ORF shoots back – rejected a dispute about the flood of text on “Blauer Side”

Now there is again criticism of ORF – this time from Austria from Austria. The “Oj Nachrichten” took a look at the “blue side” for a week (18 to 25 March) and want to have determined a significant exceeding of the limitation of the text contribution in the ORF Act. 522 instead of the permitted 350 reports, the daily newspaper counted.

ORF rejects allegations
The ORF indicates the subordinate broken law in a broadcast “back to the sharpest” and itself had 320 text reports in the mentioned period. The ORF “implemented all the requirements of the new law”, the medium prevented. According to the radio station, the text of the text is even “massively reduced” compared to the radio station – both in the number of reports and in the average length of the texts, as the ORF argued on Friday. In the weekly average, the number of text articles would even be lower than 320 text contributions. This was also documented in detail at the end of March.

According to their research, the “upper Austria Nachrichten” sees it differently: “Even with defensive counting in favor of the ORF, 522 are still available instead of the permitted 350 reports”, the newspaper states and is further violations: the text length is apparently expanded, the links are not counted, neither the updates of a message.

The ORF shoots back sharply through broadcast: the upper Austrian medium must contact the media authority responsible for this – the Kommautria – The ORF explicitly invites you.

Complaint at Kommaustria necessary
A spokesperson for the media minister Andreas Babler (Spö) also referred to the Kommautria. Before taking a position on the allegations, the independent authority must look at the cause. There is currently a statement against statement. To make the Kommautria work, a complaint or a presentation of the fact is required. In the government program, the ÖVP, Spö and Neos made a “further clarification of the §4e ORF legislation within the meaning of the newspaper agreement and overview report”, which could probably be touched again.

Sharp criticism also comes from the spokesperson for the ÖVP -Media Kurt Egger, because the ORF also “had to adhere to the rules”, otherwise the temporary employment institution would systematically “dig up the water”. A “clear error in the sense of fair competition,” said Egger. Spokeswoman Henrike Brandstötter of Neos Media gave a “clear -violent law” to the investigation of the “Upper Austria Nachrichten”. The “blue side” is well done, but it is a problem because it fires the free mentality in media consumption.

Vöz-GF talks about “Mogelack”
The debate about Orf.at is not new: the publisher has been criticizing for years that the strongest news side of the country of the country has made it difficult to build digital subscription because of the free accessibility. In 2023, the government decided to make a change to a law that made a maximum of 350 text contributions per week possible on the start and overview page. Moreover, 70 percent of the range must consist of audio or video content. The texts may not be in -depth and not like contributions from classic daily or weekly newspapers.

Vöz director Gerald Grünberger nevertheless spoke about a “Mile Pack” after the novel was in force: the ORF could publish additional contributions on thematic subpages such as Science.orf and Topos.orf. These are excluded from the maximum limit. Only the nine federal state side are limited – to 80 reports per week.