2024-10-29 16:42:00
For WDR director Tom Buhrow it is clear that, following the Prime Minister’s Conference decision, implementation of the KEF recommendation will no longer be feasible by early 2025. He described other planned regulations as “particularly critical”.
WDR director Tom Buhrow criticized the Prime Minister’s conference program on the future funding of public broadcasting. The heads of government of the Länder agreed last week on the reform of public broadcasting, but postponed the decision on the future license fee to the next meeting in December.
“For me it is clear: from January 1 it will no longer be possible to implement the current KEF recommendation,” Buhrow said at the WDR Broadcasting Council meeting in Cologne on Tuesday. However, media policy cannot limit itself to suspending a procedure examined by the Constitution.
The independent commission for the assessment of the financial needs of broadcasters (KEF) had recommended an increase in the broadcasting fee by 58 cents to 18.94 euros per month by the end of the year. Before the last meeting in Leipzig, several prime ministers had spoken out against an increase. However, media policy can only deviate from the KEF recommendation under strictly defined conditions.
Lawsuits for failure to increase rates?
On Tuesday, Buhrow left open the question of whether the ARD would actually sue Karlsruhe if the Länder did not implement the increase recommended by the KEF. After the regional parliament of Saxony-Anhalt did not approve the contract then signed in 2020, ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio successfully defended themselves with legal actions before the Federal Constitutional Court. In the summer of 2021, Germany’s highest court finally ordered the increase from 86 cents to 18.36 euros.
However, Buhrow described the regulation foreseen for press-like offers of public broadcasters as “particularly critical”. “Text equals newspaper – this world, this distinction no longer exists,” explained the director of the WDR and announced “many conflicts” because the broadcasters would be “massively limited” by the planned positive list.
As examples of offers that will be banned in the future, he cited the live ticker of the sports program or the current reporting of special events such as the attack in Solingen. Buhrow pointed out that people already wanted to know what was happening, even if there hadn’t been a broadcast yet.
A positive list has been drawn up in Leipzig which will determine which public broadcasters will be able to publish on the Internet in future without private media providers experiencing undue competition.
epd/jr
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