A decision was already made before the new rbb directorship was elected: the current director Katrin Vernau will no longer keep the post. The Broadcasting Council rejected a subsequent application on Thursday.
The incumbent rbb director Katrin Vernau will no longer hold the post at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. On Thursday, the Broadcasting Council rejected an application to retrospectively admit her application. Vernau had not applied in time, only declared his willingness to continue in office. That did not seem sufficient to the majority of the Broadcasting Council.
In the evening, the candidates for the future directorship of rbb presented themselves. The six-strong selection committee initially decided on three candidates: the former government spokeswoman and journalist Ulrike Demmer, the editor-in-chief of digital news at ARD Aktuell, Juliane Leopold, and Heide Baumann, a former manager at Microsoft and Vodafone.
After differences in the selection committee in the meantime, Jan Weyrauch, who had also applied, is back in the race. The 55-year-old is currently program director at Radio Bremen and helped set up rbb’s Fritz youth radio station in the 1990s.
The new director is to be elected by the Broadcasting Council on June 16. Before that, for the first time in the history of rbb, the workforce can ask applicants questions on Monday, June 12.
Vernau has a one-year contract that expires in autumn 2023. She is the successor to Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired in the summer of 2022 following allegations of nepotism and waste.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, June 8th, 2023, 7:30 p.m