FPÖ - Hafenecker: "Weissmann's appearance on Ö1 was pure 'pimping' of the new ORF law!"

2023-04-29 14:25:04

710 million euros from the new “ORF compulsory tax” alone make ORF better than other media

Vienna (OTS) – “This appearance by General Director Weißmann was nothing more than a ‘palliation’ of the ORF amendment to the law,” said FPÖ media spokesman and Secretary General NAbg today. Christian Hafenecker, MA on the statements made by the ORF Director General in Ö1-“Im Journal zu Gast”.

The fact is that the ORF with the black-green draft for a new ORF law remains privileged over other media companies, which is detrimental to the media diversity that is so necessary in a democracy: “It starts with the 710 million euros that are paid annually should flow from the wallets of the citizens into the budget at Küniglberg through the ‘ORF compulsory tax’, which is downplayed as a household levy. That is around 30 million euros more than the last 676 million euros from the ‘compulsory fees’ that all citizens have to pay, regardless of whether they consume ORF at all or not!”

Hafenecker also found it remarkable that Weißmann’s “gag order”, with which the general director, who had been appointed by the ÖVP, wanted to prevent reporting on the new ORF law, did not appear in the course of the interview not a syllable. “When a public broadcaster intervenes in reporting in such a manipulative manner, it is a tangible scandal about which he must not remain silent. The fact that Weißmann did not take the opportunity to comment on this today in Ö1 once again reveals his problematic understanding of press freedom. It would therefore have been all the more important if our free application for the regulatory authority KommAustria to deal with this matter had been decided on Thursday!” said Hafenecker.