ORF grandees appalled:
“Never before has a party threatened to do this …”
As is well known, the FPÖ wants to abolish the ORF contribution and finance public broadcasting from the federal budget in future. A few days ago, the Editorial Board warned of the "destruction of the ORF". Now ORF grandees are also mobilizing against the media policy plans that have been launched.
"There have been repeated fierce disputes about the ORF. But never before in all the controversies has a political party threatened to eliminate the financial independence of the ORF, to radically cut its budget and to intervene directly in reporting," reads a statement from a group of ORF grandees, without mentioning the FPÖ by name. "The basis for public service broadcasting is the clearest possible distance from party politics and solid financial independence through the contribution of the public. The current considerations to finance the ORF from the state budget would have the opposite effect", the signatories appeal to those politically responsible not to destroy the independence of the ORF.
Among the prominent names backing the text are journalism doyenne Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi, former Paris correspondent Lorenz Gallmetzer, former Brussels bureau chief Raimund Löw, war reporter legend Fritz Orter, Italy correspondent Mathilde Schwabeneder and former ZiB frontwoman Hannelore Veit.
No "dictatorship hell" in other European countries either
The blue response to the appeal was not long in coming. FPÖ media spokesperson Christian Hafenecker spoke of a "fantasized horror story" that was being fueled by "old-left ORF luxury pensioners". Hafenecker emphasized that standing up for freedom of the press and freedom of opinion as well as a pluralistic media landscape "has always, since 1848, been an essential part of the liberal DNA".
The FPÖ stands "for a reform of the ORF and an end to the household levy, which is legitimate and also supported by a large part of the population". In other European countries that do not finance their public broadcasters via licence fees, "dictatorship hell has not broken out".
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.