Closure for Protestant school for Journalism

The supervisory board of its sponsor, the Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik (GEP), decided to close the school for financial reasons. It expects a decline in church tax revenue by 2030, IDEA reports. Furthermore, the austerity measures in the protestant churches and the GEP make it hard to continue the school.

Oscar Tiefenthal, the school head, speaks to Idea of a painful and wrong decision. “We have guaranteed high-quality training for 27 years under constant pressure to save and with a relatively small budget. According to Tiefenthal, the decision is a “devastating” signal, not only for Protestant journalism. About 200 journalists have graduated from the school since 1995.

To replace the school, the GEP will start a journalistic training in Frankfurt am Main, Pro reports. The training takes two years, during which five trainees will be able to participate.