Progress: No progress
Fully guarantee the independence and pluralism of the media
Proponent:
France
French Republic
Remarks to progress by Liga (last modified Dec 31, 2024):
In February 2024, the National Council passed a new fundamental right of access to information vis-à-vis federal and provincial administrative bodies, enshrined in Article 22a of the Federal Constitutional Law and in the new Freedom of Information Act. For the first time, the right of access to government documents has been created – previously, administrative bodies were only obliged to provide a (brief, summarised) response to citizens‘ enquiries. Another important innovation is the right for everyone to receive information from foundations, funds, institutions and companies that are subject to the control of the Court of Audit or a provincial court of audit (public sector participation of at least 50%). Until now, Austria was the last democracy in Europe without the right of access to state documents. The new regulations on freedom of information will come into force on 1 September 2025, so it is not yet possible to assess their practical implementation.
Another problem is that there is no limit on the financial contributions of public bodies for advertisements. As long as there are no binding regulations on the exclusive award of advertising contracts based on objective and comprehensible criteria, the system of mutual influence will continue.
The revised Media Transparency Act, which came into force in 2024, has closed important transparency gaps in the financial flows from the public sector to media companies through advertising placements and media subsidies. According to the data published by KommAustria, EUR 196.5 million in advertising expenditure by the public sector was reported for the first half of 2024 alone – more than the EUR 193 million reported for the whole of 2023 – but at that time under an old regulation that had massive loopholes, which meant that many financial flows remained secret (see: here).
However, due to the increasing economic constraints of the media industry and the massive role of public advertising expenditure, there remains a high risk of undue political influence, abuse and corruption in the relationship between the media and politics or the public sector, even with improved public traceability of financial flows. This represents an inadequate response by the prevailing media policy to the serious allegations made by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption, as President Hausjell summarises (Media Cooperation and Promotion Transparency Act: MedKF-TG, as amended by Federal Law Gazette I No. 50/2023: https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20007610&FassungVom=2024-01-01).
