He explained the background of the current protests, which are also directed against the public service media in the respective countries. The demonstrators accuse the broadcasters of reporting uncritically and in favor of the government. The report is available here.

Hendrik Sittig underlined: “Public service media are an important part of democracy – with the precondition that they are able to report independently from political and economic influence and are financially well-equipped for its tasks.” However, independence can only be achieved through the selection of control bodies and the type of funding. Sittig pleaded in favor of the license fee model (in contrast to funding from the state budget), as public broadcasting is than no subject of any political influence – and should therefore be understood more as an advocate of the viewers, listeners and online users.

Hendrik Sittig also critically emphasized that the supervisory bodies of broadcasters in South East Europe are often filled with politically dependent actors. He gave as an example the structure of the broadcasting councils in Germany, which represent more than 30 members from relevant public organizations. These include trade unions, political parties and churches but also, for example, representatives of youth organizations, environmental and agricultural associations, universities or women's and music associations. Thus, a broad societal legitimacy is achieved and individual stakeholders are not able to influence the broadcasters.

The KAS Media Programme South East Europe will further analyze the current situation and development of the public service media in the region in the upcoming two years. For this purpose, various projects are planned – among others a book about the public service media, together with opinion polls currently commissioned in the ten countries, covered by the KAS Media Programme South East Europe.

The interview with Hendrik Sittig is online here in Bulgarian language.