Europe

Berlin broadcasting scandal and executive sacking fires up criticism of media

Lavish conditions and salaries of German TV and radio management add to dissatisfaction with output and annual licence fee levy

Sacked RBB director general Patricia Schlesinger: She faced two months of allegations and investigations about dubious backroom deals and profligate spending and, last year, while editorial departments cut reporters, camera staff and programmes, she got a 16 per cent salary hike. Photograph: Joe Corrigan/Getty

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Derek Scally
Mon Aug 22 2022 - 19:10

In late 1989, when angry East Germans burst into their deposed leaders’ closed residential compound, they were fascinated and furious at what they found.

A luxurious club house, a cinema, a shop filled with exclusive western goods and so many foreign cars – rather than the ratty local models – that the gated community was dubbed “Volvograd”.

A similar feeling of fascinated exasperation gripped Berlin’s public broadcaster RBB two weeks ago when staff visited the 13th floor of its production tower and their director general’s empty office suite.

There they found designer sofas (€20,000) on oiled Italian parquet floors (€17,000) alongside a living “green wall” (€7,500).

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“I never thought I’d be reporting on something like this, I’m simultaneously deeply affected and furious,” said Raiko Thal, a veteran RBB moderator.

His fury – and that of his colleagues – was directed at RBB director general Patricia Schlesinger.

In the job since 2016, the veteran investigative journalist-turned-manager has faced two months of allegations and investigations about dubious backroom deals and profligate spending.

Last year, while editorial departments cut reporters, camera staff and even entire programmes to save money, Ms Schlesinger was granted a 16 per cent salary increase to €303,000.

Gardening leave

After she was sent on gardening leave earlier this month, the stream of luxury leaks continued: a €145,000 Audi A8 company car with a special “massage seat” and at least eight catered private dinners at her Berlin apartment, all charged to RBB.

Last week, she was fired without notice but further secret bonus revelations – for her and her inner circle – have been the final straw. Convinced that control mechanisms and compliance bodies are hopelessly ineffectual, RBB’s 1,500 employees want the entire station management to follow Ms Schlesinger out the door.

Echoing that call at the weekend were the directors of Germany’s ARD public broadcaster – a federation of nine separate outlets, including RBB.

“We, the directors of ARD, no longer have confidence that the station’s executive management will be able to deal with the various incidents quickly enough,” they said.

Each of Germany’s nine regional broadcasters is an independent entity, with no direct influence over each other, so this statement was more symbolic in its effect.

Off the record, one ARD director said their move was an attempt to prevent the RBB scandal spreading.

It may be too late for that. The revelations about RBB’s decadent ex-director general have opened the floodgates and years of frustration with Germany’s public broadcasting – in particular on cost and output quality – have come pouring out. Now the entire post-war system is now under question.

The ARD federation of nine regional broadcasters is one of three pillars of the system, along a second public broadcaster ZDF and a three-station national radio broadcaster, Deutschlandfunk.

Obligatory fee

They are all financed by an obligatory household fee of €220 annually, regardless of whether you have a tv/radio or not. That raised a budget of over €8 billion in 2020 – some €2 billion more than raised by the BBC licence fee.

For that money, Germans have an embarrassment of media riches: nine national main television stations, nine regional stations, 76 radio stations and extensive online offerings.

On the salary front, public broadcasting resembles the Titanic: nine directors general sunning themselves on deck, earning about €2.8 million between them; some 20,000 unionised employees a deck beneath them on industry tariff salaries; and, shovelling goal down in the cellars, a legion of freelance and casual day labourers with precarious conditions.

Ask around in Germany’s public broadcasters and the mood is like the Titanic, too.

“It’s grim at the moment because we all hear the calls for change, to adapt,” said one senior radio producer to The Irish Times. “But this is a massive ship that is impossible to steer, let alone change course.”

On Monday a representative poll about the broadcast fee found 68 per cent of Germans unhappy paying €220 annually – rising to 80 per cent among under-30s.

There is little for them in the middle-aged ARD/ZDF schedule of soft-focus soap operas and crime dramas.

Beyond strong factual programming, German television drama rarely troubles international viewers, either. Few productions make the leap abroad, beyond historical drama “Babylon Berlin”, a co-production with Sky.

With uncertainty looming in both France and the UK, the Schlesinger affair means that the enemies of German public broadcasting are circling.