Is anyone watching?
My Dear Friend of Democracy,
What is the central task of a public-funded broadcaster in a democracy?
Right, political education.
Therefore, in the run-up to the European election (6 June to 9th), wouldn’t it be appropriate to put the election in the reporting focus? What are the parliament's tasks? What topics are in focus? What are the parties, their programs, and their top candidates? Answers to such questions.
And...
… wouldn’t it be a good idea if these public broadcasters organised a live event? A huge event. Broadcast by all public broadcasters in Europe. At the same. At prime time. Something like a Eurovision Song Contest, just without songs. Politics instead.
What? That already exists? Ups, I didn't know that.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of 113 public service media organisations from 56 countries, broadcasts a live-streamed debate series between the lead candidates for European Commission President. The problem: almost no one watches. Because almost no one knows. Because it is only streamed on the internet.
If you are interested:
The final debate between the lead candidates for the European Commission presidency will take place in Brussels tomorrow, on 23 May. From 15:00-16:45 CET. (Who has time to watch a political debate at this time (other than me;-)?)
In my home country, Germany, no public television station will broadcast this debate. Isn't that a shame?
(It is not only in this respect that public television in Germany is far away from devlivering political education to an appropriate extent and quality. For example, there is no public german news channel worthy of the name.)
At least digitalisation has opened up ways for anyone who wants to watch the debate to do so. It will be streamed there: https://www.ebu.ch/events/eurovision-debate?date=20240523 .
By the way, these are the people invited:
See you in Europe,
Johannes