Status: 03/11/2022 1:28 p.m
Last weekend, ARD, ZDF and several other broadcasters temporarily stopped reporting from Moscow due to the new Russian media law. Now teams are returning to the studios.
ARD and ZDF plan to resume reporting from their studios in Moscow in the coming days. He explained that West German Broadcastingwhich is within the ARD is responsible for the Moscow studio. ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey also reported on the return plans at a meeting of the ZDF television council.
For the time being, however, no reports will come from Moscow about the military situation in Ukraine. “On the basis of the exam have ARD and ZDF, also in consultation with partners in the EBU, decided to resume reporting from the studios in Moscow on the political, economic and social situation in Russia, but reporting on the military situation in Ukraine from other locations of the two public broadcasters transmitter.” The abbreviation EBU stands for the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva, which coordinates the cooperation of European broadcasters.
“The Moscow correspondents of ARD and ZDF will report on the decisions of the Russian leadership, but also on civil society reactions, for example protests against the war, the reactions of the Russian elites or the concrete effects of the sanctions on the everyday life of Russian citizens,” it said.
“The special conditions of reporting from Russia are made transparent. ARD and ZDF reserve the right to reassess the situation at any time.”
New media law in Russia
had last weekend ARD and ZDF, like other German and international media, temporarily suspended their reporting from Moscow. The background was a new Russian media law which, among other things, provides for up to 15 years in prison for spreading alleged false information about the Russian armed forces and the war in Ukraine.
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) and the federal government then advised leaving Russia. The British BBC has been reporting from the country again since Tuesday evening.
Ukraine War: Reporting under Special Circumstances
Stefan Fries, WDR, March 11, 2022 1:16 p.m