By Stephen Peter
Is Patricia Schlesinger (61) coming to an end? The RBB director is about to resign as ARD boss. This is reported by the industry magazine “Horizont”.
The head of the public broadcaster and current ARD chair has been under criticism for weeks. It’s about business-related meals in her private apartment, a possibly much too expensive new building for the RBB and allegations of nepotism.
Schlesinger reacted to the allegations only hesitantly and evasively. In order to clarify the affair, the main committee of the Brandenburg state parliament asked Schlesinger to appear at a special meeting of the committee – but she canceled at short notice.
The deputies then sent a catalog with 24 questions to the RBB boss. The deadline for this is this Thursday. As of 3 p.m., there were still no answers in the state parliament. RBB spokesman Justus Demmer assures: “We will answer the questions of the main committee.” However, he did not say exactly when this should happen.
Meanwhile, the trade journal “Horizont” reports that Schlesinger is about to resign as chairman of the ARD. Nine state broadcasting corporations and Deutsche Welle are combined in the network of transmitters.
Supposedly, ARD is already looking for a date for a conference of all directors, at which they will then declare their resignation. A meeting this Friday is even possible. “These are speculations that we do not comment on,” said the RBB spokesman for the BZ. However, this is not a clear denial.
It is unclear whether the resignation from the ARD chairmanship will automatically be followed by a resignation from the RBB chief post.
The RBB Broadcasting Council is responsible for the election and control of the director. This body is made up exclusively of laypeople who find their tasks more than difficult. On July 15, the Broadcasting Council called for “a complete request for the allegations” – but nothing more happened. The next session is not until September 22nd.
► BZ wanted to know: In view of the current events, wouldn’t a special session be appropriate? The head of the Broadcasting Council, Friederike von Kirchbach (sent by the Evangelical Church), did not answer this despite asking. She pointed out in the past that the committee only works on a voluntary basis.
However, that is only half the truth: von Kirchbach receives a monthly expense allowance of 700 euros, plus 75 euros per Broadcasting Council meeting! Regular members get at least 400 euros expense allowance per month.
Striking: The current episode is missing in Schlesinger’s ARD podcast “From the cutlery box”. A new episode is actually released on the first Wednesday of every month. According to self-promotion, Schlesinger speaks in her podcast “with clever and creative people about ARD and the changes that media companies are facing”. It could be that the biggest change in ARD is now your own boss’s own personality.
