Experts Alarmed by FPÖ's Media Policy

Media representatives were denied access to a press conference, the "Standard" of Vienna's FPÖ chairman Dominik Nepp was wished to be discontinued. The FPÖ is increasingly relying on its own channels. Experts contacted by the APA are alarmed.

"Mockery of Journalism"

That representatives of critical media are excluded from FPÖ press conferences and party events has happened several times before. Most recently, the magazine "profil" and the news agency AFP were affected, citing lack of space. Once admitted, no questions are allowed, especially on sensitive topics - not only with the FPÖ, but also with many other parties. "This is message control by advanced authoritarians," says media researcher and political scientist Andy Kaltenbrunner. A reference to lack of space at press conferences is also "a mockery of journalism and thus of the public," says the managing director of Medienhaus Wien.

Daniela Kraus, Secretary General of the Press Club Concordia, also views the FPÖ's approach critically. "Excluding journalistic media or banning questions undermines the democratic control function of the press. The fact that the FPÖ is incapable of organising a room large enough for all representatives of the journalistic media, I find rather unlikely." Fritz Hausjell, President of Reporters Without Borders Austria, fears that the problem will intensify. He recommends a "clearer thematisation of this political misconduct" and the establishment of regular federal press conferences, which are largely organised by the journalistic side.

Modernisation of FPÖ Media

Meanwhile, FPÖ politicians increasingly avoid interviews with critical journalists, preferring to rely on their own - high-reach - media channels around the Youtube channel FPÖ TV or the far-right media close to the FPÖ, which stand out with fake news and conspiracy narratives. Just on Wednesday, FPÖ Secretary General and media spokesman Christian Hafenecker spoke of the party's own media being expanded and modernised. A radio station is being worked on to "compensate for deficits in the media landscape". Specifically, Hafenecker complained that "a large part of the media is attacking the FPÖ". Even though the FPÖ is generally open to the media, this cannot be the case, he criticised.

"Fact-poor political propaganda on party-owned and affiliated media channels will increase and compete even more strongly with fact-oriented political information and classification offers through analysis and comments in journalistic media," fears Hausjell. Kraus sees an attempt to avoid critical questions and attract an audience to their own channels. "Of course, you can't do without appearing in serious journalistic media, especially if you want to be taken seriously and present yourself as capable of governing," says Kraus. "Not yet," warns Kaltenbrunner. Studies by Medienhaus Wien and Gallup Institute show that about a third of the population even in politically turbulent times completely negates traditional media and seeks out other "opinion-strong, but information-weak" forums. Hausjell recommends a legal limit for government and party spending for self-presentation purposes - which is hardly to be expected under Blue-Turquoise, as he admits. This leaves journalistic media to "subject staging strategies to journalistic fact-checking more strongly and continuously".

Warning from Concordia Secretary General

Especially the ORF is often a target of the FPÖ. The public broadcaster should be reduced to a "basic service", the ORF contribution in the form of a household fee should be abolished, demand the Freedom Party, as there is an imbalance with other media on the market. Radical cuts at the ORF would have far-reaching consequences, warns the Secretary General of the Press Club Concordia: "Firstly for journalism itself, which is indispensable as an information infrastructure and fact base for our public discourse. Secondly for reporting from the regions and the cultural offer. And thirdly for the entire media industry - from the film industry to the advertising industry." It is a "misbelief" that many private, possibly international providers would step in subsidiarily if the public service broadcaster in a small country like Austria scaled back its programme, says Kaltenbrunner. International experiences would show that in such a case there would be a "drain of general media value creation to Berlusconi's MediaForEurope, to Amazon, Netflix, Meta, Google's Youtube and others", but they would only reinvest fractions in Austria.

The FPÖ, on the other hand, could open the money tap for "alternative media", which currently - from the FPÖ's point of view unfairly - do not benefit from funding. The funding structure around press and quality journalism promotion is tailored to "left-wing rags", Hafenecker complained on Wednesday. Beneficiaries of a media policy of the Freedom Party could include Auf1. The online broadcaster founded by Stefan Magnet, who once operated in the now dissolved far-right "Bund freier Jugend", is classified as right-wing extremist in the constitutional protection report and is known for spreading conspiracy theories. Kickl gave Auf1 his first interview after the National Council election.

Support for such media by the public hand would be "highly unpleasant", but with the appropriate rules "quickly implementable", says Kaltenbrunner. "If at the same time the ceiling of serious journalism melts and underneath the ideologically motivated media activism with appeal to our lowest instincts expands, then this will become the biggest democratic climate disaster in the country," warns the media expert and political scientist. If Auf1 and Co. are included in funding measures, they would not only be made "acceptable and upgraded" by the FPÖ, but also by the ÖVP as a possible coalition partner, Hausjell points out. The awarding of government advertisements to such media under Kickl as Interior Minister shows that "a strengthening of this propaganda segment can definitely be expected," says the Reporters Without Borders President. How strongly the media policy journey will go in this direction, however, also depends on which party will lead the media policy agendas in the future government.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.