Hessischer Rundfunk: “We are learning lessons from the scandal at RBB”

The supervisory bodies of Hessischer Rundfunk are to have an office. I assume that’s a lesson you learned from the scandal at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg?

We learned from the RBB scandal that the independence of the bodies of the institutions must be strengthened. The coalition factions in the Hessian state parliament have therefore taken the ongoing legislative process on the Hessian media law as an opportunity to include a regulation to strengthen the independence of the HR bodies in the HR law. I very much welcome the fact that the state parliament decided on this on Thursday. Hesse is thus the first state to draw consequences from the RBB scandal in its media law. The office itself is not new. What is new is the legal regulation according to which the independence of the office is enshrined in law.

What is to be achieved with the office? How will the cast work? Who determines the budget? How do you envisage the work of the office in concrete terms?

The office is intended to provide professional support and advice to the members of the supervisory bodies in the performance of their supervisory and control functions, independently of the director. This means that the committee members should use the expertise of the office in order to be able to carry out their supervisory function independently. The new regulation provides for the office to be adequately equipped with human and material resources in consultation with the committee chairmen. New appointments and personnel measures that affect employees of the office are to be made in agreement with the chairmen of the committees. The employees are only subject to their instructions in their work. The details of the office are the responsibility of HR, which determines this in its articles of association. The budget and the staff of the office are determined independently by the committee chairmen.

So far, the Broadcasting Board and the Board of Directors have given the impression that they are an integral part of HR. What do you expect from the committees?

I have no doubt that the HR committees have always fulfilled their responsibilities responsibly and will continue to do so in the future. The Broadcasting Council represents the general public in the field of broadcasting. The board of directors monitors the management of the artistic director outside of program design. His work primarily includes economic and technical issues. With their committees, the public service broadcasters have an internally plural form of organization. At the same time, I expect the bodies to carry out their supervisory activities independently and effectively.

Years ago, there was a blatant case of corruption at Hessischer Rundfunk – that of the former sports director Jürgen Emig. Do you think that such a case will never happen again?

No public or private institution is completely immune to criminal activity. However, every institution can create an effective compliance structure in order to counteract this as a preventive measure. Hessischer Rundfunk has done this in an exemplary manner in recent years and is also very well positioned in this comparison. In HR, for example, there are regulations on approval reservations, the four-eyes principle, the separation of functions and bias as well as documentation. As part of company-wide risk management, an effective internal control system serves to protect company assets. As part of compliance programs, the HR management is supported by the compliance officer, the anti-corruption officer and the external ombudsman. HR has recently set up a working group to review the internal supervisory and compliance structures. Only last year did HR tighten the internal regulations for preventing corruption, and only a few months ago did it adopt a new compliance strategy paper. The basis and point of reference for all of this is a code of conduct that was developed in 2020 together with the employees and adopted last year. Mandatory training courses are also planned for employees on the subject of compliance. HR is therefore on the right track.

It is striking that HR has been generating a high minus millions for years, and the committees have always approved it. Should that change?

The Broadcasting Council approves the budget, and the Board of Directors examines the budget estimate drawn up by the director. Shortfalls in the fiscal year are not specific to HR. However, it is true that HR is burdened by pension provisions that stem from the past and now have to be reduced over a long period of time. Neither the committees nor the director have much room for maneuver here. Irrespective of this, I will continue to do my best in the future to ensure that the disparities between the individual state broadcasters within the ARD network, especially with regard to equity, are at least mitigated in favor of HR. In Hesse, we have a great interest in journalistically qualitative and valid regional reporting. This must also be guaranteed in the future.