On Friday the Broadcasting Council of the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation will elect a new director.

Or a new director.

That much is certain.

And it is also clear that it will be a duel between the operations director of HR, Stephanie Weber, and the deputy ARD program director and "channel manager" of the ARD media library, Florian Hager.

Because only these two have proposed the selection committee for election.

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for features online and "media".

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A possible third member of the group, the doctorate in biology, award-winning filmmaker and bestselling author Ina Knobloch, whose candidacy has already been mentioned at this point, is not on the list of the selection committee. Upon request, she applied twice: once on July 30th, at the request of a member of the search committee, and then again - again asked to do so - on October 13th, because in the meantime she has heard nothing from the committee and is aware of it had taken that they had agreed to propose two candidates to the Broadcasting Council: Stephanie Weber and Florian Hager.

Ina Knobloch only heard after her second submission after being requested to do so in the form of a written notice that at least one member from the Broadcasting Council had to propose someone for election.

There was no conversation with her, unlike the self-portrayal of the search committee on the Hessischer Rundfunk homepage.

There it says: "The search committee examined all applications and the possible candidates named by members of the Broadcasting Council in a multi-stage process and then held discussions with numerous possible candidates."

What about shortly before the election?

When asked about the status shortly before the election day, the chairman of the Broadcasting Council and the selection committee, Rolf Müller, informed us: “Currently only the two known candidates are available for election on October 29th. Until the start of the voting process, further applicants from the ranks of the Broadcasting Council can be proposed. Since the broadcasting council members still have the right to make nominations, formal rejections have not yet been indicated. ”So proposals are still possible until the election on Friday.

When asked why the general election is secret and why press observers do not have access to the election meeting, the chairman of the State Sports Association of Hesse, Rolf Müller, writes: “According to the regulations in the HR law and in the statutes of the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation on operational order, the public is General Assembly of the Broadcasting Council public; beyond that there is no obligation of the Broadcasting Council to meet in public. ”So the Broadcasting Council votes behind closed doors. "The result will be announced in a press release after the election and the decision on the term of office of the future general manager." determined by the Broadcasting Council,who then immediately determines the term of office of the elected: It ranges from five to an impressive nine years.

Finding committee explores the field of applicants

The procedure does not testify to the transparency and publicity, which, as the name suggests, should shape public broadcasting. Rather, it corresponds to a behavior that we have always known and last seen two years ago during the election of the artistic director on Südwestrundfunk: Before the election, a selection committee is set up that narrows the field of candidates to those on whom certain camps and string pullers have already agreed . At SWR, the candidates were the Stuttgart state broadcaster Stefanie Schneider and Kai Gniffke, who was then head of the ARD-aktuell editorial team. Gniffke was elected. Thanks to the selection committee, the moderator Clemens Bratzler and the NDR television editor-in-chief Andreas Cichowicz were not allowed to vote.The SWR administrative director Jan Büttner withdrew in view of the clinking.

The general election on ZDF took place publicly in July of this year, but the voting behavior corresponded to the political camp war, which the public service broadcaster (especially its satirical troop) otherwise thinks so sublime.

The program director Norbert Himmler was only elected artistic director in the third ballot.

Before that, the “red” circle of friends in the television council had really shown the “black” counterpart by voting for Himmler's opponent, the ARD capital city studio boss Tina Hassel.

Tina Hassel withdrew before the third ballot.