Complaint about a programme to WDR

KLIMA° vor acht has once again lodged a complaint about a programme. This time, it concerns the feature ‘Giant Solar Parks in Garz­weiler and Greven­broich’, which was broad­cast on the programme ‘Lokalzeit’ from Cologne on 25 January 2023 (click here for the video [YouTube link]).
We believe that the report disreg­ards the prin­ciple of journ­al­istic balance, contra­venes the prin­ciples of journ­al­istic fair­ness and also breaches the WDR’s programme guidelines!

The full text of our complaint regarding the programme, addressed to the Director-General of WDR, Tom Buhrow:

Programme complaint: Report entitled ‘Huge solar parks in Garz­weiler and Greven­broich’ by Andreas Turnsek, broad­cast on ‘Lokalzeit aus Köln’ on 25 January 2023 (17:35 – 21:10) and published, amongst other places, in the ARD media library.

Dear Mr Buhrow,

We were taken aback when we saw the report on RWE’s renew­able energy project, ‘Giant solar parks in Garz­weiler and Greven­broich’.

The report disreg­ards the prin­ciple of journ­al­istic balance and fails to meet the objective of providing compre­hensive, inde­pendent and objective inform­a­tion. It there­fore contra­venes Section 5(5) and (6) of the WDR Act. Further­more, it breaches the WDR programme guidelines in accord­ance with Section 4a of the WDR Act. We there­fore hereby lodge a formal programme complaint.

Regarding the specific criti­cisms:

The report features only RWE employees. This disreg­ards the prin­ciple of journ­al­istic balance and contra­venes the prin­ciple of journ­al­istic fair­ness (Section 5(5) of the WDR Act). Further­more, it breaches the WDR programme guidelines, which state: “WDR provides inde­pendent and non-partisan inform­a­tion. We report truth­fully, fairly and compet­ently. We are not beholden to any party to a conflict and always listen to the other side as well. We draw on a wide range of sources and verify their reli­ab­ility.”

Further­more, the report negli­gently fails to compare RWE’s renew­able energy busi­ness segments with its elec­tri­city gener­a­tion from fossil fuels – in partic­ular lignite-fired power gener­a­tion – in an appro­priate, neutral and crit­ical manner. Overall, the report focuses one-sidedly on one of RWE’s smaller busi­ness divi­sions, namely renew­able energy. The report there­fore contra­venes Section 5(5) of the WDR Act (“In its reporting, the WDR shall set aside adequate time for the discus­sion of contro­ver­sial topics of general import­ance”) and Section 5(6) (“general, inde­pendent and objective”).

Nor does the report mention that, for the sake of lignite mining, renew­able energy infra­struc­ture in the area has been dismantled over the past few months. Whilst the report refers to three newly built wind turbines, in fact eight wind turbines in the same area are to be dismantled by 2024 to make way for lignite mining. The report there­fore contra­venes the require­ment for truthful reporting (Section 5(6) of the WDR Act).

Overall, this one-sided and uncrit­ical present­a­tion gives the article a biased and promo­tional tone. It offers neither a contex­tual frame­work nor is there any apparent current reason for the report. However, the timing of the report – coming so soon after coverage of the clear­ance of Lützerath – suggests that RWE had a strong interest in positive coverage and may have enlisted the edit­orial team for PR purposes.

The report repeatedly breaches the WDR’s program­ming guidelines, which are committed to “high-quality regional journ­alism” and state: “We can also present companies in a crit­ical light, as we are not dependent on advert­ising. Journ­al­istic criteria and successful research alone determine which topics are covered.”

We urge you to comment on this matter and would ask for a separate reply regarding the complaint we have raised.

Yours
faith­fully,
Friederike Mayer (Chair) Daniel Kulms (Board Member)