DLR Director Stefan Raue: There hasn't been a half-year break in broadcasting

Since the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, the three programs of Deutschlandradio - like many other traditional media - have been an important source of factual and truthful information.

Deutschlandfunk is the only information program in the top 10 most-listened-to programmes, even if this station had to record a slight decrease in reach compared to the last media analysis, which reported a record 2.23 million listeners.

Director Stefan Raue is now taking stock.

"If in complicated times, when citizens expect answers to the many questions, the public information and cultural offerings were not used intensively, we would have done a lot wrong," he says in an interview.

At the beginning of the Russian attack, his station put together a competent team of colleagues who were already correspondents in Eastern Europe, who speak the language and have good contacts in the regions affected by the war.

With their help and in close cooperation with the correspondents of the ARD, informed about the connections and current developments of the Ukraine war, according to Raue.

The director of Deutschlandradio sees the reporting as a supplement to the offers of the state broadcasting corporations: a lot of background reporting, in-depth information from features and documentation to detailed interviews, plus talk shows.

With the non-linear offers, the audio library app and the web portals, the need for formats that stimulate discussions is growing.

The audience expects dialogue and interaction from a modern radio programme.

All of this corresponds to the mission of the national radio station.

On the whole, the traditional media in Germany managed to do justice to the dramatic event without military language and war cries.

This is part of the democratic media culture in our country, which helps to ensure that the difficult subject and its emotional impact can be reported on without hysteria.

Raue does not see the possibility of a temporary, voluntary waiver of the broadcasting fee in order to relieve the burden on citizens, as suggested by the finance minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Monika Heinold from the Greens.

In his opinion, such a waiver is not possible under broadcasting law.

Politicians must first decide what will then be dispensed with in the program.