Germany: ZDF Documentary About Big Alcohol*
German public service broadcasting ZDFzoom aired a new documentary about the entanglements of German decision-makers and the alcohol industry.
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (English: Second German Television), usually shortened to ZDF, is a public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all federal states of Germany (Bundesländer). ZDF is financed by television licence fees and advertising revenues.
Exposing Big Alcohol in Germany
The ZDFzoom documentary is entitled “Volksdroge Alkohol – Der legale Rausch”, which translates to “Drug of the people – the legal inebriation”. It is about the level and costs of alcohol harm and why the decision-makers in Germany do not do more to reduce and prevent it.
Through freedom of information act requests the journalists Sanaz Saleh-Ebrahimi and Daniel Drepper were able to get hold of alcohol industry submissions to the German government to kill a draft bill that would put in place evidence-based alcohol policy solutions to improve public health and social welfare.
This documentary is exposing the influence and lobbying of the alcohol industry and the entanglements of high-ranking German politicians.
Movendi International experts feature in the documentary
IOGT International Director of Strategy and Advocacy Maik Dünnbier is interviewed and explains the vast lobby influence of Big Alcohol in Germany, comparing it to the Swedish situation.
Also Rolf Hüllinghorst, leader of IOGT Germany’s alcohol policy work and former chair of the German Center for Addiction Issues (DHS, Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen), is interviewed in the documentary, sharing his experience with the lobby campaign against the alcohol policy development initiative.
For further reading
CORRECT!V: “Wie die Alkoholindustrie uns dazu bringt immer weiter zu trinken”
*This article has been update on June 23, 2022 to ensure functioning links to the documentary and resource pages and to reflect Movendi International’s name change.