Berlin multicultural channel to close

Michael Hedges May 27, 2008

Nobody’s happy. Radio MultiKulti, produced since 1994 by Berlin public broadcasters, will close at the end of the year. So it is when the budget meets the spreadsheet.

Berlin Brandenburg public broadcaster RBB (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg) announced the decision to close Radio MultiKulti and end production of television program Polylux last week (May 21). “The end of Radio MultiKulti is a painful cut in our diversity,” said RBB director Dagmar Reim citing the “financial situation of the RBB.” The ‘situation’ is a €54 million budget shortfall.

Every European media regulator mandates multicultural broadcasting, typically for minority integration. Almost every European public service broadcaster (PSB) offers programs if not channels for significant ethnic communities. As PSBs face revenue short-falls or, at least, little growth funding is most secure for majority services while minority services are the easiest to cut.

With complaints about the closure rising, Berlin Brandenburg media regulator Medienanstalt Berlin Brandenburg (MABB) issued a statement (May 26) of “great regret” at the RBB decision. Under the State Media Treaty in force since May 2007 the MABB has, said its statement, “no influence” on the use of the seven frequencies assigned to the RBB. In other words: don’t blame us.

“Massive budget constraints,” said RBB’s Reim, aren’t his fault, either. In the Berlin and Brandenburg states 14.5% of license fee holders are exempt from paying, compared with the ARD national average of 9.9%. Plus, the region – at least Brandenburg – is losing population.

In audience estimates from the most recent ag.ma survey (March 2008) Radio MultiKulti reached about 37,000 daily listeners, about 0.8% market share. The channel launched in 1994 and has produced programs in 20 languages plus German. “It was not always easy,” posted program director Ilona Marenback on the Radio MultiKulti website, “but it is beautiful!”

Criticism has been leveled not only at the RBB but also at German public broadcasting generally. Klaus Staek, president of the Berlin Academy of Arts, called the closure “an irresponsible rejection of cultural diversity by ARD,” in a statement (May 24). “The fact that in a city whose population is more than a quarter composed of immigrants, a media tool for integration and information is lost is difficult for me to imagine.”

The Berlin Journalists Association (VBJ Verein Berliner Journalisten) called the demise of Radio MultiKulti “a severe blow to integration efforts in the capital and development of intercultural journalists,” in a statement. Poking another finger in the eye of ARD VBJ chairman Gerhard Kothy added that ARD salaries for journalists in other German States are higher and that, in Berlin, “journalists are threatened by unemployment.”

The frequency occupied by Radio MultiKulti will not go unused, public broadcasters loath to give up real estate. The WDR/Radio Bremen produced Funkhaus Europa, also a multicultural public radio channel, will fill the slot. “Integration is and remains an important ARD task,” said WDR director Monika Piel.

The 28 full time employees of Radio MultiKulti will be absorbed within RBB, said radio director Christoph Singelnstein. “We would have liked to continue.”