Media Council Begins Work Under Nathalie Wappler’s Leadership
On 14 April 2026, the Media Council (established in December 2025 under the »Medienstaatsvertrag«) was officially inaugurated. The independent body is responsible for monitoring the quality and development of public service broadcasting in Germany. Nathalie Wappler, outgoing director of the Swiss broadcaster SRF, was unanimously elected Chair of the Media Council. Jeanette Hofmann, political scientist and Professor of Internet Policy at the FU Berlin, was elected Deputy Chair.
»Our aim and mission is to support the transformation of public service broadcasting through independent expertise and strategic initiatives. We want to spark discussion and contribute to quality assurance«, says the new Chair of the Media Council.
The Media Council will complement the existing broadcaster supervisory bodies, which focus on performance analysis as it relates to programming. An overarching assessment and advisory body, the Media Council will take a cross-organisational approach to analysing how well ARD, ZDF, and DeutschlandRadio fulfil their responsibilities. The findings will be collected in a report, and the Media Council will provide recommendations for further development. In doing so, the Media Council will not be assuming any regulatory or supervisory functions, but rather acting as a body that provides analysis, evaluations, and offers recommendations.
Over the next few weeks, the Media Council will be establishing the structures and processes that are required for them to begin their work. The position of office director will be advertised and filled in the near future. Every two years, the independent expert panel submits a report that adheres to the academic standards and criteria set out in the »Reformstaatsvertrag«.
About the Media Council members:
The advisory council is made up of six independent experts from the fields of media economics, media management, communication sciences, information and broadcasting technology, and media law.
- Chair of the Media Council Nathalie Wappler, Director of the »Schweizer Radios und Fernsehens« (SRF) (until the end of April 2026)
- Deputy Chair Prof. Jeanette Hofmann, political scientist and Professor of Internet Policy at the FU Berlin
- Prof. Anne Bartsch, Professor of Empirical Communication and Media Research at Leipzig University
- Prof. Boris Alexander Kühnle, Rector of Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart
- Peter Müller, former Federal Constitutional Court judge and former Minister President
- Prof. Annika Sehl, Chair of Journalism Studies with a Focus on Media Structures and Society at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Background:
The Media Council was established as a supervisory body under the »Reformstaatsvertrag zum öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk«. The independent council will, in the future, regularly assess how well ARD, ZDF, and Deutschlandradio comply with the public service mandate and provide input for further developing and improving the quality of their programming. The main office will be located at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
By beginning their work, the Media Council is implementing an important aspect of broadcasting reform and increasing the transparency, quality, and sustainability of public service broadcasting.
For further information, please contact
Marina Glaser, Media Council Spokesperson at medienrat[at]uni-weimar.de
+49 (0) 36 43 / 58 11 16