From BZ/dpa
In the RBB crisis surrounding allegations of nepotism against the director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice, station employees want to use their own commission to clarify the matter.
In a resolution that is on the company’s intranet and was available to the German Press Agency on Wednesday, it was said that the employees would nominate personalities from the middle of the workforce and from outside in the next few days.
They should therefore independently clarify “how the grievances in management could be tolerated over such a long period of time, how, despite all noble corporate goals, a corporate culture was able to thrive in which even obvious misconduct and questionable management decisions could be accepted”. They should report to the workforce on an ongoing basis. The Commission should also draw up recommendations on how similar events can be prevented in the future.
Freelance employees of the RBB demonstrated in front of the station Photo: Ralf Gunther
In addition, employees of the ARD broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) demand a say in the resolution when naming an interim leader and a future director. This should also be recorded in the RBB state contract.
An interim director is currently being sought. Official names are not known. Administrative director Hagen Brandstätter is currently running the business, who has also been criticized for dealing with the crisis surrounding allegations of nepotism against Schlesinger.
Because Brandstäter is on sick leave, the longest-serving director – that’s program director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus – has taken over the business. The RBB editorial committee had called for the resignation of the entire management a few days ago. The ARD directors made it clear over the weekend that they had lost confidence in the current RBB leadership.
The Broadcasting Council will meet again for a special session on Thursday. However, it is not expected that there will be an issue of who could become interim boss. First of all, it is about the legally clean way to be able to install such an interim management at all. The RBB state contract does not provide for such an unprecedented case.
The resigned RBB boss Patricia Schlesinger (61) Photo: dpa/picture-alliance
Schlesinger has been exposed to numerous allegations since the end of June, mainly through reports from the online medium “Business Insider”. She has been ARD chairwoman since the beginning of the year and RBB director since 2016. She resigned from both positions.
In addition to Schlesinger, the focus of the scandal is also the resigned RBB chairman of the board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf. Both rejected the allegations against them. Among other things, it is about controversial consulting contracts for an RBB construction project, about agreements between the two on salary and bonuses for Schlesinger. And it’s about orders for her husband, the ex-“Spiegel” journalist Gerhard Spörl, at Messe Berlin – where Wolf was also chief supervisor until recently.