Page 122 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

BEYOND BALANCED PLURALISM 111

market place to which all broadcasters, both public and private, are
40
increasingly exposed. Yet paradoxically, as regulatory policies fail to
live up to expectations, the more appreciation there has been of the role
played by the public broadcasters in providing culture and political
information.
Hans Bausch, the former head of the ARD network, who resigned
over the issue of state control over broadcasting, summed up the
condition of broadcasting regulation in the Federal Republic with some
bitterness. He said:

It would be presumptuous to discover in this labyrinthine
confusion a concept that befitted the idea of a liberal and pluralist
political culture in the Federal Republic. 41

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the
Economic and Social Research Council, as part of its Programme on
Information and Communication Technology (PICT). All translations
are by the authors unless otherwise stated.

NOTES

* The changes discussed in this contribution took place in West Germany
prior to unification. Broadcasting in the Eastern Länder is now being
organized according to the same regulatory principles.
1 Since 1961, there had been two public television channels in West
Germany. The ARD network is a consortium of nine separate stations
which were established by individual Länder or by inter-Land treaties.
(The Länder are the eleven individual states of the Federal Republic, with
separate jurisdiction for broadcasting.) The nine stations are
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Northrhine Westfalia, Bayerischer
Rundfunk (BR) in Bavaria, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) in Hessen,
Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) in Baden-Württemberg, Radio Bremen
(RB) in Bremen, Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) in the Saarland, Sender
Freies Berlin (SFB) in West Berlin; and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)
established by an Inter-Land Treaty between Lower Saxony, Schleswig-
Holstein and Hamburg, and Süd-westfunk (SWF) established by an Inter-
Land Treaty between Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The
second channel is provided by Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
which was established in 1961 by an Inter-Land Treaty signed between
all Länder.