Has the WDR blundered in its area of responsibility?
The station reacts to criticism that the storm disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia was neglected on Thursday night.
Cologne - After criticism due to allegedly incomplete reporting, the West German Broadcasting Corporation admitted problems with regard to the heavy rain catastrophe - and published a reason.
The WDR was therefore surprised by the drastic effects in its own area of responsibility and was itself out of action in the meantime.
The public TV broadcaster was previously exposed to allegations in social networks and the media industry.
"We share the assessment that the WDR should have reported even more extensively from Wuppertal, but the WDR studio there itself was affected by the severe storm * that it could no longer broadcast from 3:00 a.m.", a spokeswoman said the
dpa
know.
The other studios in Cologne and Düsseldorf would then have taken over, supported by Wuppertal, so the reasoning.
It was not until Thursday afternoon that WDR broadcasting reports from the Wuppertal studio could be expected again.
WDR with too little information?
Station refers to the Internet and radio
On Twitter and Co. allegations were circulating that the largest TV station belonging to ARD did not have enough special programs in its program on Thursday night, despite the dramatic situation for the population in Wuppertal and other cities in the affected region.
The WDR replied with reference to its Internet and radio services: "During the night, WDR
posted updated information on the situation in Wuppertal, Euskirchen and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis
on the network at
WDR.de
and on WDRaktuell, as well as monothematic special editions of the radio News sent on all waves.
WDR: Criticism of incomplete reporting - "Failure to provide assistance"
The industry service
dwdl.de
accused the WDR in a report of "failure to provide assistance" and also took up the issue of license fees. "If the financially generously funded public broadcasting service, as here in the case of WDR, does not manage to provide reliable information for the broadcast area in acute crisis situations, which is undoubtedly part of the core task, then with all the austerity efforts by the houses, wrong Jobs saved ”, says editor-in-chief Thomas Lückerath.
Ulrich Deppendorf, one of his own ex-employees, even publicly expressed dissatisfaction: “The worst storms in Germany and on ARD's first are no focal point!
Is this the new 'information offensive' of the new ARD program directorate? ”Said the former moderator and head of the ARD capital studio in Berlin.
The number of storm deaths in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia continues to rise after the severe flooding.
News ticker on the natural disaster in Germany.
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