“Too much minority opinion”: Magdeburg’s CDU wants to abolish ARD

“Too Much Minority Opinion”
Magdeburg CDU wants to abolish ARD

The CDU in Saxony-Anhalt already came out as a critic of public broadcasting when the license fee was increased. Despite the defeat before the Federal Constitutional Court in August, the party is following up: In the long term, they want to work on abolishing the ARD.

Saxony-Anhalt’s Christian Democrats want to switch off the oldest public television program. “Das Erste”, which has been on the air since 1950, should disappear in the long term, reported the “Mitteldeutsche Zeitung”, which appears in Halle. The CDU parliamentary group therefore backed a proposal from Saxony-Anhalt’s media minister Rainer Robra from the CDU. “We support Minister of State Robra’s proposal to abolish the station “Das Erste” as an independent channel in the long term,” said Markus Kurz, head of parliament. ZDF and the third programs are to remain. With a view to this, Kurz speaks of a concept “The first with a regional focus”.

ZDF, which started in 1963, would be upgraded as a result of this reform, it said. “ZDF would remain as the national broadcaster,” Kurz confirmed. According to the report, the media politician emphasized that the closure of the “First” is a long-term vision. “We know that we cannot implement this politically at the moment. But that is our long-term goal.”

“Too far from spectators”

The CDU parliamentary group accuses the public broadcasters of having distanced themselves from their viewers. “We are of the opinion that in public service broadcasting, minority opinions are often stronger than the opinion of the majority,” Kurz complained. “For example, broadcasters should not only let those who still want more and more climate protection have their say, but also those who have to pay for it.”

In August, Saxony-Anhalt suffered a defeat before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe in a dispute over a refused increase in the broadcasting fee. The government in Magdeburg was the only one of all 16 federal states to block a regular increase of 86 cents. In times of “increased complex information on the one hand and one-sided representations, filter bubbles, fake news, deep fakes on the other hand”, the importance of contribution-financed public broadcasting is growing, the First Senate decided with its decision.

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