Future of journalism: Austria's focus of politics!

Future of journalism: Austria's focus of politics!

Wien, Österreich - Vienna, February 28, 2025 - In the middle of a turbulent media landscape, the government parties ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS have presented a new government program that focuses on the quality and promotion of journalism. According to the association of Catholic publicists in Austria, this is an essential step for a fact -based journalism and a modern media environment in Austria. The association emphasizes that this approach recognizes and urgently needs the role of journalism in a democracy to fight illiberal developments. The willingness of the government to create suitable framework conditions for quality media was highlighted by the publicists as positive, whereby the clarity and implementation of these announcements is decisive, so kathpress.at .

media policy under pressure

In the current media policy discussions, the focus is on ORF in particular. This supplies 80 percent of the population every day with information. Journalist Andreas Koller expresses concerns that political interventions, such as changes to the ORF law, could endanger the independence of the media. FPÖ General Secretary Christian Hafenecker has already required savings of 15 percent from the ORF budgets, which could result in serious consequences for the media landscape and possible job losses. According to ORF.AT, experts fear that such a reduction would result in the loss of program variety, which would endanger the cornerstones of the Austrian media landscape.

There are also efforts to develop reformed media funding to ensure that new, digital media also receive access to financial support. During the transition period of the coalition negotiations, the question of the future of media funding and the role of ORF is of central importance. The President of the Press Club Concordia, Koller, warns against the consequences of political interventions and calls for a strong commitment to freedom of the press, especially in view of international developments that could destabilize the media landscape, as orf.at reports.