Future ARD boss on savings plans – “If we do that, there will be Halligalli”
Kai Gniffke, director of Südwestrundfunk (SWR), will take over the ARD chairmanship in 2023
Source: dpa
SWR director and future ARD chairman Kai Gniffke does not see any alternative to shrinking public service broadcasting. Rather, he believes that diversity is necessary.
Dhe future ARD chairman Kai Gniffke does not see any alternative to shrinking public service broadcasting. In the “mirrorGniffke contradicted his predecessor Tom Buhrow, who left at the end of the year: “Shrinking is not an end in itself. At a time when Elon Musk and Chinese algorithms decide what we see on Twitter and TikTok, society needs public broadcasting.”
In the double interview from the current print edition of the magazine published online on Friday evening, WDR director Buhrow referred to the ongoing debates about the amount of the broadcasting fee: “You can’t always rely on being able to enforce what doesn’t have a political majority in the Federal Constitutional Court . My impression is that it will not work without shrinking.”
SWR director Gniffke said that “you can’t measure how Germany will think in ten years”. “And it is precisely in this digital media world that an independent journalistic medium is needed,” he added.
Resistance from the workforce is expected
The reform debate flared up again after the scandal surrounding the then director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Patricia Schlesinger. The institution is in its greatest crisis in its existence. In the summer, allegations of nepotism against the director, who was later dismissed without notice, and the resigned head of the board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf, were raised, both of which were rejected. The public prosecutor’s office in Berlin is investigating, the presumption of innocence applies until the conclusion.
In their attempt to reform public service broadcasting, however, the current and future ARD chairmen fear fierce resistance – including from within their own ranks. “If we do that, there will be Halligalli. Nevertheless, we will pull it off,” said future ARD chairman Kai Gniffke. WDR boss Tom Buhrow, who currently heads the network of institutions, said in the double interview that he felt that there was “rumbling” in the workforce. Ambitious savings plans are the reason for this.
In the future, the directors want climate, consumer and radio play topics to be bundled in competence centers. Gniffke told the “Spiegel” that not every broadcaster will continue to operate a culture wave 24 hours a day in the future. And: From 2023, the association wants to start setting up a linear television channel.
“I already know that those affected will howl and squeak to prevent this. But we will endure these conflicts,” says Gniffke, who wants to set a good example in his own institution. “We are currently examining whether to switch a radio wave to digital” – despite the complaints and excitement. The fact that the hierarchs are already anticipating this also has to do with the future reduction in personnel requirements. “If you produce less, you need fewer employees,” says Buhrow. Saying that is part of honesty.
Abolition of individual institutions?
SWR director Gniffke does not want to talk about a merger of ARD and ZDF. “We’re all talking about not enough diversity, not enough competition. It has always spurred me on in the news business, if ZDF had something good, then I wanted to be better,” he said.
Gniffke also does not see the abolition of individual state broadcasters as an issue for the ARD directors. “Neither Tom Buhrow nor I decide whether the SR and Radio Bremen will continue, but the state parliaments,” he said.
In view of the ongoing crisis of confidence, Buhrow had called for a fundamental reform of public broadcasting in a speech at Hamburg’s Übersee-Club in November. In 20 years, Germany will no longer want to finance all public broadcasters, he said. “If we don’t make a fresh start now, responsibly and honestly, the worst-case scenario is that there won’t be a fresh start,” he warned, and spoke out in favor of a round table to work out a “new social contract”. Buhrow did not want his statements to be understood in his function as ARD chairman, but as private.
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