Leading up to the ORF “Elephant Round” for Thursday’s federal presidential election, candidate Tassilo Wallentin sharply criticized the ORF. “As with interrogations in prisons, Alexander Van der Bellen’s challengers have to wait in separate rooms until they are brought in for individual interviews and then brought back into the separate rooms,” complains Wallentin. The counterattack from ORF moderator Armin Wolf was not long in coming.
On Thursday (from 8:15 pm), the ORF will not hold a classic “elephant round” with all candidates together under the title “Wahl22 – The Candidates”, but “only” one-on-one interviews with all seven Hofburg candidates (including seated Alexander Van the barking).
‘Van der Bellen does not need to enter into a discussion’
According to Wallentin, the ORF has “clearly made Van der Bellen a candidate”. The ‘elephant group’, which does not deserve the name, focuses on the incumbent president, who does not need to enter into a discussion because he is apparently no longer able to do so.
Wolf fights Wallentin
ORF moderator Armin Wolf was criticized by Wallentin. “The ORF provides its studio guests with cloakrooms so they don’t have to stand in the aisle when it’s not their turn. But of course you can see it that way,” he wrote on Twitter.
ORF financial hole of 30 million euros?
According to Wallentin, the ORF has increased GIS fees in times of need, has a financial shortfall of EUR 30 million despite annual tax funds of EUR 700 million and at the same time is reporting increasingly tendentious, as the case with the presidential election is showing.
Wallentin demands disclosure of the ORF “luxury service contracts”
The lawyer therefore demands the abolition of the GIS fee, disclosure of the ORF “luxury service contracts” and compliance rules. He also calls for a ban on ancillary activities: “It is a scandal that moderators, who became known at the expense of taxpayers, generate significant additional income for themselves.”
Source: Krone
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