Verdi Slams Minister-Präsidents’ Failure to Agree on Radio Fee Adjustment
The German trade union Verdi has strongly criticized the failure of the federal states to agree on an adjustment of the radio fee at the minister-presidents’ conference on Thursday. The “behavior” of the minister-presidents in radio policy is “unacceptable” said Christoph Schmitz-Dethlefsen, a member of the Verdi federal executive board responsible for the media, on Thursday.
“By refusing the necessary increase, they are breaking with constitutionally regulated procedures” he said.
For the employees in the media houses, this is a dark day, Schmitz-Dethlefsen said. “Unclear financing costs programs and, as a result, orders for those often active in the radio for decades. With the prospect of program cuts, this is also bad news for all media users” he added.
Schmitz-Dethlefsen also criticized the structural and order reform adopted on Thursday. “The reform weakens public broadcasters, especially by the far-reaching ban on texts in online publications. With the reform, the offers for media users will become less attractive” he commented. “By doing so, the state leaders are grinding down the democratically relevant public broadcasters – and the trust in politics along with it.”
The Commission for the Determination of the Financial Needs of the Broadcasting Corporations (KEF) had recommended in February an increase of the radio fee by 58 cents per month, or 0.8% per year, starting from January 1, 2025. A failure to adjust the fee would put the financing of the broadcasting corporations at risk, according to the KEF, and would jeopardize the fulfillment of their current task. The states, however, have not yet presented a radio financing state treaty to implement the proposal. ARD and ZDF are therefore taking the federal government to the Constitutional Court. In 2021, they were successful with a similar constitutional complaint.