FPÖ criticism: Government is planning power intervention in ORF Foundation Council!

FPÖ criticism: Government is planning power intervention in ORF Foundation Council!

Österreich - On June 9, 2025, the FPÖ general secretary Christian Hafenecker criticizes the decision of the public council of June 5, 2025, to send members to the ORF's board of trustees. He accuses the black-red-pink coalition of constitutional and law fracture and provides for party-political influence on public service broadcasting in the nominations. The ÖVP proposed the officials Aubauer and Karl for the Board of Trustees, although this violated incompatibility provisions

Hafenecker emphasizes that former membership council members such as Hauer and Heart had to withdraw due to nomination. The board of trustees is occupied according to a party policy key: 4 members of the ÖVP, 4 of the SPÖ and 1 of the NEOS. Due to the ORF financing structure, which is based on budget levies, Hafeneck sees an additional risk to the independence of the broadcast

political influence and independence

The Constitutional Court has classified provisions of the ORF law as unconstitutional in its current decisions. These concern the order and composition of the foundation and public council, which violates the requirement of independence and pluralistic composition in accordance with Article I paragraph 2 of the Federal Constitutional Act on the independence of the radio. In particular, the nomination of nine members of the Federal Government's Board of the Foundation is rated as one -sided and as a violation of independence

The composition of the public council, in which the Federal Chancellor appoints 17 members, is also problematic. The VfGH emphasizes that these regulations endanger the guarantee of a pluralistic radio. Hafenecker criticizes that the SPÖ vice-chancellor as a media minister has not interfered with correction

A look at the independence of the radio

The importance of broadcasting independence should not be underestimated, as is also clear in the analysis of bpb.de. Here it is emphasized that the independence of the radio for opinion formation and the democratic public is essential. In addition, the broadcasting must be protected against inadmissible influence by political parties or economic interests. The problem of political influence on the media is historical and shows how important it is to create structures that ensure independence

Although a reform of the committees seems necessary, it remains to be seen how the political actors will react to it and whether real changes will take place in the composition and functionality of the ORF. The current discussion illustrates the challenges that the public service broadcast is facing the principles of independence and plurality