Federal government is looking for six new ORF foundation councils by May 5th!

Federal government is looking for six new ORF foundation councils by May 5th!

Österreich - The Austrian federal government is looking for six new members for the ORF Foundation Council by May 5, 2025. Interested applicants can contact the Media Ministry by email by email. According to OE24 , the novella of the ORF law includes some significant changes in the selection process and the requirements for the candidates. Applicants must now prove that they have specialist knowledge in media management, business administration, communication, media law or controlling

A central concern of the new regulation is to take into account a balanced gender relationship under the newly elected foundation councils. In addition, it is necessary that applicants cannot show incompatibility, for example through existing submissions at ORF.

Reform of the ORF foundation council

The reform of the ORF committee procedure has recently passed the Council of Ministers and is expected to be decided in the National Council. Since the number of members of the Foundation Council sent by the Federal Government is reduced from nine to six, a higher independence of the committees is to be achieved, as reported.

At the same time, the ORF public council is enlarged to nine members, half of which are determined by the federal government and the other half by a triple proposal system of representative organizations. This new regulation follows an important judgment of the Constitutional Court, which certified the government an excessive weight when ordering the ORF bodies.

financing and outlook

Another point of the amendment to the law concerns the freezing of the ORF contribution to EUR 15.30 per budget and month until 2029. Minister of media Minister Andreas Babler (SPÖ) emphasizes that the ORF should become more independent and that the audience will gain more influence. Overall, a comprehensive reform of the ORF is being planned to make its structures of slimmer, digital and transparent, as can be seen from orf.at

The planned committee reform is evaluated differently by various political parties. While State Secretary Michaela Schmidt (SPÖ) describes the reform as the first step towards more independence of the ORF, the FPÖ criticizes it as a "free ticket" for a continuation of the status quo. Sigrid Maurer, media spokeswoman for the Greens, even describes the measures as "minimal compromise without real reforms".

In order to ensure future efficiency and sustainability, projects such as the lowering of the government's advertising volume are planned by ten percent and new grants for newspaper delivery and quality journalism. ORF boss Roland Weißmann has already identified a savings requirement of around 220 million euros to master the challenges of the coming years.