“Never again state radio” was the motto after the end of the GDR. 30 years after Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) started broadcasting, the Federal President is taking up the debate on public broadcasting.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized the role of public broadcasting in Germany. “We will continue to need strong public broadcasters in the future that can fulfill their mission consistently and at a high level,” said Steinmeier at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR).
“In my view, they become even more important in a time of crisis.” The country is facing massive upheavals. “The war in Ukraine has already swept away many of our decades of certainties: political, military and economic,” added the Federal President.
The MDR started operations at the turn of the year 1992. He is part of the ARD community. Public broadcasting also includes ZDF and Deutschlandradio. In Germany and abroad there are debates about the public service system. The federal states, which are responsible for media policy in Germany, are currently reforming the mandate and structure of public service broadcasting. The topic of financing will come up in a later step. The reform is not about the program content of the stations. The broadcasters alone are responsible for this – with a view to the freedom of the press enshrined in constitutional law.
ÖRR as the basis for “discussion of society”
MDR director Karola Wille said at the ceremony in front of invited guests: MDR is a forum that enables access to independent information, open exchange, free opinion-forming and productive participation. She added how vital it was – and at the same time: how endangered – that is evident today worldwide. Especially painful at the moment with the propaganda media in Russia, which excludes any criticism. Three decades ago, after the end of the GDR, it was clear in the east: “Never again state radio.” The core transmission area of MDR is in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
MDR boss Wille also said: The reform discussion of the media landscape includes the main question “how public broadcasting can manage to enable a functioning conversation in society” – and that in a world of unlimited communication and fragmented partial publics.
Wille himself can imagine a networked digital communication model for the future in which linear – i.e. broadcast in the ongoing program – and non-linear offers from ARD and logically with ZDF and Deutschlandradio can be easily found and with recommendation systems that ensure diversity and do not restrict it. Wille calls this a communication network oriented towards the common good.
Source: Stern
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