The other ARD houses lose confidence in the leadership of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg in the RBB affair about the recalled director Patricia Schlesinger. There is now growing pressure on the management team.
It is an unprecedented event in ARD history. The public broadcasting community traditionally relies on a strong unity.
But in the midst of the crisis at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg over the nepotism affair of the recalled RBB station boss Patricia Schlesinger, the directors are now daring to take an unprecedented step. ARD boss and WDR director Tom Buhrow announced on Saturday that the directors had lost confidence in the current RBB management when it came to the processing. The RBB leadership around the managing director Hagen Brandstätter is now coming under increasing pressure.
In the evening, the editorial committee of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) called on management to resign. In a statement by the editorial committee, which was available to the German Press Agency, it said on Saturday: “The RBB management no longer enjoys trust – neither in ARD nor in-house. Therefore, you must resign immediately.”
The committee also wrote: “We, as representatives of the journalists in the RBB, no longer trust that this management can provide complete information.” In addition, one expects that the deputies or the main department heads will not automatically move up.
It went on to say: “Because everyone who benefited from bonuses in the Schlesinger era also supported this system. We need other, flatter and really transparent structures.”
Intendant switch without the RBB
Buhrow, who recently took over the business again after Schlesinger’s resignation as ARD chairman, sees the current situation at the smaller ARD station as follows: “It seems so unstable that one can say there is a risk that the Structures of the RBB are beginning to dissolve.”
The directors now even want to meet every now and then without the RBB for meetings. It was reported from circles that there was an intendant switch without the RBB for the first time on Friday evening. A signal to the RBB leadership could not be clearer. “We, the directors of ARD, no longer have confidence that the station’s executive management will be able to process the various incidents quickly enough,” said ARD boss Buhrow. The scandal has long since damaged the reputation of the entire public service broadcaster. The ARD houses now see themselves exposed to general suspicion.
According to dpa information, a lack of education in the controversial bonus system for executives is said to have played a role in the now clear step in the ARD circle. It was also heard from ARD circles that sometimes, after the director switched, there were completely new facts about allegations about RBB that had not previously been communicated by the broadcaster in the round.
The details come to light bit by bit
The RBB has fallen into a deep crisis since allegations of nepotism against Schlesinger and the resigned chief controller Wolf-Dieter Wolf. Little by little, new details come to light almost every day. Employees are frustrated, and a research team at the station wants to clarify the matter. The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating on suspicion of infidelity and acceptance of benefits, and there is also an external investigation by a law firm. There are no results yet.
Schlesinger and Wolf rejected the allegations. Schlesinger’s husband and ex-“Spiegel” journalist Gerhard Spörl is also the focus of the public prosecutor’s office. He had received orders from the state-owned Messe Berlin. Wolf was also chief supervisor there.
The presumption of innocence applies, but if you piece together everything that the online medium “Business Insider” in particular has brought to light in the past few weeks, a frightening picture emerges. A world in which you could switch and rule at the top – without an honest corrective in your own environment. And without really good control of the independent bodies.
There is a series of allegations: It’s about consulting contracts, dinner, travel, massage seats in an expensive company car, veiled bonuses, a green plant wall in the executive floor – all in a notoriously clammy station with the worst ARD quota in the program. The debate revolves around a lack of tact and morality.
The amusing slip of the tongue by a participant in the broadcasting council meeting at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) a few days ago may reflect the entire control situation at RBB in this one word: under the impression of the RBB crisis, someone asked the WDR leadership how things were going there the two-eyes principle was ordered.
The ARD community, with its nine state broadcasters, traditionally attaches great importance to unity and acting with one voice. Anger is sometimes swallowed up in order to keep the ranks closed to the outside world. The distancing of the ARD houses from the RBB is all the more remarkable. Some critics from politics will see a gateway here and will surely be pawing their hooves. Because the ARD is also in the middle of a major reform with annual revenues of more than eight billion euros – the sore point in the end is always the financing and the amount of the broadcasting fee.
The bonus system is a nuisance for many
Buhrow also said: “We want to send a signal: We want to help stabilize the station and that trust can grow again so that predictable, transparent structures can return. We are convinced that this management is becoming more and more restless.” It is also becoming more and more restless in the RBB, among the employees instead of calmer.
The controversial bonus system for executives in the broadcaster, which only became known after public and internal pressure, made many people mad. Schlesinger also received a substantial salary increase of 16 percent to 303,000 euros. On Tuesday, the managing director Hagen Brandstätter did not want to give any figures in the Brandenburg state parliament in Potsdam on how much bonus he and the management team received, for example program director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus, operations director Christoph Augenstein and legal director Susann Lange.
Instead, Brandstäter got caught up in unfortunate sentences like: “There is no bonus system in the RBB.” There are non-tariff employment contracts. Accordingly, 27 of them receive variable remuneration. The result was new headlines. Shortly thereafter, the management then tried a small roll forward and disclosed the salaries including bonuses – but not Schlesinger’s numbers. They don’t want any bonuses this year either and want to work towards the system, which does not otherwise exist in the ARD, being stamped out. But for many, this gesture is not enough.
Schlesinger had been ARD chairman since the beginning of the year and RBB director since 2016, she had made it to the top. A prestige office, the top lobbyist for the ARD. She only resigned under enormous pressure. The RBB is facing decisive days. On Saturday, the Chairwoman of the Broadcasting Council, Friederike von Kirchbach, resigned from her position on the control body. The independent council is responsible for overseeing the work of the program and must also organize a route for the search for a new director. The board of directors, which deals with the specific termination of Schlesinger’s contract, will meet on Monday. (dpa)