Now that I return to Germany only on rare occasions, my picture of my home country is disproportionately influenced by what I see on German television. This does not make me feel any better. Of course, I am not obliged to watch commercial TV channels such as Sat 1 or RTL2. It does not occur very often, either. But recently a movie fascinated me so much that I was prepared to fill in five commercial breaks doing the washing up or hanging up the laundry. However, when I returned to the television once too soon, because all the dirty dishes and clean T-shirts had been dealt with, I was hit by the realisation that justice arrived in Germany on 20 August 2008. Justice is now done every Wednesday. And, like any justice worth its salt, it is without mercy. 《Justice without mercy》 is the name of the new pseudo documentary produced by Sat1, one of Germany's largest independent television networks. The programme solves society's really urgent problems live on camera. And who wouldn't want to watch live while a social welfare recipient is caught driving a brand-new Mercedes, or while an unemployed single mother fills her shopping trolley with stacks of expensive organic food? And who does not know of a neigh- bour who pays suspiciously frequent visits to the coffee shop, although he is on welfare, and ought to be reported to the relevant authorities? Or directly to the television company. Perhaps it even pays a reward.
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