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Journalist Birte Meier: Will research for RTL News in the future
Photo: Andreas Friese / RTL
Two journalists, who have shaped the ZDF program "Frontal 21" for a long time, are switching to the private broadcaster RTL.
This was announced by RTL.
Accordingly, Manka Heise, Birte Meier and Christian Esser are to set up a new investigative unit in Berlin from the summer.
As is typical for the new structures at RTL, the team should work cross-media for all of the group's offerings – including, for example, the »Stern«.
Manka Heise, Birte Meier and Christian Esser have received many awards for their work, and RTL proudly lists the awards in its announcement because the aim is to strengthen the journalistic profile.
The expansion of the investigative area is "an important strategic building block for RTL News and our new cross-media structure," said Stephan Schmitter, Managing Director of RTL News and Chief Journalistic Content Officer of RTL Germany.
Gregor Peter Schmitz, one of the two editors-in-chief of reportage, documentation & investigative at RTL News and chairman of the editor-in-chief of Stern, is counting on the three newcomers and their team to "set the relevant topics that Germany is talking about".
Above all, Birte Meier has become known beyond the narrower circle of investigative journalism because the journalist, born in 1971, had sued ZDF: With the help of the Pay Transparency Act introduced in 2017, she wanted to prove that she was paid less than her male colleagues for the same work and qualifications - and Let this distance, called the gender Pay GAP.
According to the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF), which supported Birte Meier's complaint in court, the difference is said to have been around 1,200 euros in 2018 and 1,500 euros in 2019.
In order to even get salary information, Meier had to put in a lot of time in court proceedings.
The ZDF blocked itself against any information and was also right in the first instance: Meier, as a so-called permanent freelancer, was not an employee, but only employed as an employee - and therefore had no right to the information.
In 2020, the Federal Labor Court decided that freelancers could also invoke the Pay Transparency Act.
Her proceedings because of the unequal pay are ongoing, which is why she has filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court.
Feb