Eight against one, such a relationship is unfair. But it is only fair, because it is urgent, that the eight directors of ARD have withdrawn their trust from the management of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. The previous educational work is sparse, new questionable events are becoming public. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg is stuck in a swamp of nepotism, favors for mutual benefit, sheer waste of contribution money.
The failure is systemic, the transmitter is threatened with implosion. The ARD reacts accordingly, calling for a “profound new beginning”. It has to be and it has to be comprehensive in terms of height, depth and breadth. The top broadcasters that are still in office are discredited, they better clear the way today than tomorrow. To ensure that the structures required for program work do not erode, an external leader or a team of reorganizers or even a reform commission is needed to stabilize the RBB. Regardless of people, regardless of cherished routines – the employees deserve that, the contributor can demand that.
Where do you get this savior and not steal it? That could be the task of the supervisory bodies, the broadcasting and administrative boards. Here, too, there is an urgent need for renewal. The practice that has been practiced to date, that after the resignation of the artistic director, the chairperson of the broadcasting and administrative board, deputies move into these positions, does not end the neglect of responsibility.
Until their departure, the interim director Hagen Brandstätter and the two bodies must now muster the strength and competence to initiate a solution for the broadcaster, perhaps with the help of other ARD stations.
It is in the interests of the public service system to organize self-cleansing and a fresh start. If that doesn’t succeed, what the Berlin FDP politician Sebastian Czaja, for example, is propagating as a reform could become reality: a merger of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. That sounds like a quick solution, but it’s not thought through to the end.
It’s true: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and, consequently, ARD are in their deepest crisis. May every broadcaster, ZDF and Deutschlandradio, look under every stone to see if there is anything strange or illegal. By no means can it be ruled out that the fire in the RBB will become a conflagration in the public service system. And then a far-reaching new start in the radio station, which always claims to be the better one, will be necessary.
