@hightor,
Here in Germany, the public television and radio stations are often called "state stations", "state television", "state radio", especially by the extreme right. It is insinuated that they are broadcasting on behalf of politics and government.
Public broadcasting was established after the Second World War as a counter-design to the Nazis' Greater German Broadcasting. The National Socialists had brought the media into line and nationalised and centralised broadcasting - it served as an instrument for Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
According to a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, state neutrality is a constitutional requirement.
However, according to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court, this does not mean complete freedom of the state:
"Socially relevant groups" sit on the supervisory bodies that control the broadcasters. These include church representatives, trade unionists, but also representatives of political parties and state governments. State actors, however, are not allowed to have a significant influence in the broadcasting and administrative boards.
In Germany, the financing is also supposed to ensure more independence. In contrast to other countries, the public broadcasters are not financed from the state budget, but through the broadcasting fee that every household in Germany has to pay.
If, on the other hand, broadcasting were financed directly from the state budget, this would open the door to political influence.
State broadcasting means: it is broadcast on behalf of the state. The most restrictive examples of this are North Korea and Cuba.
At the moment, one can clearly speak of state broadcasting again in Poland and Hungary, because they broadcast what the government wants: unpopular leaders have been replaced by the right-wing governments with those who conform to the government.
