"It is intolerable"

Greens: Karner inactive after attack at FPÖ demo

Media representatives were attacked at the demonstration in March.

(Bild: Krone TV)

A team from the TV station Puls24 was attacked at an FPÖ rally in Vienna in mid-March. The Greens are now criticizing the actions of the Ministry of the Interior following the violent attack. "It is unacceptable that there doesn't even seem to be an investigation into those involved in the attack," criticized media spokesperson Eva Blimlinger on Tuesday.

In a statement, Blimlinger referred to the answer to a parliamentary question by Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP). According to this, 99 law enforcement officers were deployed at the FPÖ rally on March 14 on Vienna's Keplerplatz and at the counter-demonstration. Karner did not provide any information on the attack on the Puls24 camera team in his response to the inquiry "due to a lack of police awareness".

"Representatives of the FPÖ youth involved"
Blimlinger described this as "surprising" in view of the number of police officers present. But even if there had been no direct observations by the police on site, the attack had been documented and published by the media. "This alone shows who was involved in the attack: well-known representatives of the FPÖ youth organization and the far-right 'Identitarians'", says Blimlinger.

Media representatives were attacked at the demonstration in March.

(Bild: Krone TV)

According to the Puls24 report, one of his teams was attacked by several people on the sidelines of the demonstration, including members of the FPÖ party youth organization and the far-right Identitarians. The Puls24 team, invited by the FPÖ itself, was surrounded and filmed with cell phones, obstructed in its work, insulted, pushed and doused with water after attempting to interview demonstration participants.

The cameraman continued filming during the assault:

FPÖ accuses cameraman of aggressive behavior
FPÖ officials finally calmed the angry people down and pointed out that participants at a public event could very well be filmed. After the incident, the FPÖ accused the cameraman of aggressive behavior.

Unfortunately, no contact was made with the cameraman.

Die LPD Wien zu der Causa

The Vienna Provincial Police Directorate explained on Tuesday that after the incident became known via social media, the press office contacted Puls24 by telephone in order to find out the name of the cameraman. After the contact person was unable to provide the name of the person concerned, the cameraman was asked to contact the press office of the Vienna Police Department or to report the incident to a police station. "Unfortunately, the cameraman did not make contact. Nevertheless, the responsible municipal police command submitted a statement of facts to the Vienna public prosecutor's office," it said.