At the end of April, Dunja Hayali, a German journalist of Iraqi origin, will break the mold when she begins co-anchoring the main news show o­n ZDF, o­ne of Germany's biggest public television networks.

In a country where a fifth of the population has an immigrant background, experts said minority presenters of all backgrounds remain conspicuously absent o­n mainstream television information and news programs.

"It doesn't matter whether you have Turkish roots and look obviously different or have a Polish background and blend in with Germans," said Minou Amir-Sehhi, a freelance German-Iranian TV journalist for the publicly funded ARD network. "There's been a general wariness about contact with other accents and cultures in the country, and that's reflected o­n television."

In the entire media industry, about 3 percent of journalists are estimated to have an immigrant background.

<b style="">Striving for normality

A sprinkling of immigrant presenters is currently to be found o­n some private channels and stations such as MTV. o­n the influential public broadcasters, a few tend to be o­n niche programs devoted to issues of multiculturalism and integration.