Including non-denominational and non-religious citizens in the ZDF State Treaty

Next Thursday, the next conference of the heads of government of the federal states will take place in the Bundesrat in Berlin under the leadership of Brandenburg’s Minister President Dietmar Woidke. They will also discuss the ZDF State Treaty, which is due to come into force at the beginning of next year. For this reason, the President of the Humanist Association of Germany, Frieder Otto Wolf, wrote to the 16 heads of state government on Monday and called on them to work towards the inclusion of representatives of non-denominational and predominantly non-religious citizens in the future ZDF Television Council. Currently, more than a third of the population in Germany is non-denominational and the vast majority of non-denominational citizens are non-religious. This social image should also be reflected in the ZDF State Treaty and Television Council, said Frieder Otto Wolf. He therefore reminded the heads of government, among other things, of the ruling by the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court on March 25, 2014, which determined that the previous ZDF State Treaty was unconstitutional. In the grounds for the ruling, it states that “in particular, an appropriate determination and weighting of the forces considered in the committees that takes social diversity into account” is required, and further: “The composition of the collegial bodies must be geared towards bringing together people with the most diverse perspectives and horizons of experience possible from all areas of the community.” According to the Federal Constitutional Court, the legislator must “ensure that when appointing members to these bodies, the most diverse groups possible are taken into account, including not only large associations that determine public life, but also smaller groups that do not have easy access to the media, and that non-coherently organized perspectives are also represented.” The current draft provides for the ZDF Television Council to include two representatives each from the Protestant and Catholic Churches as well as one representative each from the Central Council of Jews in Germany and Muslims. “In order to take sufficient account of social diversity and ideological plurality, the inclusion of four representatives of non-denominational people on the ZDF Television Council would be appropriate in my view, given the current state of affairs,” says the letter from the President of the Humanist Association. Wolf also pointed out that the inclusion of representatives of non-denominational and non-religious people in Germany is not only necessary in view of social plurality and the reasons given by the Federal Constitutional Court, but is also supported by the Basic Law, as Article 140 of the Basic Law in conjunction with 137 para. 7 of the Constitution requires: “Associations that make the communal cultivation of a world view their task shall be treated equally to religious societies.” The new regulation of the ZDF State Treaty is the best time to establish equal representation of non-denominational and non-religious worldviews in accordance with the Basic Law. “Not taking this into account in the new regulations would be a blatant disregard for the interest in equal participation and inclusion of a large part of the German population,” said Frieder Otto Wolf.