The media have only become a focus of public cultural policy in the narrower sense in recent years. Previously, only film promotion was considered an object of this policy area. It is carried out by the Federal Government and the Länder in order to promote film as a cultural asset and to support the national cultural industry. Article 5 of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany states that everyone has the right “freely to express and disseminate his or her opinion in speech, writing and pictures and to inform himself or herself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by radio and film are guaranteed. Censorship does not take place”.
The dual broadcasting system
Television and radio programmes in Germany are produced and broadcast by public broadcasters and private companies. This “dual broadcasting system” was emphasised by the Federal Constitutional Court in its 4th broadcasting judgement of November 1986. Public service broadcasting is of particular importance in this context, as its obligation to provide education means that it must guarantee the independent basic provision of information, education, advice and entertainment; in particular, it must offer contributions to culture. Private broadcasting, on the other hand, is therefore permissible with a lower basic standard of diversity, since public service broadcasting assumes the task of providing the basic service.
The Interstate Broadcasting Treaty / Interstate Media Treaty
The aim of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty between all 16 federal states (1.RStV 1987, 22nd Interstate Broadcasting Treaty Amendment 2019) is to create uniform federal regulations for public and private broadcasting.
Of particular importance was the 12th Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty (2009) with new regulations for the permissibility of the broadcasters’ offerings on the internet. According to this treaty, the public broadcasters may no longer make their programme and accompanying information available for retrieval after seven days after broadcasting. Offerings that go beyond this are permissible for longer if they are included in the broadcaster’s telemedia concept and have passed the so-called three-step test. This includes, for example, documentaries and information programmes (duration: 12 months), cultural programmes (up to 5 years) and programmes with contemporary or cultural-historical content (unlimited). The 15th Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty, which came into force in 2013, brought about a paradigm shift with regard to broadcasting financing: the household levy was introduced, according to which broadcasting fees were no longer charged per device but per household. 33 In the 19th Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty,which came into force in 2016, an online-based youth service was mandated by ARD and ZDF.
On 1 May 2019, the 22nd Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty came into force, which reorganises the telemedia mandate of the public broadcasters: the online offerings are to focus on moving images and sound in order to distinguish themselves from the offerings of the press publishers; at the same time, they are to be given more leeway in the length of time they are made available.
In November 2020, the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty was replaced by the Interstate Media Treaty. This treaty regulates the rights and obligations of broadcasters and now also of telemedia providers in Germany.
Diversity in broadcasting
Section 11 of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty of 31 August 1991, as amended by the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty (May 2019), stipulates that the programme content of public service broadcasters “shall provide a comprehensive overview of the international, European, national and regional events in all essential areas of life” in order to “promote international understanding, European integration and social cohesion in the Federation and the Länder”. In order to present the diversity in the German-speaking and European area, the television broadcasters should, according to § 6 of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty from 31 August 1991, as amended by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty, “reserve the major part of their total broadcasting time for feature films, television plays, series, documentaries and comparable productions for European works in accordance with European law”.
Nevertheless, there are no official quotas to which programme providers must adhere. In cultural and media policy in the Federal Republic, quota regulations – also with regard to certain population groups – as an instrument for promoting European film and television production have so far not been considered suitable for solving problems.
Cultural channels
The German television landscape includes various stations that broadcast predominantly cultural content. In the early days, especially the third channels showed characteristics of cultural programmes. The development of separate cultural channels began from the mid-1980s, such as the emergence of 3sat (1984), ARTE (1992) or ZDFkultur (2011), which emerged from the ZDFtheaterkanal. ZDFkultur existed until 2016; in February 2019, ZDFkultur was revived as a digital offering in the ZDF-Mediathek. The cultural content of the channels ZDF, 3sat and arte is bundled under the brand. German radio also has channels specialising in cultural content, such as hr2 Kultur (1950), WDR 3 (1964), Deutschlandradio Kultur (1994), SR 2 KulturRadio (1995), SWR2 (1998), rbb’s kulturradio (2003, previously RADIOkultur since 1997), ARTE radio (2002) or NDRkultur (2003).
COSMO (until the end of 2016 Funkhaus Europa), one of the international radio programmes for Germany, now broadcasts Refugee Radio at certain times, a separate format in English and Arabic that offers news on the current situation in Germany and the political discussion.
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