The allegations against the RBB, its director Patricia Schlesinger and head of the board of directors Wolf-Dieter Wolf, have now also reached Berlin politicians. Alexander King, media policy spokesman for the left in the Berlin parliament, demanded on Tuesday that the House of Representatives should deal with the allegations against director Patricia Schlesinger and the RBB administrative board chairman Wolf-Dieter Wolf and with the status of the internal investigation process. “Instead of getting more clarity, more and more questions arise. It is not always about possible violations of the compliance rules or even justiciable issues.”
When the Brandenburg state parliament called for a special session of the committee responsible for the media in mid-July at the request of the AfD, politicians in Berlin unanimously rejected this step. King also did not consider a special meeting during the summer break to be necessary at this point. “Now that would be too early because the results of the tests are not available,” he told the Tagesspiegel. If there are still questions left unanswered, “we should investigate and deal with them. Political conclusions can then also be discussed,” he said.
So now it is the left that is the first parliamentary group in Berlin to demand a meeting of the House of Representatives on the allegations surrounding the RBB. Apparently, the rental agreement for the Audi A8 of the RBB director played the decisive role: “Dubious awarding of consultancy contracts, construction cost explosion, billing of domestic dinners” and now a company car affair”. The irritations about the management of the RBB are increasing, King sums up the anger about the events in the RBB.
“We also need to deal with these events in the Berlin House of Representatives. Our colleagues in Brandenburg are already a step ahead of us. Berlin should follow suit,” states King. However, the left-wing politician does not call for a special session during the summer break, as in Potsdam. “The next committee for engagement, federal affairs and the media of the Berlin House of Representatives has to deal with it immediately after the summer break.”
Alexander King has various questions for those responsible at the station. He would like to know on what basis the board of directors calculated the increase in the director’s salary by 16 percent to 303,000 euros and how high the additional remuneration is. In connection with the purchase of a company car, he would like to know who may use which type of company car, under what conditions and for what purposes. Further questions concern the digital media house – it now costs 63 or 185 million euros – and how the consultancy contracts came about. A “further annoyance” for the left-wing politician is that the director continues to keep quiet about the dinner guests in the Schlesingers’ household. That will “not stand up in any court”.
