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Logo of the RBB in front of the station's headquarters on Masurenallee in Berlin
Photo: Monika Skolimowska / dpa
On Tuesday, it was said that three candidates were on the shortlist for the election of the director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). After criticism within the electoral commission, the list has now been expanded to four. The committee office of the public broadcaster ARD said in a statement in the evening: "After initially three candidates were up for election, another applicant will now be invited to the round of introductions before the supervisory board. It's Jan Weyrauch (55), currently program director at Radio Bremen."
The election at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) is on 16 June. On Thursday, the candidates are to present themselves to the Broadcasting Council. He will ultimately make the decision on the new directorship. So far, three women have been on the list of candidates: Heide Baumann (50, most recently member of the management board of Vodafone Germany), Ulrike Demmer (50, deputy spokeswoman for the past black-red federal government from 2016 to 2021) and Juliane Leopold (40, since 2019 editor-in-chief digital of ARD-aktuell).
The committee office now said that Weyrauch had already belonged to the group of candidates, but was then eliminated "due to different views on the terms of the contract". This confirms reports by SPIEGEL that the RB program director was initially shortlisted, but then disappeared from the list because, according to staff representatives, he seemed "too expensive to parts of the committee."
There was a stunt about the candidacy, which was initially reported as a failure: The staff representatives in the committee had demanded that Weyrauch should be put back on the list. They accused RBB Chairman Benjamin Ehlers, who is also a member of the Commission, of not having to negotiate the remuneration of the director.
Weyrauch is now available for candidacy after all
Now the U-turn, Weyrauch will stand for election after all: "He informed the committee today (7.6.23) that he is now available for candidacy despite unchanged framework conditions," says the RBB statement. Oliver Bürgel, head of the Broadcasting Council, says: "We do not want to burden the election with an ongoing discussion about the selection of candidates. The terms of the contract must be decided by the Board of Directors."
Chairman of the Board of Directors Ehlers said that at the meeting of the Broadcasting Council he would once again make clear the opinion on the framework conditions within the Board of Directors. In recent weeks, they have worked together with the staff representatives in a spirit of trust, and it is important that they see themselves reflected in the result of the process.
mgo/dpa