CDU on culture and media

The CDU wants to work with the other states so that the services of public broadcasters ARD and ZDF are merged over the longer term, since it considers duplicate structures outdated. It wants to prevent fee increases and achieve a lower broadcasting fee in the long run.

ARD and ZDF often make similar shows. The CDU thinks this is unnecessary. It wants to merge what ARD and ZDF offer step by step. The broadcasting fee should not go up. Later it should go down.

In the program's view, there is no need for duplicate news coverage, media libraries and online portals. The main channels are to be aligned step by step through the legal remit. The CDU sees ARD's regional channels as important for diversity of opinion, but wants broadcasters to merge there as well. For the fee, differing income levels among the states are to be taken into account, and mid-sized businesses are to be exempted from paying.

The CDU wants to keep the public broadcasting fee stable and reduce it in the long run. Public broadcasters should focus on information, civic education and culture, and the regional broadcaster MDR should serve as a model of transparency and efficiency within the ARD network.

The CDU does not want the broadcasting fee to rise. Later, the fee should go down. Public broadcasters should mainly offer news and culture. They should spend money carefully.

The program calls for effective oversight of broadcasters' spending that must take the burden on fee payers into account. Reforms of the broadcasters' mandate and structure are to be carried out and developed further. Public broadcasting should not compete with private entertainment and, according to the program, remains bound to balance and neutrality. Executive pay should be aligned with public-sector pay scales. Saxony-Anhalt, with its broadcasting centers in Magdeburg and Halle, should benefit from MDR's economic activities at least in proportion to the fees its residents pay.

The CDU wants the minimum age on social media platforms to be enforced through effective age verification. The coordinated use of bots and fake accounts for disinformation is to be banned. At the same time, media literacy programs for all age groups are to be expanded.

Social networks have a minimum age. The CDU wants the networks to really check users' ages. The CDU wants to ban fake accounts that spread lies on purpose. Everyone should learn to judge media better.

Protective measures for young users are to be developed further and enforced through the state media authority. The program names mandatory age labeling of digital content, reporting options that are easier to find, and technical safeguards. The CDU relies on cooperation with platform operators and on applying existing laws. Media education programs are to be expanded together with schools, the state media authority and civil society organizations.

The CDU wants to develop Saxony-Anhalt further as a media location and continue the state funding program for film and media. Funding and commissions should go more often to companies from central Germany. Where AI is used in media, copyrights are to be protected and paid for.

The CDU wants more film and media companies in the state. The state should keep giving these companies money. Jobs should go to local companies more often. People who create things should get paid, even when AI is used.

The skilled-worker initiative of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM, the regional media fund) is meant to support the location. MDM money and production commissions from public broadcasters should flow more often to production and post-production companies from the region. More projects linked to the state should be made, and MDR should be more closely involved. According to the program, AI can ease the workload of newsrooms and help with research; copyrights should be upheld so that creative work stays economically viable.

The CDU wants to preserve local media, community media and small movie theaters and to push for fair economic conditions for regional media. Attacks on journalists are to be prosecuted consistently. Large digital platforms should take on more responsibility for media diversity.

The CDU wants to keep local newspapers and stations. Small movie theaters and community radio should stay too. People who attack journalists should be punished. Big internet platforms should do more for a variety of media.

Open channels and non-commercial local radio stations are to receive reliable funding through the state media authority and the state; closer links with educational work in schools, youth work and senior programs are being considered. For movie theaters in rural areas, the CDU wants to supplement federal programs. Security agencies are to be made more aware of the need to protect members of the press. Public and private offerings should remain easy to find on platforms, in app stores and on voice assistants. The CDU will examine initiatives to change media concentration law, and any digital levies should also benefit Saxony-Anhalt.

The CDU aims for a state-level agreement with GEMA, the collecting society for music rights. It would let volunteer-run clubs use music without license fees up to four times a year.

Clubs have to pay GEMA when they play music at events. GEMA represents the rights of musicians. The CDU wants to sign a contract with GEMA. Then clubs can play music for free four times a year.

The agreement would apply to volunteer-run clubs and associations in Saxony-Anhalt. Besides up to four free uses of music per year, bureaucratic and financial hurdles are to be cut significantly. The CDU justifies this with the role clubs play in holding society together.

The CDU wants to fund culture equally in cities and rural areas and make cultural participation possible regardless of where people live. Traditions, customs, and local heritage are to be supported to strengthen cultural identity and a sense of home. Arts funding is to become simpler and faster.

The CDU wants to fund culture equally in cities and villages. Everyone should be able to take part in culture. The CDU wants to support customs and traditional festivals. Applying for funding should become simpler and digital.

Themed cultural centers are to set regional priorities, and links between rural areas, mid-sized towns, and independent cities are to grow. Regional anniversaries and traditional festivals are to be honored. Application procedures are to be digitized and advice services expanded, because the program sees long procedures as a brake on creativity. Accessibility, mobility, and ease of access are to be promoted, and funding decisions are to give more weight to participation criteria. Volunteer work in clubs, choirs, and initiatives is to get better conditions.

The CDU wants to preserve the state's cultural heritage, from castles and palaces to collections and museums. More sites are to become UNESCO World Heritage. The CDU sees the work of memorial sites on Nazi terror, the injustice of the SED regime, and the division of Germany as a duty.

The CDU wants to preserve castles, palaces, museums, and art treasures. More places in the state should become World Heritage sites. The cultural foundations should get enough resources. Memorial sites should remind people of dictatorship and division.

The Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt (state cultural foundation) and other institutions are to be equipped so they can carry out their preservation, education, and outreach work over the long term. For castles, palaces, and gardens, the CDU wants to use a special federal program. Fragile holdings are to be stored safely in depots, and regional emergency networks are to protect cultural property. The CDU backs the World Heritage bids of the Pretzien Weir and the Francke Foundations in Halle. The variety of regional museums is to be kept and the museums linked up; cultural treasures are to be digitized and cultural buildings made more energy-efficient.

The CDU wants to keep funding music, theater, and festivals and to secure the theater contracts. The cultural and creative industries are to receive start-up funding, especially for clubs and creative venues. Children and young people are to get early access to culture, including through well-funded music schools.

The CDU wants to keep funding theater, music, and festivals. Clubs and creative venues should get money to get started. Children should get to know music, theater, and libraries early. Music schools should have enough money.

Alongside the secured theater contracts, new formats are to emerge. Cooperation with the cultural and creative industries, from design to film to club culture, is to become closer. The Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt (state arts foundation) is to be developed further, and projects linking science, technology, and art are to receive funding. Cultural institutions are to work more closely with schools and become more aware of educational needs. Music schools and youth art schools are to get stable, needs-based funding so that every child can use cultural offerings regardless of background.

The CDU wants to keep alive the memory of the crimes of the Nazi and communist dictatorships. To that end, memorial sites, archives, out-of-school learning sites, research, and volunteer initiatives are to receive support.

The CDU wants people to remember the crimes of the Nazi era and of East Germany. Memorial sites and archives should get more support. Research on these topics should get support too. Clubs and volunteers should get money for their work.

The platform treats remembrance as an educational task: experience with the dictatorships of the 20th century, with war, flight, and repression is to be part of civic education. It plans up-to-date teaching formats, including digital ones, and support for meeting places and projects that link remembrance with integration. Research institutions and partnerships with archives, foundations, and universities are to work on expulsion, integration, and dictatorship on a lasting basis. Local heritage clubs, expellee associations, and memorial initiatives are to become more visible, receive funding, and be tied into the cultural and educational landscape.

The CDU wants to mark June 20 in Saxony-Anhalt as a day of remembrance for the flight and expulsion of Germans after World War II. It also wants the culture of expellees and Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers) to be preserved and passed on to young people.

The CDU wants to use June 20 to remember flight and expulsion. This is about millions of Germans after World War II. The culture of expellees and ethnic German resettlers should get support. These resettlers are Germans who moved to Germany from Eastern Europe. Young people should learn about this culture.

On World Refugee Day there are to be events and educational programs that, according to the platform, send a signal of empathy, historical responsibility, and European understanding. The platform regards the traditions and memories of expellees and resettlers as part of German history; their preservation and their links with cultural and educational institutions are to be supported. The CDU calls the integration of resettlers as Germans a historical and moral concern. Ties to the regions of origin are to be kept and expanded, also as an expression of European cooperation and reconciliation.