ORF board member Heinz Lederer sees “a lot of shadow and little light” with regard to the ORF amendment to the law, which is currently being evaluated. “No one is satisfied,” said the head of the SPÖ “Friends” in the top ORF committee to the APA. ORF.at will be transformed into a “Pixi book with attached recipes”, he complained and also criticized that top earners should be “pilloried” by name due to stricter transparency regulations in the future.
According to the draft law, the news site with the widest reach by far in the country, ORF.at, should in future consist of 70 percent moving images and 30 percent text messages, with the latter being limited to 350 pieces per week.
ORF “wrong opponent” for publishers
Lederer is critical of the project, which is intended to accommodate publishers who criticize ORF.at as too similar to a newspaper. “Damage to the ‘blue page’ doesn’t help the publishers,” says Lederer. The ORF is the “wrong opponent”. He takes the publishers’ concern that the Austrian media landscape is existentially threatened in view of the ORF digital amendment seriously, but the opponents are abroad. So it doesn’t help them that further advertising restrictions are imposed on the ORF. The sums invested in advertising do not automatically flow to the Austrian competition, said Lederer.
Lederer: Proceed with “socially accurate” ORF contribution
The introduction of the ORF contribution in the form of a household fee is “good, but too imprecise”. The board of trustees sent by the SPÖ said it should be done in a socially more accurate manner. “A hardship fund would have to be set up for cases of social hardship in order to take the population along.” Otherwise the household levy could become an “explosive”. Money from the ORF contribution ends up in a blocked account if the net costs of the public service contract are exceeded by the income. This money should be used for social hardship, demanded Lederer, who is concerned that future governments – such as a blue-black government – could access this account and use the funds stashed there for other purposes.
Naming of top earners in ORF “incomprehensible”
Lederer finds it “incomprehensible” and questionable in terms of data protection that ORF journalists with a gross income of 170,000 euros a year are named by name in a transparency report that is also intended to disclose sideline activities. This regulation aims to put journalists “in the pillory”. This “leaning towards a blue-black coalition” is not necessary, as the foundation board and an ethics commission currently being set up are also dealing with the topic. “I will not rest until sideline activities and social media activities are brought into line to show the population that ORF journalists put their main focus on ORF and the audience,” promised Lederer.
The ORF editorial committee warned last week that the management had promised further cost reductions despite the extensive savings already made in the past few years. The editorial offices have already been thinned out in terms of staff. Many of the upcoming retirements should not be filled. Lederer wants at least a third of the positions to be filled, whereby more attention should be paid to the socio-economic background of the descendants in order to remain relevant to the public.
ORF committees remain unchanged
The amendment to the law brings no change in the area of the ORF committees, which are regularly criticized for being too politically dominated. Lederer believes that the quality of the board of trustees is actually good. “Just because a company has trusted people doesn’t mean that they are unsuitable.” “Then you would see that independents can also tip the scales,” said the SPÖ-Freundeskreis leader.
Lederer has praise ready for the ORF management. This did a good job. General Director Roland Weißmann “didn’t let up” in the negotiations on the ORF amendment to the law. You have to give him credit for that.
