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Comment by jansan | Hacker News Reader

Please note that the website dw.com that is hosting this article is basically a German government website.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Welle

DW (Deutsche Welle) is a German state-owned broadcaster. They are not paid by our mandatory monthly broadcasting fee, but directly by the government with taxpayer money.

Now tell me, why does the German taxpayer finance a news agency that tells the world about the death of a French designer? They also do car tests. Isn't this the greatest waste of taxpayer money that you can think of?

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Many countries (at least in Western Europe?) have state-owned media organisations, usually with rather strong provisions to ensure their independence from government.

In practice, they usually end up being the most reliable and unbiased news sources probably because they are less subject to the pressure to write buzz pieces in order to drive viewership and therefore ad revenue up.

While the other successful private media organisations end up being either buzz article mills, more or less openly ideologically oriented outlets, or high quality news with more limited output.

I find the public news we get in our countries to be actually quite useful, even if a lot of them are currently under attack by governments seeking to reduce expenses and increase control by any means.

I see your point sir. IMHO in these times DW is still a calm, non-biased and pleasant new source. They are not bombastic, "breaking-news" all the time sort of site. They have news from across the world presented in a matter-of-fact way like the old times (sometimes even delayed by days). So I still think it is tax money well spent :)

DW has information related to a lot of different areas, including arts and culture. It's a free unbiased news source. It's not just "a news agency that tells the world about the death of a French designer". You should check it out.

Ah... yes! The BBC.

Hated having to pay the TV license when living in the UK, but now I appreciate the kindness of british couch potatoes whenever I watch/listen BBC World Service.

Please calm your nerves by watching Tatort.

That is a different story, they are paid by the broadcasting fee, which funds an (supposedly) independent broadcasting network. DW is directly funded from the federal tax budget.

They're both paid by taxes ultimately, as the digital license fee is mandatory, so I don't see much difference.

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