German radio rejects claim of pro-Beijing bias

Dec 1, 2008, 13:28 GMT

Berlin - Germany's international broadcaster, government- funded Deutsche Welle (DW), said Monday an internal inquiry had disproved claims that its Chinese-language programming had a pro- Beijing bias.

Before this year's summer Olympic Games in Beijing, controversy erupted over allegations by German critics that DW was not neutral. But a detailed analysis showed the 'groundless' claims were based on poor translations.

DW chief executive Erik Bettermann also said DW would be increasing its English-language television programming abroad in the next few years, and as a first step would increase English transmissions to Asia to 18 hours daily.

He said DW had applied for 78 million euros in additional taxpayer funding up to 2013 to pay for the TV expansion, but the decision was up to Germany's parliament.

The bias claims were directed at radio transmissions in Chinese and the Chinese-language part of DW's website, with critics attacking Zhang Danhong, deputy editor. They claimed she used words of support for Chinese policies.

Valentin Schmidt, chairman of the board, said there was 'no evidence whatsoever' of systematic bias.

He said an outside translator had made fresh translations of the Chinese transcripts into German and the board was unanimously of the view that the Chinese staff had not broken any journalistic rules.

Bettermann criticized the ambiguity of meaning in some of the earlier translations which were used by the critics, saying they did not reflect what the people meant in the interviews.