Status: 09/27/2022 2:27 p.m
The internal investigation into the allegations against the NDR Landesfunkhaus Schleswig-Holstein has been completed. The report was presented today. NDR director Joachim Knuth commissioned the test.
The investigation focused on allegations of research into deportation children and the role of the DRK, a canceled interview with the former Schleswig-Holstein Interior Minister Hans-Joachim Grote (CDU) and the general accusation that NDR reporting from Kiel was not independent.
Carsten Löding and Thomas Berbner have internally examined the allegations against the state radio station in Kiel.
The editor-in-chief of NDR Info 21:45, Carsten Löding, from Hanover and Thomas Berbner, editor-in-chief of ARD-Zuliefer, from Hamburg According to the report, there is no evidence of a “political filter” in the Schleswig-Holstein state radio station. In addition, there were no journalistically unfounded interventions by the editorial board during the research into deportation children and the role of the DRK, and no journalistic principles were violated.
Editorial climate is obviously the main problem
Working independently, the team conducted 66 in-person, in-depth interviews, telephone interviews and video chats, and evaluated six written submissions, beginning September 6. The audit identified an editorial climate as a major problem in some areas of the Landesfunkhaus Schleswig-Holstein, which is characterized in part by a lack of communication and a lack of trust.
Director Knuth: Some of the allegations made are unfounded
NDR director Knuth considers a cultural change in the management of the Schleswig-Holstein broadcasting center to be necessary.
“This internal investigation provides no evidence that journalistic principles were violated in the Landesfunkhaus Schleswig-Holstein. It shows that the allegations made are partly unfounded. But it also shows that we urgently need a cultural change in leadership and editorial cooperation, to regain trust,” said NDR Director General Knuth.
No evidence found for alleged “political filter”.
Berbner explained: “We did not find any evidence of an alleged ‘political filter’ in the Landesfunkhaus Schleswig-Holstein. There were individual decisions that we also view critically afterwards. But even in the editorial team, a large majority had nothing to do with this term The debate on this put a heavy strain on the editorial climate in the Landesfunkhaus.”
In terms of the individual points, the work-up provided the following results:
- Research on deportation children: DRK was not kept out
When researching children who were deported and the role of the DRK, there were no journalistically unfounded interventions by the editors. The responsible editors did not intend to keep the DRK out of reporting or to pass on research material to the DRK.
“There were many deficits in this research, but the allegations that have now been publicly raised are irrelevant to the facts,” explained Carsten Löding. “Two responsible editors came to a different assessment of the research situation, which was not adequately communicated to the authors. Research went wrong here, but neither should the DRK be protected nor should research material be passed on.”
- Case of former SH Interior Minister Grote: Wrong assessment
In the case of the canceled interview with the former Schleswig-Holstein Interior Minister Grote, the test report provides the same assessment of the program conflict as the NDR editorial committee. The Landesfunkhaus often reported on political scandals. In this case there was a wrong assessment of a journalistic topic. The interview should have been conducted in order to gain further insight into the background to Grote’s resignation.
- The issue of editorial climate needs further investigation
Although there is no evidence from the NDR’s internal auditors for a “political filter” in the state broadcasting station SH, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t individual decisions on current political issues that should be criticized. Such a blanket accusation must be examined in more detail in a more detailed analysis of the reporting of the past few years. “We had many discussions to clarify the disputed facts. The colleagues placed a great deal of trust in us, which enabled us to determine that the main problem in parts of the state broadcasting center was a disturbed editorial climate,” said Löding.
Test report independent of external processing
The NDR’s audit report is independent of the pending external investigation of the facts, which has been commissioned by the NDR Landesrundfunkrat Schleswig-Holstein.
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