Complaints and tip-offs

Programming complaints

The Director General will respond to programming complaints in writing within one month of receipt of the complaint.

The Director General shall submit the complaint and his final decision thereof to the Broadcasting Council for information. If the Director General does not deal with the complaint or does not respond within one month, the complainant may appeal to the Broadcasting Council, which will decide on the complaint. The Director General must make explicit reference to this possibility in his decision.

Complaints can be made by writing to:

Deutsche Welle
Directorate General
Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 3
53113 Bonn
[email protected]

DW whistleblower system

As per ourCode of Conduct, DW works to make sure rules are followed and laws are obeyed within the organization. Every time a law or an internal rule is broken, it can damage the company. If you are in contact with DW on a professional basis, then you can use this page to submit information or tips about possible legal offences or rule violations in line with the German Whistleblower Protection Act (Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz (HinSchG)). Please use the online Whistleblower Portal,or contact our Compliance Officer directly.

You can also submit a corruption report to our external corruption officer Dr. Stefanie Lejeune-Göhmann.

As an independent attorney working outside Deutsche Welle and thanks to the legally-mandated duty of confidentiality and the procedural right to refuse evidence, she can ensure matters she handles are treated confidentially.

Contact the DW investigative team 

Please click here if you would like to submit confidential tips to the investigative journalist team.