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House for Journalism and the Public Sphere

Future Council presents recommendations for the future development of public service broadcasting

As a member of the Future Council, Maria Exner, founding director of Publix, has been working intensively on the future of public service broadcasting in Germany since March 2023. The committee has now presented its report.

Today, the Council for the Future Development of Public Service Broadcasting (Future Council) submitted its recommendations to the Broadcasting Commission. Maria Exner, founding director of Publix and member of the Future Council, on the final report and the role of public service broadcasting:

"My work on the Future Council was primarily concerned with thinking about the role of media that are oriented towards the common good in an increasingly fragmented society and a public sphere characterised by overheated discourse. The Future Council's report proposes that public broadcasters should be explicitly committed to the role of serving democracy.

More definitively than before, they should be guardians and moderators of social discourse, engage in discussions as 'dialogue institutions', and provide all people - including those without a German passport who are permanently resident in Germany - with independently verified information through excellent content and research. The public broadcasters must prepare the common ground on which understanding is facilitated, even on the most difficult topics."

The establishment of a Future Council was decided by the Broadcasting Commission of the federal states on 8 March 2023.
You can find more information on the Future Council, as well as the Council's report with its recommendations for the future development of public service broadcasting, on the Broadcasting Commission's website.

Photo: Members of the Future Council

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