Linke on culture and media

The Left stands by public broadcasting and wants to secure its independence, while also reviewing the structures and costs of the regional broadcaster MDR. Local media, community media, and nonprofit journalism are to be supported.

The Left wants to keep public broadcasting. The broadcasters should stay independent. MDR should spend its money carefully. Small local media should get help too.

MDR's structures are to be critically reviewed, duplicate structures cut, and spending on sports rights reduced. Measured by the fees its residents pay, Thuringia is to benefit more from sites and productions within the MDR network. The party wants to prevent areas without a newspaper and calls on the federal government to subsidize newspaper delivery and to create rules for nonprofit journalism. Media literacy programs are to continue; the Left relies on these rather than on deleting or banning content. Projects against hate and incitement and discrimination-aware training for media workers are to receive support.

The Left wants to keep giving state money to private local radio and TV stations and to community media in Thuringia. The platform justifies this with preserving diversity of opinion and the costs of technological change.

The Left wants to keep supporting small radio and TV stations. Community media should get more money too. Community media are stations where citizens make the shows themselves. The goal is many different voices in the media.

Private broadcasters are to keep receiving state funds while media independence is respected. A larger share of broadcasting fee revenue is to go to the state media authorities for community media and media literacy work. Broadcasting councils and other oversight bodies are to include people from different communities, including language communities. The party also wants to push for a stronger role for Thuringia within the ARD network and to keep supporting the children's channel KiKa.

The Left wants to bundle support for the media industry and create a media location agency. Film and media funding is to be expanded so that trained professionals can carry out their projects in Thuringia.

The Left wants to support the media industry in Thuringia more. A new agency should take care of this. There should be more money for films. Media professionals should be able to work in Thuringia.

A media location agency is meant to let graduates and skilled workers from media professions realize their products in the state. Funding programs are to be merged, including support for business settlement and start-ups. The state's cultural film funding and its share in Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (the regional media fund) are to grow. Cooperation with research institutions such as TU Ilmenau and the Fraunhofer Institute is to receive permanent state support, including for apps, games and content for children's and youth media.

The Left wants to increase funding for and investment in socio-cultural venues and the independent arts scene. Funding would in the future also cover adequate staff positions. The party sees these places, especially in rural areas, as important spaces for encounter, participation and democracy.

The Left wants more funding for small and independent culture venues. These include community arts centers and independent theaters. The state should also pay for staff. The party says these places matter most in rural areas. Choirs and clubs should keep getting money too.

Funding would be supplemented by additional programs, and regional hubs would be set up to network cultural players. Support for amateur culture carried by volunteers in clubs, choirs and ensembles would be kept stable at a high level. Funding for venues, including independent theaters, would be set up transparently and durably in dialogue with those involved locally. Support for small-scale performing arts, statewide training offers and continued extra funds for children's and youth theater are also planned.

The Left wants sector-wide collective agreements or the public-sector pay agreement (TVöD) to apply at all theaters and orchestras in Thuringia. In-house pay agreements would be done away with. The party links this to fair pay and secure locations.

The Left wants the same union pay rules at all theaters in Thuringia. Single theaters should no longer have their own pay deals. An in-house deal applies to only one theater. The party wants to secure fair pay this way. Theater buildings should also be renovated.

The platform points to long-term funding contracts that have been concluded for theaters and orchestras. In the party's view, uniform collectively agreed wages secure good working conditions and keep venues open from Nordhausen to Meiningen. The theater allowance in the municipal revenue-sharing system is meant to relieve municipalities. The ongoing theater renovation program, which the party calls the largest since 1990, is to be carried through.

The Left wants museum and archive holdings checked more thoroughly for looted art. Collections would be stored in modern depots, for which a dedicated program is planned. Small local history museums are to be preserved as well, and heritage protection is to be brought up to date.

Museums and archives should check their collections. They should look for stolen art. This covers the Nazi era, East Germany and colonial times. The Left wants to fund new storage space for collections. Small local museums should stay open too.

The review covers objects from the Nazi era, from injustices under the East German state and from colonial contexts. A depot program is meant to improve how holdings are stored. Besides the major institutions, small local heritage rooms would also be kept. On heritage protection, the party wants to support owners of listed buildings but penalize abuse, pointing to the expropriation of Reinhardsbrunn Castle. According to the platform, federal money is being used to renovate castles, fortresses and historic gardens.

The Left wants public institutions to pay freelance artists at least the fees that cultural associations set as a floor. The party also rejects any curtailment of the Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund).

Freelance artists should be paid fairly. Public institutions should pay them a minimum fee. Cultural associations set the amount. The artists' social insurance fund should stay as it is. This fund helps artists with their social insurance.

The fee floor would apply as a rule to all public institutions. The benchmark is the rates set by cultural associations. According to the platform, the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK) provides social protection for artists. The party says it will keep opposing any plan that would cut back this fund.

The Left wants to preserve, expand and digitally modernize libraries across the state. The state and municipalities would each pay half the cost of digitizing public libraries.

The Left wants to keep libraries everywhere in Thuringia. There should be more services too. Libraries should become more digital. The state and the towns should pay for this together. Each pays half.

The party describes libraries as the living rooms of towns and cities. The programs of literary societies would receive support. More people are to be encouraged to take part in the national read-aloud day. The Left also wants to give children, teenagers and young people free and barrier-free access to museums and theaters.