journalists on behalf of the government

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Federal ministries have given around 1.5 million euros to journalists in recent years. According to a disclosure that goes back to a small request from the AfD, more than half of the sum went to employees of the public broadcasters. Employees of private media and freelance journalists are also among the officers - who have been anonymized in the list.

The list also includes the commissioning of ProSieben journalist Linda Zervakis by the Federal Chancellery, which was researched by “taz” a while ago – the presenter had interviewed Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the digital conference Republica, and received a “reimbursement of costs” for this, no fee, as emphasized by the Chancellor's Office. In most of the other cases that can be found in the list, however, it should have been about real fees.

In this edition of our podcast "Die Medien-Woche" we discuss whether it is permissible for journalists to accept assignments from government agencies, whether for moderation or media training. Is it conceivable that journalists receive money from ministries and still not be "collected", as Linda Zervakis put it in a statement? Or would it make sense in principle to flatly refuse such orders?

We are also dealing with the delivery subsidy for newspaper and magazine publishers that has been planned for years by the federal government. The aim is to promote the sale of printed media, which, according to the publishers' associations, has hardly been profitable in recent years due to minimum wages and increased paper and energy costs. Regional publishers in particular plan to stop supplying structurally weak districts in the future and persuade subscribers there to purchase digital subscriptions.

Finally, we take a look at the plans and personal details of “Focus” and “Stern”.

The "Media Week" is a podcast about the world of media and its makers. Christian Meier, editor at WELT, and Stefan Winterbauer, editor-in-chief of the industry service Meedia, talk about the most important topics of the week every Friday. Background, analytical, entertaining.

Feedback an: medien-woche@welt.de