Joe Chialo, Senator for Culture
© dpa
Due to legal concerns, Berlin's Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) has revoked the anti-discrimination clause for funding.
"Due to concerns that the anti-discrimination clause is not legally secure in its current form, it will no longer be used in funding decisions with immediate effect," the Senate Department for Culturr announced on Monday. However, the goal of a "non-discriminatory culture" remains.
"I will continue to campaign for the non-discriminatory development of Berlin's culture. However, I must take seriously the legal and critical voices that saw the introduced clause as a restriction of artistic freedom," Chialo said according to the press release. Debates are needed now more than ever. At the beginning of January, the Senate Department for Culture had announced that recipients of public funding would be obliged to make a commitment against anti-Semitism, among other things, by means of a clause. This was to be based on a definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and its extension by the German government. In his own words, Senator Chialo wanted to ensure that public funds were not used to promote racist, anti-Semitic, queer-hostile or otherwise marginalizing forms of expression.