SPIEGEL ONLINE: The WDR has in the past weeks with the partially faulty documentaries of the series "people close up" busy. What has the internal audit revealed?
Ehni: We have extensively reviewed several of the author's films and found that there are two other films with errors in age information and time references. However, there is no evidence that other protagonists could have come via a mediation portal like komparse.de or that there might have been further inadmissible constrictions. We will make the mistakes we have made transparent and put the films into the media library corrected.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is the process completed?
Ehni: The review is done, but the matter keeps us busy. We will now talk about the editorial consequences. How can we, together with the editors and the authors, make sure that something like this can not happen again for "close-up people"?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What measures are intended?
Ehni: We have already decided to expand the four-eyes principle and the counter-research at several points in time during the creation of a film, from conception to shooting to editing. We will also record in writing exactly when and how protagonists were acquired. Further work will be done in April at a workshop with the editors and the authors.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: So you invest in the format?
Ehni: Neither jobs nor money fall from the sky. But if we see in the end that we have to change things for that, we will do that as well. But we invest in this format because we consider it an outstanding documentary format in the television landscape. Everyone involved wants to tell the stories in the way that life actually played.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did you have external examiners?
Ehni: We checked this internally.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What time and content did the review have?
Ehni: It's impossible to examine the films of the past five, ten or fifteen years in every detail - and there is no reason to do so. We sampled the films of the specific author. And there, according to the current state, everything went well.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: If a protagonist is aged 50 instead of 56, is that a lie? Or dirty work?
Ehni: It's a lie for me to deliberately put a false claim into the world. That did not happen here, that was careless work. But when I tell a fact, he has to vote. If he is not correct, he is wrong. You can not talk that nicely.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ms. Ehni, you have a legal education and have even succeeded on television with economic and political topics. Could it be that the "soft" of formats like "people close up" almost conjures up problems?
Ehni: It is true that in the emotional world one has to deal with subjective assessments. I am against playing soft against hard topics. For me, the basis of the journalistic craft is that hard and soft stories are completely waterproofed - in the course of "soft" a hard research of the facts is of course more difficult. But they are relevant to many people because they touch their own lives. For example, how do you deal with it when your own child dies? How is a young man who wants to become a priest? Such stories must be researched as watertight as a "monitor" contribution or a hard-researched, investigative story.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You spoke of an "inadmissible escalation". What would be a permissible escalation?
Ehni: Permitted, I call it, so much to tighten that not every turn in the life of the protagonists is told - because that's not enough for the 45 minutes. At the core, however, facts are to be reproduced correctly.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The output of stories is high. The pressure on the authors too?
Ehni: I talked a lot with the editorial staff about this topic and asked if there was a particularly high pressure. She told me: No, that's not how we work. If the author had talked openly with the editors about all aspects of the story, we would have been able to tell the film without any problems. "People close up" depends on what the reality is. Of course, there are also financial considerations. Who makes the whole movie, deserves more than the one who gets paid only his research.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the past, the stations had permanent employees who researched stories. Today, they have to rely on external "suppliers". Does not this development necessarily lead to a loss of confidence and quality problems?
Ehni: I bother with the term "supplier". We do not use it and so I do not see our authors. You are talking about a general development that has existed for years. Alone with permanent employees, it is not possible to produce all the works in the elaborate television production area.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The basic model today is that freelancers make the films.
Ehni: "Close-up of people" has existed for a quarter of a century, we work with highly professional and reliable authors and it has always worked well on this basis. This one incident was the exception, it is not the rule. And we're working to keep it that way. This will only succeed if and because there is a very close and trusting exchange between editors and authors. Can the editor come out and see what has been done so far? How can he, if he stays at his desk, be informed by the outdoors so that both can decide together how the story will be told?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you currently see this under special observation?
Ehni: There is no longer, as before, a transmitter and a receiver. Now we are dealing with a variety of social media players as well, each of whom can be his own journalist. There are other feedbacks than twenty years ago. We are challenged differently. If we make mistakes - and we make mistakes! - we have to deal with it transparently. We must be a rock in the surf of a world where there is an incredible amount of misinformation and dubious products. Authenticity is our highest good.