Overview

• Between June 2024 and May 2025 ZDF logged about 17,000 program complaints and ARD’s Munich office received roughly 31,000 messages.
• Most submissions originate from rundfunkalarm.de, the site founded by Daniel Bönig that provides prewritten templates alleging bias and imbalance.
• The uniform wording of many complaints has added significant administrative work for personnel across the broadcasters’ editorial councils.
• Complaints must reference specific aired programs and be sent to the relevant regional broadcasting council to trigger a formal review.
• ARD and ZDF emphasize that they continue to welcome carefully researched criticism aimed at improving their programming.