Organization calls for more ‘diversity’ among German journalists

According to excerpts from the “New German Media Makers” or NdM website, it says, among other things: “German society has changed, it has become more colourful. That should be reflected in the reporting.” The manual explains which terms journalists should and should not use in which context.

When reporting on criminal offenses, “the prejudice still prevails that refugees or people with international history are more likely to commit criminal offenses than biographical Germans and that their origin is causally related to it”.

Especially now, when the media are losing sales, there is a crisis of confidence and more competition, “diversity” is important. “More diversity brings new target groups, new customers and, above all, better, more successful journalism”.

The more “diverse” editorial offices are, the more it is possible “to take up issues of society without prejudice”, the published excerpts further stated. “And just as we can no longer imagine a purely male editorial office today, we should also no longer be able to imagine white editorial offices. Precisely because of the special constitutional mandate of the media, the question of fair access and the representation of all population groups in journalism is also a question of democracy.”

Media companies are also told: “As a media company, get an idea of ​​the proportion of migrant journalists in your ranks, disclose this diversity data transparently and formulate clear targets (soft ‘quotas’) that can be checked.”

The manual which uses “gender-fluid” spelling, is addressed to all editors, but it is not for sale. “We are happy to make it available to media companies,” only if they are willing to attend an hour-long “information” session. The media should commit to employing at least 30 percent of journalists with an immigrant background by 2030. In addition, “non-white people” should be shown in every program and on every topic.

The MdN is an association that sees itself as “representing the interests of media professionals with a migration history” and advocates “balanced reporting” that “adequately reflects Germany as a country of immigration”.

The board of directors includes the Turkish-born journalist Ferda Ataman, as well as the former spokeswoman for former Federal President Joachim Gauck, Ferdos Forudastan. However, not all journalists with a migration background are welcome in the association.

In the past, the “New German Media Makers” drew attention to themselves, among other things, as language police who wanted to tell journalists how they should report on the asylum crisis. And most recently, the tax-funded association gave weather phenomena foreign-sounding names.

“So far our weather has almost only had typical German names. According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 26 percent of all people in Germany have a ‘migration background’,” the NdM declared. They maintain that weather systems should have “migrant names”.

For the first weeks of the new year, the “media makers” bought 14 sponsorships for the “weather correction” campaign. Among other things, the low and high-pressure systems in 2021 were called Ahmet, Goran, Jussuf, Flaviu, Dimitrios, Dragica and Chana. “Making the weather more diverse is just a symbolic step,” said chairwoman Ferda Ataman. “It is important that social diversity finally becomes normal, everywhere.”

Thus “Ahmet” brought the heavy snowfalls to Germany.

In addition to Ataman, the former spokeswoman for former Federal President Joachim Gauck, Ferdos Forudastan, is also on the board. Instead of “wave of refugees” journalists should write “immigration”, instead of “asylum seeker” rather “refugee”. And for people from immigrant families, the term “culturally diverse” is recommended.