Before the minister-presidents’ conference, the Rhineland-Palatinate government head Alexander Schweitzer called on the states to reach an agreement on the broadcasting fee for the public-law broadcasters. He appealed to his colleagues to “come to a constructive solution”, Schweitzer told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”.
He could understand the frustration over the constitutional complaint filed by ARD and ZDF after the last minister-presidents’ conference in October. At that time, the government heads had postponed their decision on the future broadcasting fee to December. He was also annoyed by the actions of ARD and ZDF, Schweitzer said.
“We should still fill our claim with life, and also ensure the preconditions for a reliable and sufficient financing of the public-law broadcasting. I will not give up this task to the courts.” Schweitzer said that the public-law broadcasting, like newspaper publishers, provided reliable and verifiable news. Studies showed that right-wing extremism increased, “where there is no balanced media landscape anymore and the population only informs itself on platforms like X or TikTok”.
The minister-presidents will meet on Thursday at their likely last session of the year.