The European Union (Germany being its very key player) has for years presented withdrawal of state ownership from media outlets – and their supposed resulting independence – as the precondition for a truly democratic discourse in a society.
And the EU has consistently been putting hard pressure on countries who want to join the bloc to carry out this particular “reform” of their media landscape.
But the hypocrisy is now starting to stink to high heaven. Germany – of them all – is where one of the parties involved in government coalition talks, the Social Democrats (SPD), is looking for ways to fund media with public money.
That would be, “preferred” media – in other words, “trustworthy” etc. – as selected by a cabinet minister.
Even without direct ownership, it delivers the most important benefit tied to ownership and desired by those in power, and that’s crucial political influence in shaping public opinion. And the focus would be specifically on the digital versions of media outlets, as, in this day and age, the most influential ones.
Germany’s habitually arduous coalition negotiations this time feature a new twist – the political elite, entrenched for decades, continues to face a serious challenge from the AfD party, which has been going from strength to strength over the last years.
The SPD plan to set up a Media Innovation Fund (German: Medieninnovationsfonds) is now being slammed by both the AfD, and a number of observers critical of such a massive political and even ideological shift for the sake of holding onto power.
Henning Rosenbusch, a German journalist, interprets the intent behind the SPD initiative as “reliable, trustworthy media” being – in terms of eligibility for receiving taxpayer money – those dishing out “preemptively obedient government propaganda.”
The entire thing currently hangs in the air as the coalition government negotiations continue. The conservative CDU/CSU parties involved – have the candidate for Germany’s next prime minister (“chancellor”), Friedrich Merz – and are for now, reportedly, as perplexed by the SPD proposal as the next person.
Whether the plan will serve as a short-lived negotiation tool – or something that actually makes it all the way to the policies of Germany’s next government – is anyone’s guess right now, in this big game of political bartering.
