In the annual ranking of Reporters Without Borders, Austria occupies 29th place, not a particularly good figure for an EU country.
Every year, on the occasion of Press Freedom Day, Reporters Without Borders (ROG) publishes a report on the state of journalistic freedom in 180 countries around the world.
In a complex evaluation process, individual countries are evaluated against the political and legal framework, among other things, and a ranking is created that gives an idea of the working conditions and freedom of journalists.
Noticeable increase in fake news
According to the Index, press freedom is currently “poor” in seventy percent of countries surveyed. In 31 countries the situation is classified as “very serious”, in 42 as “difficult”, in another 55 as “problematic” and in 52 countries as “satisfactory” or “good”. This can be explained by the rise of misinformation and fake news and increasingly personal attacks on media professionals.
Austria occupies this year the 29th place in the ranking. The relatively poor rating can be explained by a large number of restrictions and deteriorations in press freedom. A central point of criticism is that media providers in Austria are not completely independent of each other. What is meant here is not reporting per se, but the ability to control and criticize each other.
Lack of media diversity in Austria
Austrian media groups generally own a large number of daily and weekly newspapers, various magazines, radio stations, agencies and book publishers. The press, Kleine Zeitung, MeinBezirk, Antenne Steiermark, Willhaben and many other media come together under the aegis of Styria, one of the largest media companies in Austria. The situation is similar with the publisher Mediaprint, Red Bull Media, ProSieben-Sat1-Puls4 or ORF.
Another point that negatively influences the Austrian ranking is the lack of freedom of information law in this country. This would give the population the right to access official information and thus make it transparent to the general public. Austria is currently the only EU country where such a law is not in force.
The end of the Wiener Zeitung is reflected in the ranking
Plans to discontinue the Wiener Zeitung also had an impact on the ranking. At the time of analysis for 2023, the end was not yet fixed, but the government’s plans for the end of the oldest daily newspaper in the world gave corresponding signs.
On the other hand, Austria could improve in the area of security. One of the reasons for this is the decline of the many anti-Covid protests, which have seen media workers repeatedly attacked in the past. Currently, journalists in Austria are experiencing few attacks from the state. Arbitrary arrests, as in other (EU) countries, are extremely rare here. However, some media professionals report instances at demonstrations where the police prevented them from reporting or even attacked them with pepper spray. However, all this will only be included in next year’s ranking.