Discussion about the international format of the ARD.
Allegedly the "Weltspiegel" should lose its prominent broadcasting slot.
Resistance is stirring.
Berlin - It's rumbling on public broadcasting. A decision on a popular ARD program is currently causing unrest - also among employees. According to a statement by the editorial staff of the international format “Weltspiegel”, this is to lose its long-standing and prominent broadcasting slot. And instead of Sunday evening at 7.20 p.m., it will be moved to Monday night at 10:50 p.m. 45 journalists from the ARD program take a stand against it.
"Sometimes I could cry with anger," writes "Weltspiegel" presenter Natalie Amiri on her Instagram account.
The 42-year-old journalist reports regularly on Iran, among other things.
From 2015 to 2020 she was the ARD office manager in Tehran, until it became too politically dangerous for her there.
She
spoke to
Merkur.de
about her experiences.
Especially for countries that are often neglected in media reporting, the “Weltspiegel” is a format that accompanies political, cultural and everyday developments in detail and on site.
Regarding the planned decision, Amiri asks: “What about the educational mandate?
Should young people watch TV at 10:45 p.m.?
It is the LETZTE ARD international format “.
Dispute over "Weltspiegel" - popular ARD international format is to be pushed into the "death zone"
They are “shocked”, the signatories of the statement on the alleged postponement. In the course of changes in the program, along with the new ARD program director Christine Strobl, the international format is to be relocated “to a worse broadcasting slot”, it says there. Such an attempt had already been made in 2019, but it failed due to resistance.
The “Weltspiegel” is part of the core mission of ARD, write the participating editors and foreign correspondents.
"The postponement of the 'Weltspiegel' broadcasting slot, which has been practiced for 58 years, from Sunday evening to Monday at 10:50 p.m. is a drastic weakening of international reporting in the first", they proclaim.
The open letter also states: "All other magazines in the first, whether politics or business, are during the week before the 'daily topics'
placed, only abroad then broadcasts in the 'death zone' ”.
In addition, the change apparently goes hand in hand with a reduction in the number of broadcasting slots.
Means: Less expenses per year.
“That just sounds like we wouldn't
live in an increasingly networked world, in which political crises and wars, pandemics, climate change and other global issues are permanently and increasingly influencing our lives, ”said the undersigned.
Will ARD “Weltspiegel” lose its slot?
The editorial team responds with an opinion
The journalists receive support in social media.
Publicist Carolin Emcke comments: "That is absurd: in the middle of a pandemic that has demonstrated the mutual vulnerability of the world, not to equip the excellent @Weltspiegel_ARD with more airtime or to broadcast it daily, but to send it into the nocturnal immersion." Green politician Rebecca Harms wonders why the ARD wants to "sink" the format in times of disinformation.
Zeit-Online-
Journalist Lenz Jacobsen supports Natalie Amiri's thesis and writes: “The #Weltspiegel interested me in the world as a teenager, without him I might not have become a journalist in the first place. On Monday night, wherever Christine Strobl wants to move him now, I certainly would not have looked him. ”His foreign correspondents are resisting the first’s plans to rebuild the program. It is rumbling in the public broadcasters.
(aka)
