the difficult internal situation clear by standing in front of the camera. “Our major goal is that all allegations are clarified independently,” said the moderator of the show. However, one remains loyal to the NDR and to public broadcasting.
However, there is no end in sight to the events, which in this form have provided opponents of the public service system with many new arguments. On the contrary: According to research by “Stern”, in 2020 the political editor-in-chief Stein intervened in the reporting by NDR reporters about a children’s home scandal from the post-war years. As a result, a home provider, the German Red Cross (DRK), was not named in the report by the “Schleswig-Holstein Magazin”. Stein is also said to have asked reporters to pass on documents to the DRK. At that time, the DRK state chairwoman was the former SPD state politician and state secretary Anette Langner. According to research, her partner at the time was Jutta Schümann, then chairwoman of the NDR state broadcasting council in Kiel.
The deputy head of the political department, Stefan Böhnke, has also been criticized. The “Stern” reports on Böhnke’s lack of distance in 2021 during the election campaign of his husband Sven Partheil-Böhnke (FDP) for the mayor’s office in Timmendorfer Strand. Böhnke is said to have had himself photographed with his partner several times at his campaign stand. The NDR had taken a position on the new allegations on Wednesday evening in its television program “NDR Info”. Talks have already been held about reporting on the children’s home scandal in autumn 2020 and further talks are pending with the responsible decision-makers within the Kiel State Broadcasting House “in order to be able to understand and evaluate everything in detail,” said the NDR press office .
Regarding the allegations against Böhnke, the NDR press office said on the program: “Stefan Böhnke was not involved in reporting on the mayoral election in Timmendorfer Strand.”
