What had been hinted at since the beginning of the week is now confirmed by ARD and ZDF: the public broadcasters are going to the Federal Constitutional Court. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday. The broadcasters are thus taking legal action against the fact that the upcoming increase in the broadcasting fee has not yet been decided. At the Prime Minister’s Conference in Leipzig at the end of October, a decision on this point was postponed. On Tuesday, ARD chairman Kai Gniffke said: “This step is difficult for us, but we cannot accept a violation of the procedure.” The ARD is aware “that this path represents the last resort.”
The broadcasters are actually entitled to 58 cents more in contributions from January onwards – this is what the responsible independent expert commission for determining the financial needs of broadcasters (KEF) has calculated. ZDF director Norbert Himmler also explained that because the states have not yet implemented the KEF’s contribution recommendation, there is “no other option” than to file a complaint in Karlsruhe. “The independence of ZDF reporting stands or falls with the independence of our financing.” He emphasized how valuable public broadcasting is as a guarantee of reliable information for society. The constitution stipulates that public broadcasters must be adequately financed for this. Measured against purchasing power, the broadcasting fee has fallen over the past 20 years. The recommended increase of 58 cents per month from 18.36 to 18.94 euros corresponds to an increase of only 0.8 percent per year and is therefore well below the inflation rate.
A new post won’t come until summer at the earliest – if at all
However, the Prime Minister must unanimously agree to these recommendations, and the 16 state parliaments must then vote on them. This procedure for increasing the contribution has already been confirmed several times by the Federal Constitutional Court. Most recently in 2021, when Saxony-Anhalt blocked the increase at the end of 2020. After the ruling, the contribution was finally increased a few months late.
In order to put the KEF’s contribution recommendation from February into effect on time, the country leaders should actually have decided on it in the summer. But even at their most recent meeting in Leipzig in October, they did not decide to increase the contribution – instead they agreed on a reform of the broadcasters. At the same time, they made it clear that they were planning to change the procedure to increase the contribution. Because it takes time to make this legally secure, a decision on the broadcasting fee can only be made at the upcoming Prime Minister’s Conference on December 12th. It is therefore clear to the broadcasters: the constitutionally required implementation of the KEF recommendation at the beginning of the year will not happen. This is no longer possible “in the remaining six weeks of the year,” according to the ARD announcement.
Even the state governments that are in favor of increasing the contribution as quickly as possible do not assume that this will happen before the new broadcasting financing agreement comes into force, at best in early summer. Other states, especially Saxony-Anhalt, do not want to agree to any increase at all and expect that the reforms in the new state treaty will reduce the broadcasters’ costs. However, according to the KEF, this will not happen before the end of 2028.
The broadcasters are now going on the offensive, which increases the pressure on the negotiations
This means that the claim that Karlsruhe has repeatedly confirmed for funding of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio that is independent of the state and in accordance with the mandate collides with the pace of media policy in the states in the reform, which has been in the works for many years. The Broadcasting State Commission is meeting this Wednesday; it must prepare the draft law on the new financing process, which the Prime Minister will then vote on in December. Recently, however, it didn’t look as if there was already a set strategy.
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The fact that the broadcasters are now going on the offensive increases the pressure on the negotiations and signals that the public broadcasters want to assert their rights. The Federal Constitutional Court has made one thing particularly clear in its previous rulings: the states can influence the broadcasting fee through laws, However, they must not make financing a means of media policy.
The heads of government, who generally reject an increase in contributions, could now see the lawsuit as an affront. However, since the last clarification from the highest court in 2021, they have realized that a further blockage of contributions will result in the same conflict. Nevertheless, there was neither a timely change in the law that would have reduced the size of broadcasting and lowered the contribution – nor did they pay much attention to a procedure that was in accordance with the applicable legal procedure and the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court.
The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate and Chairman of the Broadcasting State Commission Alexander Schweitzer, SPD, and Saxony’s Prime Minister and Commission Co-Chairman Michael Kretschmer, CDU, regretted the decision of ARD and ZDF in a statement on Tuesday evening. The move to Karlsruhe was “not very beneficial” for the acceptance of public broadcasters, explained Schweitzer. The majority of countries have “always committed themselves to fulfilling the constitutional obligation and implementing the KEF recommendation”. Kretschmer added that the states’ reform package shows “a clear path”. North Rhine-Westphalia’s media minister Nathanael Liminski, CDU, also clearly criticizes the broadcasters: “Acceptance cannot be achieved through judgments.” The lawsuit is a legitimate means for the broadcasters – but Liminski speaks of a “wrong decision at the wrong time”. The lawsuit is “grist to the mill of the opponents” of public broadcasting.
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