We’ve done it again! KLIMA° vor acht has once more lodged a complaint about a programme – this time with the Broadcasting Council of NDR and WDR. Why? In the *Tagesthemen* programme broadcast on 4 August 2022, the survey results were presented inadequately!
The full text of our programme complaint to the NDR Broadcasting Council (the letter to the WDR Broadcasting Council is very similar in content):
Complaint about a programme: the “ARD-DeutschlandTREND” report by Friederike Hofmann dated 4 August, broadcast on “tagesthemen” and published on tagesschau.de
Dear Members of the NDR Broadcasting Council, Dear Mr Knuth,
We were surprised and baffled to discover that an important and crucial statistic was missing from a report on *Tagesthemen*.
The chart shown during the programme as part of the ARD-DeutschlandTREND segment (9.33 – 14.15) displays the survey results on three energy policy measures:
In the official publication by infratest dimap, however – to which the report explicitly refers – the survey results on four energy policy measures are cited (link to infratest). Ironically, the very measure that receives by far the most support in the representative survey (81 per cent) is ignored in the reporting and appears neither in the chart nor is it mentioned in the presentation. In doing so, the editorial team has distorted and misrepresented the results of the survey commissioned by ‘Tagesthemen’ and ‘Die Welt’ in an unacceptable manner.
The ‘Tagesthemen’ programme and the WDR election studio are thus in breach of the programming principles set out in Section 8 of the State Treaty on Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR State Treaty), which states, in particular, in paragraph 2: “News coverage and current affairs programmes must comply with recognised journalistic principles, including when using virtual elements.” They must be independent and objective. Before being broadcast, news items must be checked for accuracy and source with the due care required by the circumstances […]”
We therefore call on the NDR to comment on this matter without delay and request a separate response to the complaint we have lodged.
Yours faithfully, Michael Flammer (Chairman) Friederike Mayer (Vice-Chairwoman)
As the WDR produced the programme in this instance, we also received a reply from the Director-General, Tom Buhrow, in early October 2022. We published the reply on Twitter:
“In August, we lodged a programme complaint regarding a report on @tagesthemen. We have now received a reply from Tom Buhrow in his capacity as Director-General of @WDR. We promise you: we’ll keep at it! #MediaClimateCrisis” – See tweet (20 October 2022)
The response was far from satisfactory, so we lodged an appeal. Ultimately, the WDR Broadcasting Council considered our programme complaint. We also tweeted about the entire meeting at the time.
“It’s due to start in about half an hour: the #WDR Broadcasting Council meeting. In this 🧵, we’ll be bringing you as much information as possible straight from the meeting.” – View tweet (31 January 2023)
A vote was held, in which 17 members of the Broadcasting Council voted in favour of upholding the programme complaint, 13 against, and 11 abstained. Unfortunately, this meant that the quorum of 28 votes in favour was not reached, because: in the case of programme complaints, there is a special rule whereby the quorum is determined not by the number of members present, but by all statutory members – regardless of whether they are present or not. This is also stated in the Chair’s official response.
“Response from the @WDR Broadcasting Council. One has to wonder whether the Broadcasting Council is at all interested in programme complaints. It is virtually impossible to reach the quorum, as it remains constant regardless of how many members are absent. 😳 The WDR Act must be reformed!” – See tweet (4 February 2023)
As far as the Broadcasting Council was concerned, the matter was thus settled.
In the ARD-DeutschlandTrend segment on *tagesthemen* on 4 August 2022, the results of an infratest-dimap survey were presented incompletely: the fact that the accelerated expansion of wind energy was the energy policy measure with the highest level of support (81 per cent) was omitted
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