“Political filters” at the station?
Employees write fire letter to NDR
8/29/2022, 9:22 p.m
At the NDR there are allegations that the broadcaster has a kind of “political filter” that influences reporting. Now the company’s own employees are turning to the NDR leadership and demanding “transparent processing”.
After the allegations of “court reporting” at the NDR on political issues, the station’s employees follow suit. 72 employees of the Landesfunkhaus in Kiel – almost all of them journalists – wrote a fire letter to the station bosses and distanced themselves from their behavior. This is reported by the “star”, which has the letter. In the letter, the employees demand “a complete and transparent processing of all allegations”.
The allegations deal with the question of whether critical reporting on members of the Schleswig-Holstein state government was suppressed. At the station, a kind of “political filter” was suspected by the superiors. In the reports of several media, several cases were listed in which NDR employees had expressed their displeasure.
In the fire letter, the signatories write that the presumption of innocence applies, but the employees are “severely shaken” by the publications on the allegations. Demands for personal consequences are not raised in the fire letter. However, it is expected, it says, “that all employees of the NDR Schleswig-Holstein will be informed promptly and comprehensively about the further processes and will be involved in the processing”.
As the “Stern” reports, TV boss Norbert Lorentzen and the editorial manager “Politics and Research” Julia Stein have declared themselves biased in the matter. They would no longer accept journalistic contributions dealing with the allegations against the NDR in Kiel. The NDR state broadcasting council in Schleswig-Holstein had announced that it would hold a special meeting to discuss allegations in connection with the public broadcaster’s political reporting.
You can find the full article on stern.de or in the current “Stern” at the kiosk.