Jorge en contra de RBStV: Political persecution of minorities (non-users of radio and television) and opposition (opponents of the consumption of radio and television) in Germany

Amnesty International
1 Easton Street
London, WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom

Subject: Political persecution of minorities (non-users of radio and television) and opposition (opponents of the consumption of radio and television) in Germany

Dear Amnesty International Team,
in Germany the laws governing the financing of radio and television (the so-called "Rundfunkbeitrag") were changed in 2013, with the result that people who were formerly not required to finance the broadcasting system are now being forced to do so. Prior to 2013, the fee depended on the number of devices owned by a household. Since a fee is now paid per household, irrespective of whether or not those households own or consume radio or television, households addicted to these media are now being financially relieved to the disadvantage of those who reject them.
As a consequence of this change, the already very high number of enforcement measures for the recovery of the broadcasting fee has increased enormously. In this regard I refer to the annual reports of the “Beitragsservice” (contribution service) from the years 2013-2017 (cf. Beitragsservice Geschäftsberichte 2013-2017). According to its own statistics, the contribution service's overdue notices have doubled since the launch of the new broadcasting financing system on 1 January 2013 until the end of fiscal year 2015, from 697,703 to 1.4 million overdue notices. The contribution service explains itself in its report that the conversion to the “Rundfunkbeitrag” is responsible for this enormous increase (see Annual Report 2015, p. 25 and 33).
The Annual Report 2016 indicates the initiation of 1.46 million enforcement measures for this financial year (see ibid, p.25), which even allows a slight increase over the previous year. It is not clear from the reports of the contribution service how many of these enforcement measures ultimately lead to arrests, since of course there are no statistics on this. Since the victims are often people who reject the media, these people will generally not turn to the media. Nevertheless, there was hesitant coverage in various media on the subject of the wave of arrests in December 2015, criticising this form of persecution perpetrated on the people by the broadcasting authorities. Representative of this resistance and these arrests is the activist Sieglinde Baumert from Thuringia, who was imprisoned for 61 days enforcing the payment of a contribution of 191 euros.
A law can be discriminatory in two directions. For example, discrimination can be formulated by stipulating that a particular group of people in a bus may not sit at the front. But it can also be formulated by stipulating that a particular group of people must sit in the back. The former is then a prohibition and the second is a command. In this sense, § 2 RBStV is a discriminatory law that commands non-users of radio and television to support these media, although this group of people want neither to promote nor to support radio and television. In addition, the group of real users of radio and television is financially relieved by the compulsory commitment of the other group, which is a preference for fans of the consumption of radio and television. The preference of a particular group of society is also a form of discrimination.
I would therefore ask Amnesty International to stand up for the victims of this form of persecution, because it is the matter of the specific persecution of minorities (non-users of radio and television) and opposition (opponents of radio and television, public service broadcasters or themedia in general). The rejection and non-use of said institutions is undoubtedly a basic attitude that expresses a political will not to support or promote these institutions.
Recently I also became a victim of this persecution when I received notification from the authorities that I had been registered in a debtors`list on the basis of my protest against the “Rundfunkbeitrag” (see. Documentation of the event). This stigmatises me as a debtor, although I pay my bills on time. This loss of creditworthiness will inevitably lead to discrimination of my person, based only on the fact that I do not want to use radio and television.