Transparency has become a buzzword of public sector reforms in recent decades, evident as well in public service media (PSM) frameworks such as the European Broadcasting Union’s contribution to society concept. At the same time, the interventions of the European Commission to PSM governance were accompanied by new reporting obligations in many member states, although to a varying extent. In Germany, media legislators, public broadcasters, and their governance bodies have increasingly implemented transparency regulations and practices following a 2014 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court. Taking a visibility perspective on transparency as a means to provide for an informed citizenry, which is necessary for a legitimising dialogue on PSM, I set out to explore these measures in this chapter. I draw on a qualitative document analysis of legal and self-regulatory documents and online information-sharing practices of all twelve German PSM organisations and their governance bodies. The results reveal noticeable differences between the various broadcasters, both regarding legal obligations and voluntary disclosures.
The author received funding from the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) for a previous version of the study presented in this chapter.