In the opinion of the Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger (SPD), a broadcasting reform must include all institutions. “Questioning Saarländisches Rundfunk (SR) and Radio Bremen alone is not the solution for public broadcasting,” she told the German Press Agency in Saarbrücken. In her opinion, the SR is “a model for success”. He is “closer to the people”, very popular and produces many formats more cheaply than others.
Media policy in Germany is a matter for the federal states, the federal states determine the mandate and the structure of public broadcasting in state treaties.
Rehlinger said: “We need public broadcasting. But it must now find the strength to reform itself, across the board.” This means that there must be reforms at SR as well as at all other broadcasters. “Just closing your eyes and hoping this storm will pass, I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Synergies without loss of quality
At the beginning of November, the acting ARD boss and WDR director Tom Buhrow suggested a far-reaching reform of public broadcasting and a new social contract in a speech that he expressly did not give in his function as ARD chairman. Buhrow’s initiative met with a mixed response.
Rehlinger sees more cooperation as a reform option. “You also have to look at the administrative costs to see what potential there is for efficiency,” she said. And ask yourself the question: “What synergies can be leveraged without there being a loss of quality?”
If small stations like SR were to merge, “the identification feature” for local people would disappear, said the head of government. “And only because the others don’t want to move.” So the key question is: “Does the system have enough power to change itself? And as a system and not just by cutting off at the edges?”
