Violation of the Code

Schilling article: Press Council condemns “Standard”

The "Standard" has now been condemned by the Press Council for its campaign against Lena Schilling.

(Bild: Schiel Andreas/Andreas Schiel)

The "Standard" ran a large-scale campaign against Lena Schilling, the Green Party's top EU candidate. The Austrian Press Council has now clearly condemned the reporting of the pink paper - which has a paid circulation of around 60,000 copies and is said to have received more than ten million euros in public advertisements and subsidies in 2023 (according to reports).

In the opinion of Senate 1 of the Austrian Press Council, at least one article in the extensive series against Lena Schilling violates the code of honor for the Austrian press.

Negative picture painted
The article reported that Lena Schilling, the leading EU candidate for the Greens, had allegedly spread serious rumors and untruths about several people in her circle of friends as well as in her political environment. The article contains numerous anonymized quotes that paint a negative picture of Schilling as a whole.

Lena Schilling was confronted with serious accusations.

(Bild: APA/Georg Hochmuth)

Several readers contacted the Press Council and criticized the article as questionable in terms of media ethics, the committee announced in a press release. Among other things, it was argued that the information published in the article was not relevant to the public and that the quotes all came from anonymous persons.

"Violation of conscientious reproduction"
The Press Council followed this observation. According to the decision published on Friday, it "generally considers it permissible to report on questionable, serious allegations that the lead candidate of an election campaigning party spreads or makes about fellow campaigners or journalists".

It is "possible from a media ethics perspective to question the character suitability of a top candidate for politics and to inform the public about reasonable doubts about this".

However, the committee sees a "violation of the requirement of conscientious and correct reporting of news" (point 2.1 of the Code of Ethics). In essence, the anonymized quotes often cited as evidence are criticized.

The readership was given the impression that the politician had a poor character and possibly even suffered from mental health problems, which is an unusual and disproportionately serious accusation from a media outlet. According to the Press Council, it would have been necessary to "refrain from using anonymized quotes that merely contain value judgments about Lena Schilling as a person and in which no context is established for specific events".

The "Standard" has now been condemned by the Press Council for its campaign against Lena Schilling.

(Bild: Schiel Andreas/Andreas Schiel)

This is because it seems obvious that informants from Schilling's circle in the Green Party, the left-wing political spectrum or the climate movement could be pursuing their own interests and that their views could therefore be shaped by competition or personal disputes.

Anonymous quotes inadmissible in this case
The Press Council also sees a separate "violation of the requirement of conscientious and correct citation" (point 2.2 of the Code of Ethics). According to the controlling body, anonymous quotes are permissible for certain reasons, but a limit has been reached where they only serve to portray a negative character without an accompanying factual basis. "In the case of numerous quotes in the article, the Senate cannot recognize such a factual substrate", judges the Press Council.

In its opinion, it would have been necessary to report "only on the specific and substantiated allegations" and to refrain from anonymized quotes "which have the sole purpose of making unverifiable negative assessments of the character of the politician concerned". Otherwise, this would open the floodgates for the media to discredit public figures with statements that cannot be attributed to them by name.

"Standard" defends its approach
In a statement published in the decision, "Der Standard" defended its reporting. The accusations made were politically relevant and none of those mentioned in the article had been disputed. The medium justified the anonymization of the quotes by stating that informants would otherwise have had to fear negative consequences.

The editorial team emphasized that the allegations had not only been "meticulously checked", but also subjected to a "comprehensive legal review". They were in a position to "prove the truth of every single point in court". In sensitive cases, several affidavits were obtained.