The scandal surrounding the dismissed RBB broadcaster is causing activity at ARD: all broadcasters currently have to report back their transparency rules. The broadcasting commission of the federal states will deal with it in September.
In the third week of September, the broadcasting commission of the federal states will discuss the current situation of ARD, in particular at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), at a regular meeting. “I think it is urgently necessary for the ARD to give itself uniform transparency rules,” said the coordinator of the Broadcasting Commission, Heike Raab. “The same applies to compliance rules”, i.e. to the internal guidelines for conduct.
She very much welcomes the fact that the ARD has now started a query on the respective transparency and compliance rules of the broadcasters, said the Social Democratic State Secretary for Media in the Rhineland-Palatinate state government. Some broadcasters such as MDR have already learned from a difficult situation in the past and are now way ahead with these guidelines. “You can use these as a guide today.”
Public broadcasting must also position itself in this way and pay attention to its corporate and institutional culture. After the departure of almost the entire top management, “a person or a team must now be found who will set up the station again and work through everything that is on the table about allegations,” said Raab. The forces of reform would have to be supported. At the RBB, a non-transparent system has developed over time, and many individually made decisions are unfortunately only revealed in slices. “Normally, the committees make collective decisions, a board of directors is a collective body,” said Raab, who is also deputy chairwoman of the board of directors of the SWR.
At the center of the allegations is the recalled director Patricia Schlesinger and the resigned RBB head of the board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf. Both rejected the allegations against them. Among other things, it is about controversial consulting contracts for an RBB construction project and about agreements between the two on salary and bonus payments for Schlesinger. And it’s about orders for her husband, the ex-“Spiegel” journalist Gerhard Spörl, at Messe Berlin – where Wolf was also chief supervisor until recently. The General Prosecutor’s Office in Berlin is investigating all three on suspicion of infidelity and acceptance of benefits.
