It rarely happens that the Austrian Federal President reacts quickly when it comes to a current report. This time Alexander Van der Bellen promptly spoke up. “That must be a warning for us,” the head of state commented on Austria’s fall from 17th place in the previous year to 31st place in the press freedom index Day of Press Freedom presented, so massively. According to Reporters Without Borders Austria, changing criteria can explain shifts of one or two places, but not 14.
Austria is thus moving further and further away from the group of states with a completely free press. After the “Ibiza affair” was blown in 2019, in which politicians’ influence on the media became public, the country already slipped significantly. “This trend must not only be stopped, it must be reversed,” demanded the Federal President.
Germany, with which Austria likes to compare itself, fell three places in the ranking of 180 countries to 16th place. The main reason given was the increasing violence against journalists during demonstrations, for example by opponents of the Corona measures. In Austria, too, reporters are being attacked more and more frequently, although the authorities here are “not very aware of the problem,” says Erhard Stackl, Vice President of the journalists’ organization in Austria. Austria is also the only EU country that still does not have a freedom of information law. In Austria, authorities regularly invoke official secrecy if they do not want to answer unpleasant inquiries from journalists.
The so-called “advertising affair” was also reflected in the ranking. It had become known via chats from a confidante of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz that state-financed and manipulated surveys and advertisements were intended to influence reporting. Polls were rigged in favor of then-rising politician Kurz and sent to the tabloid media Austria passed on, which received advertisements for it. “Who pays for it” – this sentence was found verbatim in one of the messages from the Kurz confidante. “The subject of advertisements is a well-known problem. But it has reached a negative peak, which does not exist in any Western European country,” says long-time journalist Erhard Stackl.
In the previous year, around nine million euros were spent on press funding, for example for sales promotion – the distribution is based on criteria. At the same time, government agencies spend more than 220 million euros a year on advertisements that are placed at their discretion. According to an analysis by Medienhaus Wien, the three tabloid media accounts Austria, Kronen Zeitung and today more than half of this expenditure. An increase in the funds for official press funding has been one of the demands of all journalist organizations for years, which has now been given more emphasis by the Federal President’s appeal.