After the scandal surrounding former director Patricia Schlesinger, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) has “missed the opportunity for a transparent new start.” This was said by the chair of the investigative committee into the RBB scandal, Petra Budke (Greens), on Thursday evening in the Brandenburg state parliament. There, the MPs debated the committee’s 1,000-page final report, which was produced after 19 meetings and 34 witness interviews. Budke accused the broadcaster of not having sufficiently supported the committee: “We would have liked a more open-minded cooperation from the RBB,” said Budke. “Some documents were sent to us with great delays, blacked out or not sent at all.”
“Self-service mentality” in the station is denounced
The committee’s most important finding was the finding that “organized irresponsibility” prevailed at the station. “This contributed to the self-serving mentality of the clique around Ms. Schlesinger becoming rampant,” said SPD MP Ludwig Scheetz. The work of the committee of inquiry confirmed the finding that “the extremely weak control bodies” of the broadcasting company had made it possible for individuals to bypass the broadcasting council and administrative board for their own interests. “The previous structure of the internal audit and the compliance officers also did not have the necessary independence to be able to effectively denounce abuses,” said Scheetz. “In short: the RBB has failed.”
From Scheetz’s point of view, the State Chancellery exercised its legal supervision correctly. “The committee was unable to identify any indications that the Brandenburg state government did not properly exercise the legal supervision assigned to it over the broadcaster before the abuses became known.”
Opposition also sees mistakes in the State Chancellery
Of course, all three opposition factions and groups saw things differently. The AfD’s parliamentary director, Dennis Hohloch, spoke of “government failure” or “deliberate turning a blind eye” on the part of the State Chancellery. “It’s not about a small clique enriching itself,” said Hohloch. “The self-service mentality in public broadcasting is a tradition.”
The group spokesman for BVB/Free Voters, Péter Vida, also criticized the State Chancellery for inadequately exercising legal supervision. “We have come to the conclusion that the origin of the problem lies in the fact that media policy and legal supervision are brought together in one department in the State Chancellery, and with the same employees,” said Vida. “An unprofessional proximity between the person being controlled and the person doing the controlling is thus home-made.”
For the Left, their parliamentary manager, the Prignitz MP Thomas Domres, said he could not have imagined such a wealth of errors, lack of transparency and rule violations as at the RBB. “I would have expected the RBB to support the investigative work of the committee of inquiry more strongly,” said Domres. The RBB’s committees had not done their job properly. “Unlike the coalition, we take the view that the State Chancellery did not exercise its powers to legally supervise the rbb – particularly with regard to the RBB’s economic activities and the broadcaster’s compliance with the principles of efficiency and economy – in a timely manner and ineffectively.”
CDU MP Björn Lakenmacher said that the new RBB state treaty would put a stop to the director’s power. “But we have only addressed one of the causes here,” said Eichelbaum. The RBB had overextended itself with the digital media house. “The director’s constitution cannot explain the mismanagement of the digital media house,” said Eichelbaum. Schlesinger and her directors made the most important decisions, while the board of directors was fobbed off with “bits of information.” “In view of the findings, I wonder whether we have really found suitable instruments to prevent something like this from happening in the future,” said Lakenmacher. “What if the management changes the principles of efficiency and economy in collegial agreement?” He recommends flattening the hierarchy in the broadcaster.
Personal assessment of a Green MP
Carla Kniestedt (Greens), a member of parliament from Uckermark who worked for the broadcaster as a freelancer for many years before she was elected to the state parliament, drew a very personal conclusion. “The people who made the programs at RBB were worried long before the Schlesinger scandal.” Personally, she was increasingly stunned by the committee’s findings. “How can it be that apparently no one at the management level expressed at least some doubt about the unbelievable distribution of bonuses and the high salaries of the management level?” A question that was probably asked by everyone who has followed the work of the investigative committee in recent months.