Given all the constraints under which the public broadcasters in Germany suffer and work, it is perhaps worth remembering why they actually exist. For example, it is about lessons from German history, but without getting too historical: this country considers it sensible that, alongside private media offerings, certain content can be created and received in a secure and independent manner. This is regulated in the State Treaty on the Media, which states quite nicely for a legal text: “The task of public broadcasters is to act as a medium and factor in the process of free individual and public opinion formation through the production and distribution of their offerings, and in doing so to meet the democratic, social and cultural needs of society.”
Why RBB is withdrawing from the Berlinale Documentary Film Prize – Media
