Current reform of public broadcasting in Germany as a constitutional and legal problem

Abstract

The article critically analyzes the current reform of public broadcasting (öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk) in Germany, which began in 2020 with the adoption of Interstate Media Treaty and reached its maximum intensity in 2024, when the Expert Council of the Broadcasting Commission of federal states proposed the first draft of changes providing for a systemic restructuring of the institute. Focusing on the proposals for the transformation of public broadcasting in 2024, they are being evaluated for compliance with the constitutional and legal guarantees of the German communication order, which the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany throughout the post-war period deduced from the communication rights enshrined in article 5 of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. To achieve this, the project of the contemporary reform is compared with the current model of public broadcasting, formed by the positions of the court in constitutionalized ordinary legislation, and constitutional-legal consequences of its implementation are forecasted, incorporating socio-political context. Existing issues within German public broadcasting are not excluded from consideration. As a result of the analysis, it is stated that in the case of the implementation of this reform, the postwar communication order of Germany, established by the Western Allies and legalized in the constitution, constitutional justice positions and legislation, will undergo a serious transformation through the growth of three main trends: centralization of regulation and management of public broadcasting; depoliticization and de-parliamentarization of public broadcasting; the neutralization of constitutional and legal guarantees of the independence of public broadcasting, primarily related to financing and its internal organization. It is suggested that the proposed reform is potentially incompatible with the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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