Aktuelle Kamera ("Current Camera") was the flagship television newscast of Deutscher Fernsehfunk, the state broadcaster of the German Democratic Republic (known as Fernsehen der DDR from 11 February 1972 to 11 March 1990). On air from 21 December 1952 (daily broadcasts did not take place until 11 October 1957) to 14 December 1990, Aktuelle Kamera was one of the main propaganda tools of the East German government. Editorial line Originally, Aktuelle Kamera was (at least by Eastern Bloc standards) fairly critical of the ruling Socialist Unity Party. This was because television was not considered part of the mass media at the time due to its limited reach. However, this changed when the television service reported accurately on the uprising in East Berlin on 17 June 1953. In the repression following the uprising, DFF's director was sacked. Afterwards, DFF/DDR-FS's newsroom was directly linked to the SED Politburo, and Aktuelle Kamera took on a similar look to its radio and newspaper counterparts. For most of the next 37 years, it had a marked pro-government bias and typically did not report on news that could potentially fuel anti-government sentiment. With few exceptions, stories promoted socialism and portrayed the West in a negative manner. Schedule and popularity Aktuelle Kamera'''s main edition was initially scheduled at 20:00 before being moved to 19:30 in the 1960s, so as not to coincide with the major West German newscasts, ZDF's heute at 19:00 and the ARD's Tagesschau at 20:00, both of which were widely watched in East Germany. The broadcast lasted 20 minutes until 1972 when it was expanded to a full half-hour. Starting in the mid-1970s, another 30-minute edition was presented on DDR2 (launched on 3 October 1969) around 21:30. Prior to that, both channels aired Aktuelle Kamera simultaneously at 19:30, then repeated the following day when DDR1 signed on around 9:30 (later 8:30), before airing school-oriented programming, co-produced by the DDR-FS and the GDR Education Ministry. News summaries were added as the transmissions increased during the day. There was a bulletin at the end of the morning programs (i.e. between 12:00 and 13:00) and another, the afternoon news update, at 17:00 on DDR1. DDR2's evening schedule always began with the news at 18:45 (later 17:45 and 18:55). Late newscasts didn't appear until the 1970s when DDR1 screened a headline update following the magazine programs, around 22:00. From the 1980s, Aktuelle Kamera's final round-up was the last