In the political sweatbox

Press freedom: Austria “historically bad”

Peter Klien from ORF was last year

(Bild: ORF, Krone KREATIV)

Bad news for Austria in terms of press freedom: only 32nd place in the international ranking of "Reporters Without Borders" - too much political proximity and attempts at intimidation by politicians as the main reasons. Denmark, Norway and Sweden are at the top of the list.

A current, international comparative index by "Reporters Without Borders" shows that Austria is only in 32nd place. The worst result to date. "There are many reasons for this decline. The government does not want to take offensive action to strengthen the diversity, independence and power of the journalistic media," explains Fritz Hausjell, President of Reporters Without Borders Austria. According to the professor of communication sciences at the University of Vienna, the causes are manifold and partly home-made.

 "Presumably corrupt processes"
"An increasingly well-functioning judiciary illuminates highly problematic close relationships and presumably corrupt processes between politics and the media even more clearly." It is therefore no wonder that the ÖVP and FPÖ are exerting increased pressure on critical journalism.

Even the committees of the public broadcaster ORF, which have since been appointed by the Constitutional Court as being too close to the government, have not yet been able to reorganize media policy. Hausjell: "Instead, the ÖVP has been campaigning ever more intensively for many months for a ban on quoting from judicial investigation files in order to prevent shameful transparency by journalism in the future."

The ÖVP argues here with the rights of the accused and violations of highly personal spheres of life as well as media prejudgement. In addition, according to Hausjell, "the already very limited range of daily newspapers was reduced from 14 to just twelve titles because the government shut down the 'Wiener Zeitung' without need. 2023 was not a good year at all, but explicitly a pretty bad year for the diversity, strength and independence of journalism in Austria."

"Reporters Without Borders Austria" President Fritz Hausjell

(Bild: APA Pool/APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

In the EU, Austria is behind 16 member states and only ahead of ten EU member states. Denmark, Norway and Sweden are in the lead. Germany has improved to tenth place. At the bottom of the ranking are Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea (places 178 - 180).

Aggressive sentiment against the media
As can be observed worldwide, Austria was also characterized by an increasingly aggressive mood towards the media in 2023. "Reporters Without Borders" cite examples such as an ORF satirist being put in a headlock by a security guard at an FPÖ event. Furthermore, journalists being insulted and discredited is part of everyday life.

"Completely unacceptable behavior" against ORF satirist Klien at the time

(Bild: ORF, Krone KREATIV)

In addition to personal attacks on the part of politicians, the number of comprehensive lawsuits as a relatively new means of intimidation has also increased over the past year. The sobering conclusion: Austria definitely has room for improvement in the area of press freedom.