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★ * ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ COUNCIL + r CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L'EUROPE EDUCATION & CULTURE CCC/DC (76) 83 - E 11 mu i n i il COE111941 TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL CO-OPERATION Committee for Out-of-School Education and Cultural Development Strasbourg 1976 TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY The "Telecommunications report"; Findings, recommendations and response -• by Manfred JENKE 47.322 04..3 This study is one of a series dealing with' different experiences of new techniques being used in European audiovision, and also on the audio-visual situation in general in some member states. It is part of the preparatory documentation for a colloquy on videography, radio and cable television scheduled in principle for May 1977. The following research, available during the firs't three months on 1977, deals specifically with the situation in Austria, Italy and United Kingdom. ! The present study is commissioned I by the Council of Europe in thé I framework of the Cultural Programme ; established by the Council for !'Cultural Co-operation. The state- November 1976 ‘ ments made in this study are the j responsibility of the author and ? do not necessarily reflect the i views or policies of the Council j j of Europe or of its member govern- I I ments. i « , CONTENTS " _ Pages 1. A policy is needed ' 3 1.1. Public controversy until 1973 • 3 1.2. The '’Commission, for the'development of the 5' telecommunications system" (1973-76) 2. Findings and recommendations ' - 7 2.1. Existing forms of telecommunication ‘ 9 2.2. New forms of telecommunication with existing 'M networks 2.3* Forms of telecommunication with broadband ^3 distribution networks ' 2.4. Forms of telecommunication with switched broadband *9 networks 3. Accounts and response 2 3.1. Federal authorities 2d Research and technology . - posts and telecommunications Media pçlicy . ,3.2. Authorities of the Federal-states ' 24 I • Legal .definitions ' Pilot projects •3.3. Broadcasting organisations ' , 29 . Present state Future possibilities 3.4. Political parties, churches,and other''public bodies 32 CDU/CSU • ’ ■ FDP SPD . ' - ' .. / Catholic Church Protestant Churches ' - Professional associations and institutions k. Pages 3 .5 . Public institutions and business groups. 56 claiming' access to and/or making use of the system. Communities v Educational services I Industries and trades Advertisers Publishers ' , ’ of newspapers - of periodicals - of books and other printed matter - of multi-media-, materials 4. Conelusion - ^ p. List of publications ■ . ' - ■ ^ 1 Summary This present study deals with the report, published on . 27 January 19.76, of the ’'Kommission für den Ausbau des technischen Kommunikationssystems" (1) (KtK). That Commission had been set' up in February 1974 by the German Federal Minister for Research and Technology and for Posts and Telecommunications, Prof. Horst Ehmke, for the purpose of answering the- following questions: •1. For which forms of communication is there a social, political and economic need? 2. What possibilities for new forms of communication are opened ’• ' , up by the present trend in technical development - ‘broadband technique in particular? 3. In what period of time is the further development of the telecommunication system to,be brought about and how is it to be financed? '4. Who is to plan, establish and operate the various technical installations of the future telecommunication system and under what general terms and conditions? The Commission investigated in the main three wide specialist areas, that is to-say: ^ ■ - the needs and demand for telecommunications - technical possibilities, required volume of investment and costs of telecommunications, - organisation and general terms and conditions of tele communication systems. To that endj it published in its report a total of 36 findings and 17 recommendations, which arè discussed individually in the present study, insofar as they refer to questions of the mass media in the wider sense. The main outcome of the KtK report is a more accurate knowledge of the technical premises of and interdependencies between the various new forms of telecommunication. In addition, the associated details of needs and the cost estimates make possible a more realistic prognosis of the time-seale for the introduction of the corresponding systems. - The KtK report is noteworthy also as the product of a democratic fact-finding- process which brought the different interested parties together-over a period of nearly two years and arrived in that way ' ./. (1) Commission for the Development of the Telecommunication System. at a consensus as to what it was possible-to do, what it was-necessary to do and what it appeared desirable:to do. Special importance must be attached to the work of the KtK, beyond the narrower specialist field of telecommunication,,in that certain regulating conceptions in the field of mass communication can be formed, which field must be' kept free from influence by the state, without requiring the guiding influence of the state. This present study endeavours to discuss that proces.s and tha,t effect of the work of the KtK by allocating much space to a description of the reaction ;,to the achievements of the KtK. The study cites the. views ’of the Federation and of the States, of- the political - parties', churches and trade-unions, as well as those of industry, advertising and of the publishers, in order to make clear . the complexity of the field of problems in which the KtK had to work. This present study seeks in this way to canvass for under standing for the necessity-, and also for the ^ difficulty, of obtain ing within the Federal Republic of Germany - as on the European- level - a consensus regarding future communication policy. - 3 - CCC/DC (76)' 83 TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE FEDERAL ■ REPUBLIC OF GERMANY : ; The "Telecommunications report"-: Findings recommendations and response By Manfred Jenke • 1. A polle:/ is needed ■ - 1.1. Public controversy until 1973 Unlike most other West-European nations,,the Federal Republic of Germany is, according to its Constitution_(the "Basic Law" of 23 May, 19^9)>' a Federated State, wherein the f.ederal institutions in Bonn have competence for posts and telecommunications, whereas the eleven federal states (including West Berlin), on the other hand,, are individually competent for the administration Of sound and television broadcasting. It results therefrom that, in West Germany, the sound and television broadcasting services are in the main provided by public organisations whose legal foundations are the legislation of "the individual states or agreements between, federal states. (Only two broadcasting organisations, the "Deutsche W.elle" and the'Ee.utschlandfunk", both of which broadcast mainly for abroad, are constituted on the basis of federal legislation.) This legal situation is not uncontested. Repeated attempts have been' made in the past ' ' . ■ -'to circumvent or to undermine-the competence of the individual federal, states in the matter of broadcasting, in favour of the central federal government, - to compromise the public character of broadcasting by admitting private broadcasting services alongside the existing public broadcasting organisations. The mos.t striking enterprise of that kind was the formation,1 on 25 July i960 by Dr. Konrad Adenauer, the then Federal Chancellor, of the "Deutschland-Fernsehen-GmbH"ƒ a- company whose purpose was to complement the First Television Programme, which was being provided jointly by the state broadcasting organisations, by a Second Television Programme - much influenced by the then federal, government and the economic circles close to it. The^ federal states of Hamburg, Hessen, Niedersachsen and Bremen thereupon brought a legal action against the federal government before the Federal Constitutional Court at -Karlsruhe, which ruled on 28 February I9 6I that the federal government had acted ultra vires, because - the postal and telecommunications service embraced - dis regarding the reception of broadcast transmissions - only the transmission engineering domain of broadcasting, and not the so-called studio operations, - the federal institutions were not competent to interfere • with the 'organisation of the production of broadcast programmes. 1 • • \ That legal■controversy determined before the Federal Constitution al .Court was, of course^ based not only on a constitutional- political conflict between the Federation and the states, but also on a broadcasting-political difference of opinion between the Christian-Democratic Federal Government in Bonn and the Social .democratic state governments of Hamburg, Hessen, Niedersachsen and Bremen. However, during the course of the years that followed, during which the proportions of political majority gradually changed in the Federation as well as in some of the states, it became clear that, in all political camps, the realisation was.growing up that such complex, many-sided problems could not -be solved satisfactorily by the unilateral creation- of faits-accomplis and subsequent legal•battles, but that public discussions and doctrinal statements by .the relevant .authorities, and groups in politics and society were, necessary. This led, in the middle I96OS, .-to the realisation of. the need for a comprehensive policy for the media, which was to serve the following purposes: - the protection of existing media (such as the press and the , film industry) against possible damage