The “advertisement scandal”, which led to the resignation of former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, had a lasting impact on Austria's media sector. It was also a symptom of a problematic closeness between media outlets and political actors.
Austria: politicians and media outlets in cahoots
The case brought by the Prosecutor's Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) rests primarily on a number of confiscated chat messages and statements by the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance, Thomas Schmid, who made a comprehensive confession in 2022. All the other suspects, first and foremost former Austrian Chancellor Kurz, deny all the allegations.
What has been established as a fact is that the Ministry of Finance significantly expanded its advertising budget during the period in question. In 2015 it spent around 135,000 euros on advertising, with that figure rising to 1.8 million euros – thirteen times as much – in 2016. By 2018 the ministry had increased its advertising budget to 7.2 million euros, and in 2020 that figure rose to 8.9 million euros.
According to the Prosecutor's Office the procedure was as follows: the newspapers in question published opinion polls that were rigged in favour of Sebastian Kurz and his ÖVP, and in exchange the Ministry of Finance placed adverts with these outlets, in particular two high-circulation tabloids, Österreich and Heute, but also a number of quality newspapers including Die Presse.
As the suspicions became more concrete, Kurz was forced to resign as Austrian Chancellor in October 2021 and withdraw from politics. The investigations against Kurz and others continue (as of September 2023).
Political actors as loyal ad buyers
As the advertisement scandal clearly demonstrated, the tabloids wield a lot of influence in Austrian politics. The Social Democrats (SPÖ), who were in power for decades, were the first to give tabloids a helping hand by placing ads with these newspapers. The free tabloid Heute was actually founded within the SPÖ's circle of influence. Selling advertising space to political parties or ministries has become a key source of income for many Austrian media companies.
Another distinctive feature of the Austrian media landscape is the predominance of large and closely interwoven publishing groups whose main shareholders include the Raiffeisen Bank, the Dichand family (the Kronen Zeitung, Heute) and the Fellner family (Österreich), as well as several private foundations linked to the Catholic Church.
Independent media confined to niches
In view of these financially powerful structures it is often difficult for independent media to gain a foothold in Austria's media landscape. Products such as the monthly magazine Datum or the investigative journalism platform Dossier are confined to niche positions despite the high-quality journalism they offer. The quality newspaper segment is dominated by the dailies Der Standard (left-liberal) and Die Presse (liberal-conservative) as well as the weekly newspaper Falter and the news magazine profil. However, none of these outlets can compare with the tabloids in terms of influence.
The online platforms of the quality media outlets now mostly rely on a combination of free and paid content. Der Standard, which is regarded as a pioneer in Austrian online journalism and has the most visits among the quality media, is the only quality newspaper that does not have a paywall.
Public broadcasters: criticism continues despite reform
In recent years, the voices of those who are openly critical of the public broadcaster ORF have grown louder. Most of the criticism comes from the right side of the political spectrum, and in particular from the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and its affiliated media outlets such as news website eXXpress. They accuse ORF of not fulfilling its mandate to provide non-partisan and balanced coverage and of being biased towards left-liberal opinions and attitudes in its political reporting. A reform by the governing coalition of the ÖVP and Greens which came into force on 1 January 2024 only served to intensify the criticism. It imposed a number of restrictions aimed at keeping any unfair advantage vis-à-vis private media outlets to a minimum: special privileges for ORF employees were abolished, the proportion of text on ORF’s (free) online platform was limited to 30 percent, and it was banned from providing “in-depth” coverage. However, a continuing bone of contention is the switch from a device-dependent public broadcaster fee to a flat-rate contribution to be paid by all households – even though the latter, at EUR 15,30 per month, is around a third lower than the former fee of EUR 22,45. Following a class action against the highly controversial compulsory contribution, the courts will now decide on its legality.
World Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders):
Rank 29 (2023)
Last updated: March 2024
