Jürgen Döschner (65) earns about 100,000 euros a year as a journalist for the West German Broadcasting Company (WDR). However, his working time is limited to a maximum of five hours per month – and has been for years. What sounds like a dream job to some is torture for the 65-year-old who desperately wants to work but is apparently prevented from doing so. And that is exactly why the German is now suing the TV station for non-employment, as the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” reports.
Döschner has been working for WDR for 38 years. But he has been out of work for a while and all his proposals have been turned down, he complains. So he goes to court. He is demanding 75,000 euros in damages. “We are convinced that we can prove unemployment,” says Döschner’s lawyer Jasper Prigge in the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. In principle, there is a de facto work ban. His client has received virtually no reports or other journalistic work since September 2019.
The WDR responded to the accusation, explaining that the decision whether or not to consider contributions from individual editors was at the sole discretion of the respective program areas receiving the approval. However, the broadcaster did not explain why all of the journalist’s suggestions were apparently rejected.
Arbitration Committee is ignored
For the national director of the German Journalists’ Association, Monique Hofmann, there are indications that the WDR actually sentenced Döschner to nothing. Probably because his contributions were repeatedly criticized. For example, a contribution against the coal industry. He had sided with activists who had occupied an opencast mine. “The case is also explosive because it highlights the question of how well journalists are protected in their freedom of reporting in public broadcasting,” Hofmann said.
The WDR arbitration committee was also involved, suggesting that Döschner should be placed in a position that would allow him to make the most of his decades of experience. But that didn’t happen. (lrc)