Finland’s state broadcaster YLE and all other state media in the West are the exact same way. It’s inevitable.
German journalist forced to sign apology: ‘Media is a government outlet which suppresses critical views’
Dutch media-website TPO Online published an interview with the Dutch-German reporter Claudia Zimmermann. On 17 January 2016, Zimmermann was a guest on a radio show broadcasted by Omroep L1, a local radio station in Dutch Limburg. As a reporter who had worked for the German Public Broadcaster WDR in Aachen for 24 years, and living in Maastricht, The Netherlands, she was asked about the way the refugee crisis and New Year’s Eve in Cologne were reported on. In the broadcast, she was asked:
“Are you expected to report on migrants, on refugees in a certain way?
-Yes, we are of course, we are a public broadcaster, which means that we try, in every case, try to be positive in approaching the topic. In the beginning when Merkel’s Welcome culture was, very, well, good, then our stories were of course very positive, while at present it’s tilted a bit, so now there are more and more critical voices, also from the Public Broadcasters and of course from politics.
Did you get that in writing?
– NoAn email explaining, this is the way to bring it?
– Yes, not in principle, but we have, we are a Public Broadcasting company, which means there are multiple commissions, that regulate what our program looks like. And we are more or less appointed to do so in a more or less pro-government way.“
