Criticism of the ARD: The uprising – media

In the first one wants to rebuild the program. But there is now an unusually clear and prominent resistance within the ARD. There are currently several open and internal letters that are getting down to business. Above all, the planned reorganization of the political magazines and the foreign magazine World mirror – two public core brands – causes unrest and fierce appeals to the directors and program managers.

With the planned relocation of the World mirror from the Sunday before daily News on Monday after Daily Topics program director Christine Strobl, her deputy Florian Hager and ARD editor-in-chief Oliver Köhr initially raised the active foreign correspondents. 45 signatories fought back last week in a statement against the plans to move the only program in the First, in which longer foreign programs have their place, to the “death zone”, as it was called. On Monday, former correspondents sent out an “appeal” that the SZ has received.

The signatories include TV personalities who have shaped information and political reporting in the first as we know it today: The former WDR director Fritz Pleitgen, former correspondent and studio manager of the ARD in Moscow, Washington, New York, counts among them, Sonia Seymour-Mikich, former ARD studio manager in Moscow and Paris and later WDR editor-in-chief, Jörg Armbruster, ex-studio manager of ARD in Cairo – and even an ally of the competing public broadcaster from Mainz: Claus Kleber, presenter of Today journals on ZDF, who ran the ARD studio in Washington.

You see a “marginalization of international reporting” in the plans. By damaging the transmission slots of World mirror, Weltspiegel report and World mirror extra the ARD would “seriously damage its reputation as a public broadcaster itself”, and that in times of “renewed discussion about the legitimacy of this broadcasting and the acceptance of fees,” says the letter, which reads like an objection from a public broadcaster Council of Elders.

On the other hand, when asked by SZ, program director Strobl stated that they wanted “the uniquely broad network of correspondents” to follow Daily Topics use it to deepen and explain the topics from the news format immediately afterwards. The World mirror remain the core of ARD international reporting, the scope of which is to be strengthened and expanded to include film formats such as 30-minute documentaries. In the competition with international streaming offers, the ARD media library needs a documentary and report area that is also attractive for younger people and has an eye on the world.

The top program of the first – Strobl, Hager and Köhr – started in spring with the mission to reach younger viewers with the joint program of the ARD broadcasters more than before. Since the classic television programs are hard to come by, the media library plays a special role, as does the distribution of programs on social media. A new law, which is to be passed this year, provides that ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio can decide for themselves which programs they still make available as classic TV and which they make available online – with the exception of a small mandatory canon that continues to be linear needs to be sent. It is no secret that the new program worlds will cost money that will have to be saved elsewhere.

Fluctuating number of shipments “according to cash position”? The magazine bosses oppose this

Against this background, the leaked plans of the new program makers for the ARD political magazines are particularly explosive first the magazine Over media reported. They are the second big upsetting topic. The six political magazines in the first – Panorama, monitor, contrasts, fact, report Mainz and Report Munich – come from different ARD stations, each with their own signature under their own label, on two broadcast slots per week in the first. The political magazines are also considered a refuge for the ARD’s internal political diversity. They are part of the founding inventory of the public service mandate and are often devoted to topics that are not in a good mood (commented last Thursday monitor including the topic “Euro 2020: The pyre of morals”).

Now it is apparently being considered to reduce their number of broadcast slots per year to 66, for some of the discontinued magazine programs, the editors could be commissioned to produce longer documentaries. Program director Strobl said on request: “We want to expand political reporting in the Erste and Mediathek and create a new focus on ‘investigative journalism’.” The political magazines played a central role. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 9.45 p.m. there will be more investigative research and reporting on political topics. In addition to magazine articles, the editors should also “deal with important topics intensively and in detail – with documentaries, reports or other film formats that are suitable for classic television and ARD Media library are very important “. Again: It’s also about younger target groups.

Open detailed view

Georg Restle, head of WDR monitor, on the other hand, criticizes the fact that the magazines in the media libraries have not yet been “advertised in a curated manner”. They couldn’t have established themselves there either. At the end of June, Restle warned in the SZ against a “depoliticization and trivialization” of the program. He and the other heads of the political magazines are now both binding and clear in a written statement to the Strobl / Köhr / Hager trio. The letter was sent last week and is available to the SZ.

They welcome the strengthening of the media libraries, they say, the non-linear success of the magazines is “absolutely central”, the proposed new long formats are “a good idea”. However, all broadcasting slots should be retained, “that would also prevent the discussion that political reporting on ARD should be weakened”. An annually fluctuating broadcast “according to the cash situation” should not exist.

Another protest letter was sent out this Monday: More than eighty freelance journalists from the political magazines and documentary format Story in the first call on the directors of the ARD not to implement the plans “in this form”. The role of magazines is more important than ever as a counterbalance to disinformation and fake news, and that in a time “in which the enemies of democracy are feeling the tailwind”. The editorial offices need the support of those responsible. The signatories write that they would like “a broad debate on this far-reaching reform”.

The dispute began long ago. In any case, there should be enough discussion material for the directors’ meeting of ARD this Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s about nothing less than how ARD sees itself.