RBB pays 1.4 million euros for lawyers


Dhe RBB broadcasting council and SPD member of parliament in Brandenburg, Erik Stohn, has requested an extraordinary meeting of the supervisory body for next Friday. He is worried about the reporting of the program “Brandenburg Aktuell”. This, according to Stohn, “gives the impression that the law firm Lutz and Abel is not only working on the investigation, but also advising the RBB management on dealing with the public prosecutor’s office as the investigative authority”. This “gives the impression that the law firm Lutz and Abel is helping possible accomplices of the Schlesinger system to pull their heads out of the noose”.

What are the lawyers actually doing?

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for feuilleton online and “media”.

The RBB journalist Gabi Probst had reported that costs of more than 1.4 million euros had been incurred for legal advice from the law firm Lutz and Abel and other lawyers. RBB employed 31 lawyers. Within “ten days in August” of the past year alone, as Stohn quotes the RBB contribution, it was about “correspondence for information to the Attorney General, coordination and planning of the meeting with the Attorney General”. Professor of criminal law Uwe Hellmann from the University of Potsdam expresses the suspicion that “if it was discussed for many hours” “which information should be passed on to the public prosecutor’s office”, the result could have been “that not all information was passed on and then the public prosecutor’s office just didn’t get a complete picture”.

Requesting a special session: the RBB broadcasting council and SPD member of parliament, Erik Stohn (right).  Recorded with Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke at a state party conference.


Requesting a special session: the RBB broadcasting council and SPD member of parliament, Erik Stohn (right). Recorded with Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke at a state party conference.
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Image: dpa

There is a risk that the “pre-selection” of the material by the lawyers will result in “a certain bias”, said Martin Heger, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Also, it is a waste of money. The contributors would pay for the RBB lawyers, who would take on the tasks that the public prosecutor’s office had to perform itself.

The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the former RBB director Patricia Schlesinger and four other suspects on suspicion of infidelity and accepting benefits. The investigations are about dubious consulting contracts in connection with the now stopped, around 200 million euro construction project of the “digital media house”, about Schlesinger’s exorbitant salary increase to 340,000 euros per year, the expansion of the director’s floor, about bills for meals allegedly arranged for work , the use of the company car and a business trip by Schlesinger.

Neither the General Prosecutor’s Office in Berlin nor Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and its lawyers wanted to answer questions from journalist Gabi Probst about the procedure. Clarification is needed here, says Broadcasting Councilor Stohn. He expects a report from the acting director Katrin Vernau and the board of directors on the legal fees, and he also expects the law firm Lutz and Abel to present their final report at the end of February.

A spokesman for RBB confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that the special session would take place on Friday.



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