media
RBB crisis: employees want to clarify with the commission
The logo of the public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB): The search for an interim manager continues. photo
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa
While no name has yet been publicly named for the interim director at RBB, the employees want to ensure that they are not passed over in the search. The RBB committees, however, get a sign of solidarity from the other ARD houses.
In the RBB crisis surrounding allegations of nepotism against the director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice, station employees want to use their own commission to clarify the matter.
In a resolution that is on the company’s intranet and was available to the German Press Agency on Wednesday, it was said that the employees would nominate personalities from the middle of the workforce and from outside in the next few days.
Employees demand a say
They should therefore independently clarify “how the grievances in management could be tolerated over such a long period of time, how, despite all noble corporate goals, a corporate culture was able to thrive in which even obvious misconduct and questionable management decisions could be accepted”. They should report to the workforce on an ongoing basis. The Commission should also draw up recommendations on how similar events can be prevented in the future.
In addition, employees of the ARD broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) demand a say in the resolution when naming an interim leader and a future director. This should also be recorded in the RBB state contract.
An interim director is currently being sought. Official names are not known. Administrative director Hagen Brandstätter is currently running the business, who has also been criticized for dealing with the crisis surrounding allegations of nepotism against Schlesinger. Because Brandstäter was on sick leave, the longest-serving director – that’s program director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus – took over the business. The RBB editorial committee had called for the resignation of the entire management a few days ago. The ARD directors made it clear over the weekend that they had lost confidence in the current RBB leadership.
special session on Thursday
The Broadcasting Council will meet again for a special session on Thursday. However, it is not expected that there will be an issue of who could become interim boss. First of all, it is about the legally clean way to be able to install such an interim management at all. The RBB state contract does not provide for such an unprecedented case.
Schlesinger has been exposed to numerous allegations since the end of June, mainly through reports from the online medium “Business Insider”. She has been ARD chairwoman since the beginning of the year and RBB director since 2016. She resigned from both positions.
In addition to Schlesinger, the focus of the scandal is also the resigned RBB chairman 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, about agreements between the two on salary and bonuses for Schlesinger. And it’s about orders for her husband, ex-“Spiegel” journalist Gerhard Spörl, at Messe Berlin – where Wolf was also chief supervisor until recently.
support offered
The supervisory bodies of the other ARD houses have, however, offered support to the RBB supervisory bodies in their processing of the felt affair. The conference of the ARD committee chairmen (GVK) will “explore in direct contact with the RBB supervisory bodies what appropriate solidarity support and help can look like in practice,” said the GVK in Munich and Cologne. The initiative can be interpreted as a signal for the cohesion of the bodies in the ARD family.
A concrete possible help with committee work (broadcasting council and board of directors) was not outlined. According to reports, this could be such that – where it is legally possible and desired by the bodies of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) – certain tasks could be temporarily distributed to other offices that have nothing to do with the RBB scandal. The RBB committees could then concentrate fully on processing the affair and be relieved of secondary tasks. At the weekend, the chairwoman of the RBB broadcasting council, Friederike von Kirchbach, resigned.