SPD politician sees attack on journalistic freedom

The Thuringian SPD media politician Matthias Hey has expressed his outrage at the demand of the CDU factions in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt to discuss a possible merger of ZDF and ARD. The majority of people trust the journalistic formats of the two broadcasters, Hey told the German Press Agency in Erfurt. Hey cited the news programs of ZDF and ARD as an example. "That is why this proposal - and it must be said so clearly - is also an attack on journalistic freedom in this country."

Legal concerns

At a joint meeting in Stolberg (Harz), the CDU state parliamentary groups from Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt unanimously adopted a position paper in which they called for the abolition of duplicate structures in public broadcasting and an "objective discussion on the merger of ARD and ZDF".

In Hey's opinion, a merger is also not legally possible. "Legally speaking, the two broadcasters are completely different," he said. ARD is a consortium of broadcasters and ZDF has a completely different structure. "Legally speaking - there is a state media treaty - that is not possible at all," he said.

Election campaign in Saxony-Anhalt

The SPD politician accused the CDU of an election campaign maneuver. "They are chasing after the AfD at the moment because there are state elections," said Hey. He understands that, "but then that's also a double structure and then the CDU will take care of itself at some point."

The Thuringian CDU parliamentary group has not yet taken a public stance on the issue. When asked, the chairman of the state parliamentary group, Andreas Bühl, said: "I don't currently see this as an area of debate for us."

A new state parliament will be elected in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6. The AfD was clearly ahead in recent polls - most recently with 40 percent, while the CDU came in at 26 percent in the October poll, the Left at 11 percent and the SPD was dangerously close to the five percent hurdle with six percent, as was the BSW. According to the fall poll, the Greens and FDP would not make it into the state parliament.