Controversial choice of artistic director: The many construction sites on the Hessian radio

Three stalemates in the election of the new director of the Hessischer Rundfunk (HR): Now the process is open again until December.

This is the last volte in a controversial electoral process for the time being.

It was clear to those who are familiar with the customs of the public broadcasters that a candidate “from outside” like the local author and filmmaker Ina Knobloch, who had applied, would have no chance.

Here Florian Hager, deputy program director and the person who is currently supposed to make the ARD media library afloat as a kind of public streaming service, there Operations Director Stephanie Weber, who only switched to HR in January, and was previously administrative and operations director of Saarland Broadcasting : The field of applicants was as manageable and as radio-internal as it is with almost all broadcasters.

Nothing with the external culture managers or media business people who could get across to an "institution".

100 million euros deficit

Another point of criticism is that, unlike other broadcasters, the election does not take place in public. Nevertheless, it took a long time until the Broadcasting Council, traditionally occupied by political counter-currents, even started to vote on Friday afternoon. So you had all sorts of questions for the two candidates. And then there was a tie in three ballots. Which raises further questions about which priorities the Council will probably decide on. Especially since the selection committee can now propose new candidates again.

There are a lot of construction sites in HR, which is almost 100 million euros in deficit.

Regional little ones, a decoupling from the filmmaker and media scene in Hesse, an overload of in-house productions are on the list of criticisms of the local industry - also because many older people can still remember days of better cooperation.

At the awarding of the Hessian Film and Cinema Prize, the outgoing Artistic Director Manfred Krupp recently emphasized that time-independent offers, i.e. broadcasting as a media library, are the topics of the future for him.

The fact that this “platform” is now cavorting in the field of the free daily press with its presentation and text-heavy content and copying private business models with the broadcasting fees - this will also have to be discussed with the new directorship.

Then when it is elected.