State Media Authority

The logo of the working group of the state media authorities

The state media authorities in Germany are the supervisory authorities for private radio and television programs and telemedia . In accordance with the constitutionally anchored broadcasting responsibility of the federal states, each federal state has set up a state media authority. Notwithstanding this, the states of Berlin and Brandenburg as well as Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein have agreed joint state media authorities in a state treaty.

The tasks of the state media authorities include, above all, the monitoring of private broadcasters, television companies and telemedia, as well as the issuing of broadcasting licenses to private radio and television broadcasters (more under Tasks ). With regard to telemedia , the state media authorities are responsible for compliance with the provisions of the State Treaty on the Protection of Young People in the Media ; the general telemedia supervision going beyond this - with the exception of data protection - lies in 13 federal states in any case with the state media authorities to the extent that it is a matter of monitoring compliance with the provisions of the interstate broadcasting agreement. State agencies are only responsible for general telemedia supervision in Saxony, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate.

tasks

In addition to the licensing of private radio and TV broadcasters and the allocation of frequencies or cable capacities (the latter in cooperation with cable network operators such as Vodafone Kabel Deutschland ), the state media authorities are primarily responsible for monitoring compliance with the provisions of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty , youth media protection State treaty and the state media laws or state media treaties of the states (e.g. Berlin-Brandenburg, Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein).

The focus is on safeguarding the diversity of opinion in the area of ​​private broadcasting, prosecuting violations of media law advertising regulations (interstate broadcasting agreement and advertising directives), youth protection regulations and, in the scope of the youth media protection interstate treaty, also the prosecution of the glorification of violence, sedition, glorification or belittling of National Socialist acts, representation of propaganda as an unconstitutional forbidden organization, etc. For this purpose, the state media authorities are entitled in accordance with § 38 Paragraph 2 - 4 State Broadcasting Treaty (RStV) and § 20 Paragraph 1 and 2 Youth Media Protection State Treaty (JMStV) i. V. m. the state media laws have a wide range of instruments at their disposal, ranging from simple complaints, orders and prohibitions to the withdrawal of the broadcasting license. In addition, § 24 JMStV and § 49 RStV are the basis for the prosecution and punishment of numerous violations of state treaty provisions as an administrative offense . The statutory range of fines for the deliberate commission of offenses reaches up to 500,000 euros.

The state media authorities are also responsible for promoting so-called media literacy . For this purpose, many state media authorities operate or promote citizens' radio, for example in the form of open channels , which are open to everyone for the production and distribution of their own radio and TV programs. Finally, some state media authorities also offer funding programs for filmmakers (e.g. through the Schleswig-Holstein cultural film funding scheme or the Bavarian FilmFernsehFonds). The funds required for this are usually covered by a share of the broadcasting fee (previously: broadcasting fee). The successive introduction of digital terrestrial television (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial - DVB-T ) was also coordinated and promoted by the state media authorities, but could only be funded from license fee funds under the de minimis rule due to the intervention of the EU Commission . At the moment it is about the introduction of the further developed DVB-T2 standard.

Legal basis and structure

Due to the freedom of broadcasting regulated in Art. 5 Para. 1, Sentence 2 of the Basic Law , the state in Germany is not allowed to exert any direct or indirect influence on broadcasting (radio and television) through funding. For this reason, media supervision is organized “remote from the state”. The basic regulations for this are contained in the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty, a contract between all 16 federal states, which has the status of a state law through corresponding consent laws in all federal states. The tasks and constitution of the individual state media authorities are specified in the state media laws and state media contracts (Berlin-Brandenburg and Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein) as well as in statutes based on these .

The internal organization of the state media authorities provides for an executive body that is responsible for day-to-day management (director / president), often an independent, pluralistic supervisory body (" media council " / "media commission" / "broadcasting committee"), whose members are direct in some countries are appointed by the respective state parliaments , which is also in a certain tension to the constitutional state remote control, if qualified majorities (usually 2/3 majority) are required for this. In some countries, instead of a pluralistic body, a so-called expert body is provided. In Baden-Württemberg a board of directors, which is determined by parliament, runs the institution; the chairman becomes an official of the establishment and acts as the legal representative, the other board members are volunteers. In addition to the board of directors, there is a plural body with a say. The 7 members of the media council of the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg are elected by the two state parliaments with a 2/3 majority. In Saxony the media council of the state media authority consists of only 5 members elected by the state parliament; the chairman exercises the role of legal representative as president in a secondary position, while the general management of business operations is the responsibility of a managing director. The pluralistic organ that exists next to it, the assembly, is often heard by the decision-making media council, but has little to say. In a large number of countries, socially relevant groups have been designated by law, most of which, in addition to parliament, have the right to send their own representatives to the pluralistic bodies that function as the main body there. In all cases, the committee members are not bound by instructions. In individual countries, e.g. B. Bavaria, in addition to the media council, there is an administrative council that is responsible for the establishment's economic affairs. The main decision-making body is responsible for decisions of fundamental importance, such as the establishment of guidelines or the issuing of statutes, the granting of broadcasting licenses for local, regional or nationwide programs and, in some cases, decisions on supervisory measures against broadcasters.

The supervision of the nationwide broadcasters was significantly restructured by the Tenth Amendment to the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty. The pluralistic bodies were considerably restricted in their competences. The Commission for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK), which consists of the legal representatives of all state media authorities , now decides on nationwide broadcasting licenses . It only checks the personal admission requirements (Section 20a of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty). The Commission for Determining Concentration in the Media Area (KEK) is exclusively responsible for compliance with the regulations that ensure diversity . The ZAK allocates transmission channels for nationwide programs as long as no selection decision is necessary because there are more applicants than capacities; in the case of the selection decision relevant to diversity, the committee chairperson conference (GVK), formed from the chairmen of all plural bodies of the state media authorities, comes into action. The KEK decides in the event of violations of the provisions of the State Treaty on Broadcasting to ensure diversity, the ZAK in the event of violations of the other provisions of the State Treaty on Broadcasting and the Commission for the Protection of Young People in the Media (KJM) in the event of violations of provisions of the State Treaty on Youth Media Protection. Since the authority to represent the state media authorities in and out of court rests with the legal representatives (director / president), the committees described above are internal decision-making and decision-making bodies that rely on the directors authorized to implement their decision vis-à-vis the broadcasters / President, to which this is legally obliged.

The state media authorities are legal entities under public law ( institutions ) with the right of self-administration and, according to the opinion prevailing today in broadcasting law, not part of the indirect state administration. Regardless of this, they confront private broadcasters, telemedia providers and platform operators such as cable system operators in exercising their statutory sovereign powers as part of public authority . The fact that media supervision is not subject to any kind of professional supervision is an expression of the state's distance from the media supervision . The limited legal supervision of the state media authorities does not apply to decisions relevant to the program. For example, a legal supervisory instruction to the state media authority to prohibit certain advertisements in a television program is not permitted. Legal supervision is carried out by the State Chancellery Prime Minister or a specialist ministry (in Bavaria, State Ministry for Education and Culture, Science and Art) of the respective federal state , depending on the state law .

List of state media authorities by federal state

Working group of the state media authorities

• Baden-Württemberg: State Office for Communication Baden-Württemberg (LFK), Stuttgart

• Bavaria: Bavarian State Center for New Media (BLM), Munich - licensed a. a. Kabel Eins , Sport1 , Tele 5 , Welt

• Berlin and Brandenburg: Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb), Berlin - licensed a. a. ProSieben and n-tv

• Bremen: Bremische Landesmedienanstalt (brema), Bremen

• Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein: Medienanstalt Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein (MA HSH), Norderstedt

• Hessen: Hessian State Authority for Private Broadcasting and New Media (LPR Hessen), Kassel - licensed a. a. RTL II

• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Media Authority (MMV), Schwerin

• Lower Saxony: Lower Saxony State Media Authority (NLM), Hanover - licensed a. a. RTL

• North Rhine-Westphalia: State Institute for Media North Rhine-Westphalia (LfM), Düsseldorf - licensed a. a. VOX

• Rhineland-Palatinate: State Center for Media and Communication Rhineland-Palatinate (LMK), Ludwigshafen - licensed a. a. Sat 1

• Saarland: State Media Authority Saarland (LMS), Saarbrücken

• Saxony: Saxon State Authority for Private Broadcasting and New Media (SLM), Leipzig

• Saxony-Anhalt: Media Authority Saxony-Anhalt (MSA), Halle / Saale

• Thuringia: Thuringian State Media Authority (TLM), Erfurt

financing

The state media authorities are mainly financed from the funds of the broadcasting fee. At present, the broadcasters receive a total of 1.8989 percent of the revenue generated by the broadcasting license. Of this, 511,290 euros will initially be paid to each of the 14 institutions as a basic amount. The remaining funds are distributed based on the income generated in the respective countries. In addition, in some federal states - for example in Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and Hamburg - there is a broadcasting fee that private broadcasters have to pay.

Joint bodies

There are various joint bodies and commissions of the state media authorities for transnational tasks. In the agreement channel (ALM statute), the state media authorities have set up the working group of the state media authorities (the media authorities) in the legal form of a civil law company (GbR), which is also the sponsor of the joint office and to which the directors' conference of the state media authorities (DLM) and the Committee chairman conference (GVK) heard. The joint commissions set up by law (Section 35 (2) sentence 2 RStV) have a legal status as an organ of the respective competent state media authority: In the Commission for Admission and Supervision (ZAK) established on September 1, 2008 , questions of admission are dealt with and control of nationwide broadcasters, platform regulation and the development of digital broadcasting. The Commission for Determining Concentration in the Media Sector (KEK) monitors the safeguarding of diversity of opinion by examining holdings in the media sector and imposing conditions on the companies involved in the event of a merger of media companies (or banning them entirely, as was the case with the planned takeover of in January 2006 ProSiebenSat1 by the Axel-Springer-Verlag ). Youth protection in the media sector is handled centrally by the Commission for Youth Media Protection (KJM), which is currently chaired by the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Communication . At the European level, the state media authorities work in the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA) on European media matters with the supervisory authorities of other EU members.

The coordination and organization of the work of all joint bodies and commissions is the task of the joint office of the media companies based in Berlin.

criticism

For years there has been criticism of the organizational structure of media supervision from various quarters. The distribution of responsibilities among 14 (up to February 2007: 15) different state institutions is no longer up to date and leads to an inscrutable confusion of competencies. The provision of complex administrative structures for media supervision in every state, no matter how small - Bremen for example - also causes inappropriately high costs, which ultimately have to be borne by the license fee payer. On the one hand, however, the objection to this is that, since the so-called First Television Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, it has been established that media supervision falls within the competence of the states, i.e. that supervisory authorities have to be held up to supervisory authorities at state level. On the other hand, it was stated in the same decision that the state is generally not allowed to exert any direct influence on radio and television content, so the organizational and financing structure of the state media authorities criticized as "expensive" finds its justification in broadcasting law and thus ultimately in the Basic Law. Irrespective of this, however, the establishment of joint broadcasters based on the model of Berlin-Brandenburg or Hamburg-Schleswig-Holstein for several smaller states that have also founded joint state broadcasters (e.g. MDR) or even a central supervisory authority based on a state treaty would be conceivable ; The ZDF State Treaty could serve as a model here .

The state media authorities themselves proposed to the states in the context of the 10th State Treaty on Broadcasting to create faster and more effective procedures through structural reorganizations in nationwide tasks. Therefore, in May 2010, the joint office of the media authorities was founded in Berlin to coordinate federal cooperation centrally.

In November 2008, a data protection mishap was uncovered, after which all program complaints, including the sender's personal data, were visible via a specially offered portal in which the disclosure of personal data could be expressly prohibited. The state media authorities justified this with a "hacker attack". This personal data was still available for weeks via the cache of search engines.

Web links

Commons : Landesmedienanstalt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Working group of the state media authorities - the media authorities
• Spectator portal of the state media authorities for program complaints
• Application and interpretation rules of the state media authorities for the supervision of television competitions ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

literature

• Wiebke Baars: Cooperation and communication through state media authorities. An analysis of your tasks and functions . Baden-Baden 1999, ISBN 3-7890-6109-3 .
• Herbert Bethge : The constitutional status of the Bavarian State Center for New Media (BLM). 2nd, revised edition. Baden-Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8329-7010-9 .
• Ulrike Bumke: The public task of the state media authorities. Constitutional and organizational considerations on the legal status of an independent administrative unit . Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-38970-8 .
• Bettina Friedrich: Organization and work of the East German state media authorities. In: Marcel Machill, Markus Beiler, Johannes R. Gerstner (eds.): Freedom of the media after the turnaround. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, Konstanz 2010.
• Stefan Hepach: The basic rights status of the state media authorities . Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-631-32450-2 .
• Margarete Schuler-Harms: Broadcasting supervision in the state. The working group of the state media authorities. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1995, ISBN 3-7890-3820-2 .
• Michael Wojahn: The organizational structures of the main organs of the state media authorities under the principle of freedom of the state . Dissertation . University of Konstanz 2002.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ § 10 Interstate Broadcasting Agreement
2. ↑ Hesse: § 58 HPRG
3. ^ Agreement on the cooperation of the Working Group of the State Media Authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany (ALM) . die-medienanstalten.de. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
4. ↑ See BVerwG, MMR 2011, 265 (268) m. Note Grünwald; BVerwG, MMR 2015, 67 (68)
5. ↑ z. B. Justus Haucap , Initiative New Social Market Economy : flood of authorities in Germany: 50 offices and institutions put to the test . BrunoMedia, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812730-4-5 .
6. ↑ stefan-niggemeier.de

See also

• for Austria: Communication Authority Austria (KommAustria)
• for Switzerland: Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM); Independent complaints authority for radio and television (UBI)
• for the USA : the Federal Communications Commission
• for Great Britain: the Office of Communications (Ofcom)
• also: European Platform of Regulatory Authorities