Freedom of expression and freedom of the media

Media representatives noted with concern that 2018 was the first time that Austria’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders had fallen; it had dropped from 11th to 16th place. They said that the last government had been very harsh on the media, with the authorities trying to “correct” journalists and lacking respect for press freedom. The representative of the relevant public authority disagreed, noting that the authorities had been very inclusive when it came to the media, and gave examples of the former Chancellor speaking to journalists before and after each weekly Council of Ministers meeting and taking journalists on trips abroad.

Regarding the media landscape, it was noted that the mass media were very concentrated and politicised in Austria. Access to some printed media in rural areas was limited. A worrying aspect mentioned by media representatives concerned the newspapers that were available for free (for example, in metro stations): it was reported that one of them in particular featured almost daily articles with content that bordered on racism. Another aspect mentioned related to online media portals, many of which were funded or sponsored by players with a regressive agenda. These were very active and had considerable outreach and a huge impact on the Austrians who made use of them.

It was noted that the biggest media outlet in Austria, especially in rural areas, was the public broadcasting corporation (Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF). One important issue at present was the upcoming ORF reform. ORF was already exposed to political influence, as its Board of Trustees was appointed by politicians. From the point of view of journalists, how public broadcasting laws would be set up in the future was crucial. They stressed the need for an independent system of financing, which would enable innovation by the public broadcaster and a strong role for it in promoting media literacy. Another concern raised by journalists was the bribing of media outlets and journalists. It was reported that Austria had a serious transparency problem. Moreover, journalists were very much affected by the lack of right to information in Austria. The relevant public authority representative’s response was that several drafts had been put to Parliament over the past years, but had not yet been adopted.

The media representatives stated that journalists were often cut off from information and suffered direct attacks either in interviews or via organised online harassment campaigns. They deplored the fact that there had been occasions when sensitive information was not shared with “critical” media, a point which the representative of the relevant public authority denied.

Journalists reported that hate crime and hate speech needed to be better documented in Austria; levels of documentation were extremely low (392 reported cases in 2018 in Austria compared to 60 000 in the UK).