Media Regulation of the Allied Forces in Germany

The declared goals of the Allied powers – the USA, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France – which had divided Germany into four occupation zones as their spheres of influence, consisted in eradicating Nazi ideology through “denazification” and “re-education” of the Germans to become democratic citizens in a social system in which all power was to emanate from the people. Thanks to the media policy of the Allied occupying powers, on the one hand, there was a free and diverse press with the imperative of objective reporting and the separation of news and commentary. On the other hand, a public broadcasting system of high quality with extensive state (if not political) distance is neither at the mercy of instructions from state bodies nor commercial interests of business enterprises and associations but is regulated by the “socially relevant groups.”