2023-10-10 20:00:41
Innsbruck, Vienna (OTS) – The Constitutional Court’s ruling on ORF represents a turning point. The government will probably have to work on reform immediately – once morest its own interests. Because the ORF does not belong to the parties, not to politics.
It was the former ÖVP Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel who tried to secure the (always existing) influence of the governments and thus the parties on the ORF with a large-scale label fraud. He promised depoliticization, but his reform wanted and achieved the opposite. Much to the chagrin of the journalists working there. But none of the subsequent governments seriously considered changing this. Why? Governments have always viewed the ORF as a means of securing their power. Some acted cautiously, some shamelessly.
Former ORF general Gerhard Weis once called this the “original tragedy” of public broadcasting when he stated in an interview: “Who owns the ORF? Well, the parties, who else?”
This is also how the Kurz I and II cabinets acted. But the “Sideletters” that later became known (i.e. side agreements to the coalition agreement), with which Turquoise-Blue and Turquoise-Green had negotiated appointments to the Board of Trustees and the ORF, left the gate open, which the Burgenland governor Hans Peter Doskozil passed through. He initiated a review request. And the highest judges found the Social Democrats right on key points. The regulations governing the composition of the ORF Foundation and Audience Council are largely unconstitutional. Translated, this means: The excessive influence of the federal government contradicts the “requirement of independence and pluralism”.
On the one hand, the Constitutional Court meant well for the legislature, giving it until the end of March 2025 to carry out repairs. But at the same time, the ORF is under enormous economic and political pressure. The government must therefore quickly and conscientiously create a reform, also in order to be able to subsequently legitimize the budget tax, which is controversial among large parts of the population.
But this can only be achieved if one thing is made clear from the start: the ORF does not belong to any party or government, but to the citizens who also finance it.
Admittedly, a challenge, because the government would have to act once morest its own interests. But to secure an ailing democracy, this is the order of the day. And yes, this defeat offers another chance to finally pass broad media reform. The rulers have so far not been willing to do this because of their fear of the boulevard.
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