Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), which has fallen into crisis after allegations of nepotism, will set up a search committee to find a temporary new director. The Broadcasting Council of the public broadcaster unanimously agreed on this in a meeting lasting several hours on Thursday. The aim is to elect the interim director as quickly as possible in an extraordinary meeting, said the chairman of the committee, Dieter Pienkny.
The broadcaster is thus treading a new path that was previously not envisaged in this form by the RBB state contract. It actually says there that directors should be elected after a call for tenders for a period of five years. After the crisis, however, a suitable interim leadership should now be found from outside to provide clarification. The administrative board, the second control body of the RBB, which is responsible for finances and also for the service contracts of the directors, had already spoken out on Monday.
The Broadcasting Council, which must elect the director, has obtained legal advice from the Brandenburg State Chancellery, which must support this decision as the broadcaster’s legal supervisor. On the station’s website it says that the State Chancellery also approves a search for candidates without an advertisement, “however, the term of office of this interim director may only last until the ordinary election of a new director”. The interim director may not stay longer than a year.
So far, no names of preferred candidates have been mentioned. What is important, however, is independence from the state and integrity, stressed Dieter Pienkny after the Broadcasting Council meeting. In addition to Pienkny, the selection committee should also include the acting chairwoman of the administrative board, Dorette König, the chairperson of the staff council, Sabine Jauer, and the spokeswoman for the free RBB journalists, Dagmar Bednarek.
Attorney General is still investigating
The director Patricia Schlesinger, who has come under criticism, has already been officially dismissed by the Broadcasting Council – and was formally dismissed by the Board of Directors at the beginning of the week without notice. This should ensure that Schlesinger does not receive any severance pay or pension payments. Normally, directors who have left the company continue to be entitled to around two-thirds of their salary for an indefinite period. Schlesinger earned more than 300,000 euros annually.
Administrative Director Hagen Brandstätter initially took over the business for them. Both employees of the RBB and the directors of the other ARD state institutions had sharply criticized him and the management team of the management: They would not contribute sufficiently to the clarification, so the core of the criticism. The ARD leadership had officially expressed distrust in the management. Brandstäter had not commented on this – he had been on sick leave since the beginning of the week. He is currently represented by Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus, RBB program manager.
Employees want to set up their own investigative commission
Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office continues to investigate the former director Patricia Schlesinger, her husband and the former RBB chairman of the board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf, for infidelity and accepting benefits. The presumption of innocence applies, those involved deny the allegations. In addition, an investigation is being carried out by a law firm specializing in compliance issues, which RBB engaged shortly after the allegations became known.
In the meantime, however, the RBB employees also want to push ahead with the investigation with their own commission, as was announced on Wednesday. The German Press Agency quotes from a resolution that was published on the broadcaster’s intranet. Accordingly, the employees want to nominate personalities from the workforce and from outside in the next few days, who should independently clarify and report to the workforce.
Another demand in this resolution shows how great the distrust of the employees in the station management is: In the future, the employees will continue to demand a say in the appointment of directors. For this, however, the RBB state contract would also have to be changed, which has not yet provided for this.