Linke on culture and media

The Left wants to keep the broad range of public broadcasting while making its finances transparent. Media mergers would be scrutinized more strictly and journalists better protected. The party sees public broadcasting as a counterweight to the power of private platforms.

Public broadcasters should keep their full range of programs. They should show what they spend money on. Big media companies should not merge so easily. Journalists should be better protected.

Salaries, spending and consulting contracts at the broadcasters would be made public. Non-profit journalism would be recognized as charitable. Intimidation lawsuits against reporting would be penalized, crimes against media workers recorded separately and handled by specialized prosecutors, and newsrooms and sources shielded from state surveillance. AI-generated content would have to be labeled, and using copyrighted works to train AI would have to be paid for. The ancillary copyright for press publishers would be abolished. Social institutions and people with disabilities would be exempt from the broadcasting fee.

The Left wants to make cultural funding a mandatory government task so that access to culture does not depend on income. Freelance artists would get binding minimum fees. States and municipalities would receive enough money to do this.

The state should have to support art and culture. Culture should be for everyone, including people with little money. Freelance artists should get a fixed minimum fee. Cities should have enough money for this.

The Kooperationsverbot, which largely bars the federal government from co-financing areas under state responsibility, would end. Visual artists would get a legal right to payment for exhibitions. The Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund) would be opened to more professions and get a larger federal subsidy. Juries and boards would have gender parity, and the federal film board would get a diversity advisory council. The party calls for clear rules on returning wrongfully acquired cultural objects. Rehearsal spaces and studios would get protected status and funding.