“Unfortunately, as a country, we deserved the loss of 14 seats,” said RSF Austria President Fritz Hausjell at the presentation of the report. He gave primary responsibility for this to the federal government and, within that, to the Turkish ÖVP, which is responsible for media matters. “Obviously, we couldn’t stop the government from taking so many measures to control the media, including serious allegations of corruption here,” he said, referring to the ÖVP ads case.
In 2018, Austria was still 11th in the annually updated list. In the year of Ibiza 2019, it had to leave the top group and since then it has been between the 16th and 18th places. “No more excuses – you can’t talk about this accident anymore”, commented RSF Austria about the result. In addition to the attacks on journalists in Coronademos, reasons given for the massive deterioration included “harassment by the police, paid tabloid searches and a policy characterized by corruption and bribery”.
At the press conference, Hausjell recalled that RSF Austria had already proposed a fact-finding mission to Scandinavia two years ago to see what was best happening there in terms of press freedom. “Nothing has happened. Even what Media Minister Raab is planning now ‘is not enough’, he criticized, for example, that the media conferences she organized were closed to the public. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for a ” relatively large billing committee reform” of ORF committees. If the parliamentary majority can determine two-thirds of the ORF’s founding board, “then we need to act. The media minister ignores this.”
Hausjell also called on journalists to fight political pressure even more vigorously. “I want to give the industry an injection of courage, it’s in your hands,” he emphasized. In view of the current economic situation, the media could “very well afford to get by with fewer government announcements.” The Viennese communication scientist recalled that after the Ibiza case, the media jointly wrote an article on the subject of press freedom, but “nothing happened after that”.
“This should be a warning to us,” Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen commented on the accident. “Not only does this trend need to be stopped, it needs to be reversed,” he said. Media Minister Raab expressed reservations. “With regards to the current rankings by the Reporters Without Borders association, we will closely review the ranking system and derivations as soon as the report is available and incorporate it into our discussions with the industry,” Raab told the APA. . She pledged to protect “the great heritage of press freedom in Austria” and referred to the “media conferences” she organized with a focus on media promotion, media transparency and ad serving.
Eva Blimlinger, a media spokeswoman for the Greens, said when asked by the APA that there was “nothing to sweeten.” On the contrary, it is now necessary to take action. “In addition to the ÖVP parliamentary corruption investigation committee, we are currently working on a reorganization of media funding, transparency and publicity policy. possible,” said Blimlinger.
The opposition harshly criticized the government. The SPÖ opposition called for the creation of a “convention for freedom of the press” that would work out the necessary reforms with the participation of civil society, experts and the opposition. “There is an urgent need for a package of media freedom and transparency against advertising corruption and message control in order to support the media in their independent reporting,” said SPÖ spokesman Jörg Leichtfried. Specifically, he mentioned an increase in press funding and a new ORF law with more independence for ORF committees. NEOS made similar statements. Media spokeswoman Henrike Brandstötter demanded that the ÖVP and the Greens “should immediately introduce an updated freedom of information law”. FPÖ media spokesman Christian Hafenecker sees the blame for the “catastrophic accident in Austria” primarily on the ÖVP. The “black-turquoise media buying strategy and ad corruption” would have caused “the greatest damage to political-media culture”. For example, he advocated a cost cap on government ads and creating a legal basis for more transparency.
SPÖ MEP Bettina Vollath called for better legal protection for journalists in Europe. She referred to a legislative proposal against acts of intimidation recently put forward by the EU Commission as an “important first step”. However, this would have to be followed by other initiatives – such as the “Media Freedom Act” planned for later this year.
Gerald Grünberger, managing director of the Association of Austrian Newspapers (VÖZ), spoke out in favor of an initiative to defend press freedom. “Austria’s clear deterioration can be seen as a warning signal, which we observe with great concern, but at the same time also a little surprised.” It is doubtful that the missing freedom of information law required by the VÖZ and the circumstances mentioned in the index alone explain the significant deterioration. Grünberger doesn’t want to sugarcoat anything, but “we shouldn’t belittle the performance of the Austrian media and their journalists.”
The GPA journalists’ union said that the recent drop in the press freedom rankings made concrete measures even more urgent. Aside from the announcements, the local media scene hasn’t noticed anything from media minister Raab so far, according to presidents Eike-Clemens Kullmann and Stefan Jung. A reorientation of media funding with clearly defined quality standards, transparent regulations for the allocation of government advertisements, a freedom of information law and an amendment to the ORF law are needed to make the ORF independent of political influence.
RSF pointed out that this year’s figures are only partially comparable to the previous year’s due to a change in the billing method. The survey was expanded with five new indicators (political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and security). As RSF-Austria Vice President Erhard Stackl explained, the issue of corruption in ads contributed significantly to this year’s crash. Because of this, Austria even dropped to the third of the five groups of states in the economic category.
As a result of the new methodology, only eight countries worldwide are certified as having a good press freedom situation (2021: twelve). The Scandinavian countries remain the measure of all things. Norway, Denmark and Sweden form the main trio. The former Soviet republic of Estonia rose to fourth place (2021:15). Finland, Ireland, Portugal and Costa Rica follow as the only non-European country in the top group.
While Germany dropped from 13th to 16th place, Austria was overtaken by the Czech Republic (20th) and Slovakia (27th), among others. In Austria’s neighborhood, only Hungary (85th), Slovenia (54th) and Italy (58th), traditionally a child problem of press freedom, are worse off. In an EU comparison, Austria ranks 16th out of 27.
Overall, the 20th edition of the RSF Index presents a worrying picture. For example, freedom of the press is currently in a “very serious situation” in a record 28 countries. Twelve countries made the red list, including Belarus (153rd) and Russia (155th), where press freedom is “virtually abolished” according to RSF Austria vice president Corinna Milborn. North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Turkmenistan, Myanmar and China are in the rear. Despite the deselection of right-wing populist Donald Trump as US president, the situation in the US (42nd) has improved only minimally. The media is still polarized, he said.
Three trends were noticeable in Europe, namely the return of murders of journalists in the EU (Giorgios Karaivaz in Greece and Peter De Vries in the Netherlands), the mass hostilities and physical attacks by opponents of corona measures against journalists in several countries such as Austria, and the tightening of draconian laws against journalists. In addition to Hungary and Slovenia, Poland (66th) and Albania (103rd) were also affected. Serbia (79th), on the other hand, managed to improve thanks to the fight against impunity for attacks on journalists, and the Czech Republic (20th) and Bulgaria (91st) also relaxed their influence in the press after the changes of government. Bulgaria managed to hand over the red lantern among European countries to Greece (108th).
“Democracy doesn’t work without a free press,” said Milborn, Pulse 4’s chief information officer, summarizing the global rankings. This shows that well-functioning democracies are also at the top when it comes to press freedom. In this sense, in addition to the Baltic states, he also highlighted young states such as East Timor, where the free press is contributing to democratization.