Page 112 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

BEYOND BALANCED PLURALISM 101

Länder, their autonomy is guaranteed by the representative nature of
their broadcasting councils.
The public-service system has a three-tier structure which consists of
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a supervisory board or broadcasting council, an administrative board,
and a director-general, the Intendant. The broadcasting councils come
mainly from social groups and associations, with wide differences in the
degree and extent of political and government participation. The earlier
model of NDR and WDR, where party politicians appointed even the
representatives of the social groups, has now been modified by
redrafting the relevant legislation.
The administrative councils are smaller with between seven and nine
members. They do not have to be pluralistically composed and often
include management experts. They control financial management. The
Intendant is solely responsible for the structure and content of
programmes and for preparing the budget.
The broadcasting councils explicitly represent the ‘interests of the
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general public’. They take the final decisions on all policy matters and
watch over the interpretation of the corporations’ programme remit.
They have the right to issue guidelines, define long-term programming
strategy, appoint the Intendant, and sometimes his deputy, and deal with
public complaints.
The public-service control system has been attacked on two main
grounds. First, the meaning of social relevance is open to a wide variety
of interpretations. It is almost impossible to represent a dynamically
changing society with councils whose constitution is, by law, largely
static. It may be possible where a Land parliament has the right to elect
members of newly emerging social groups, but even here, a group has to
be large and powerful enough to attract political attention. It is therefore
established associations and organizations, which are also important
players in other parts of the political process, which dominate the
broadcasting councils. Their constitution can exclude, or at best
marginalize, from access to public radio, minorities and poorly
organized interest groups, such as citizen initiatives.
Decision-making on the broadcasting councils is therefore strongly
influenced by the political sympathies of its members, even those that
represent social groups. The independent members, who often come
from the churches, have to struggle against the so-called ‘circles of
friendship’ of the political parties which help to determine the voting
behaviour of other social representatives on the councils. Fortunately,
however, some members of the broadcasting councils have also
developed a degree of institutional independence which makes them