In a political deadlock – press freedom: Austria historically bad

A current, international comparative index by “Reporters Without Borders” shows that Austria ranks only 32nd. The worst result so far. “The reasons for the decline are diverse. The government does not want to take an offensive approach to strengthen the diversity, independence and power of the journalistic media,” explains Fritz Hausjell, chairman of “Reporters Without Borders Austria”. The causes are diverse and partly self-made, according to the professor of communication sciences at the University of Vienna.

“Probably corrupt processes”
“An increasingly better functioning judiciary sheds even more light on very problematic close relationships and suspected corrupt processes between politics and the media.” It is therefore no wonder that the ÖVP and FPÖ are putting increasing pressure on critical journalism.

The committees of the public broadcaster ORF, which have now been appointed by the Constitutional Court because they are too close to the government, have not yet rehabilitated media policy. Hausjell: “Instead, the ÖVP has been calling for a ban on citing court documents for months to prevent embarrassing transparency through journalism in the future.”

The ÖVP advocates here for the rights of the suspects and violations of very personal areas of life, as well as prejudice in the media. Moreover, according to Hausjell, “the already very small supply of daily newspapers was reduced from 14 to just twelve titles because the government unnecessarily stopped the ‘Wiener Zeitung’. 2023 was not a good year at all, but a pretty bad year for the diversity, strength and independence of journalism in Austria.”

In the EU, Austria is behind sixteen Member States and only ten EU Member States. Denmark, Norway and Sweden are at the top. 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 in 2023 was also characterized by an increasingly aggressive mood towards the media. “Reporters Without Borders” provides examples, such as an ORF satirist being restrained by a security guard at an FPÖ event. Moreover, it is part of everyday life for journalists to be insulted and discredited.

In addition to personal attacks from politicians, widespread lawsuits have also increased in the past year as a relatively new form of harassment. Sobering conclusion: Austria certainly has room for improvement in the area of ​​press freedom.