If you ask Germans this the answer you’ll get a lot of the time is “German public broadcasters are completely independent because their funding doesn’t come from the state, it comes from a separate fee everyone pays.”

Said fee is compulsory, de facto if not de jure a tax, and the whole construct is defined by law. If you’ve watched Tagesschau even once you’ll see it’s just what the government wants you to think.

But call it out as such and [see above] or “Germany is a free country with independent media, unlike the evil DDR where only state propaganda was allowed.”