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$Unique_ID{COW00250}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
The Media in Austria}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Federal Press Service}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Austria, Washington DC}
$Subject{press
austria
radio
freedom
television
austrian
council
information
programme
programmes}
$Date{1988}
$Log{Table 23.*0025001.tab
Table 24.*0025002.tab
}
Country: Austria
Book: Austria Facts and Figures
Author: Federal Press Service
Affiliation: Embassy of Austria, Washington DC
Date: 1988
The Media in Austria
The Press
Since Austria is a parlamentary democracy, freedom of the press and of
opinion is guaranteed and there is no form of state censorship.
The following table lists the daily newspapers published in Austria with
the numbers printed (not the numbers sold or circulated). This figure was
arrived at by computing the circulations of the weekday, weekend, Sunday and
holiday issues.
[See Table 23.: Publications and Circulations]
[See Table 24.: Periodicals]
The Austrian Press Agency
The Austrian Press Agency (APA) was established as a limited company in
1946 and supplies Austria's newspapers (with the exception of the Neue Kronen
Zeitung) and the Austrian radio and television network with information. APA
obtains international news from Reuter's, Associated Press, Agence France
Presse, TASS and the two services of the Deutsche Presse Agentur. As the
capital of a neutral country, Vienna serves as a transit centre for news to
and from southern and eastern Europe. APA has its own multiplex circuit from
Frankfurt to Vienna via the Deutsche Presse Agentur and the other western
agencies which provides a flow of information to the east. The capitals of
Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia are connected directly with APA by
multiplex circuits.
APA, whose building in Vienna also houses the International Press Centre,
also carries official announcements, which are specifically identified as
such.
Radio and Television
Austria's first broadcasting company was established in 1924 and known as
RAVAG, a contraction of Radio-Verkehrs-AG. RAVAG was discontinued after the
occupation of Austria by national socialist Germany in 1938, when broadcasting
was taken over by the German national company. After the war, RAVAG was
succeeded by the Osterreichische Rundfunk-Ges.m.b.H., a company whose shares
were held by the Republic of Austria and the federal provinces.
Television test programmes were begun in 1955 and the radio service was
supplemented by regular television broadcasts in 1957. Following a special
referendum, the Osterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) was reformed in 1967 and
since then has been politically and economically independent. In 1974 there
was a further reform, establishing the ORF as an economically autonomous
entity; the reform also involved constitutional legislation guaranteeing
objective and impartial reporting, representation of a wide variety of
opinion, balanced programming and complete independence for people in leading
positions in broadcasting.
The ORF is headed by a director general. Programme planning is the
responsibility of three directors, one for radio and one for each of the
fields information and programming. There are also individual directors for
the nine provincial studios, for technical questions and for administrative
affairs.
The role of the shareholders is taken over by a board of thirty-five
trustees. Other ORF bodies are a council of thirty-five listeners' and
viewers' representatives and a three-man commission which reviews the state of
the ORF's financial affairs annually.
There are five programmes altogether, two on television and three on
radio. The two television programmes FS 1 and FS 2 are coordinated in their
programming in such a way that the viewer can choose between entertainment,
news and information and cultural broadcasts.
The timing of the television programmes is therefore carefully
co-ordinated.
In addition, each of the nine provinces has had its own regional
programmes since May 1988.
Since the reforms of 1967 there have been three radio programmes. O 1
offers a high quality cultural programme with the main emphasis on music,
science, literature und information. O Regional serves as a national
framework within which individual provincial studios broadcast at certain
times for their particular region. The overall programme of entertainment and
information is of a predominantly local character. O 3 provides a progressive
entertainment programme for young people, interspersed with frequent news
coverage. It also provides foreign visitors and residents with service and
music programmes in English and French on O 3 International (Blue Danube
Radio).
In addition to the three radio and two television programmes for home
audiences, the ORF also has a short-wave service, Radio Austria International,
which, under its own director, broadcasts a programme which is commissioned by
the Austrian government and funded by the Republic of Austria. The programme
is designed to provide listeners throughout the world with an up-to-date
account of Austrian affairs and is broadcast round the clock in German,
English, French and Spanish.
Since 1984 cable television subcribers in Austria have been able to
receive a satellite programme (3-sat) run jointly by the ORF, the West German
ZDF and the Swiss SRG. This programme is designed to serve the German speaking
countries and act as a counterweight to the commercial satellite programmes in
English and French.
In May 1988 there were 2,682,741 radio sets registered in Austria and
2,477,613 television sets, which means that practically 100% of the population
has access to both radio and TV.
In 1973, a special ORF editors' statute was agreed on, designed to
guarantee independent reporting and journalistic freedom. The new Broadcasting
Act of 1974 stipulates specifically that the ORF must respect the independence
and freedom of all staff engaged on programme presentation and also the
freedom of all its journalists in carrying out any duties which may devolve on
them. The act also stipulates an editors' statute for the journalistic staff,
guaranteeing them protection of their rights, the freedom to exercise their
profession and co-determination in any decisions on personnel policy or other
issues which may involve them personally.
The Austria Wochenschau
The cinema newsreel "Hallo Kino" is produced by Austria Wochenschau Ges.
m.b.H. (majority share-holder: Republic of Austria) and is issued every
fortnight in 108 colour copies. The newsreel has a duration of about five
minutes and deals with subjects of medium-term topicality. It is shown before
the main film in some 200 cinemas in Austria.
Press Promotion
The main argument of those advocating press promotion has been that in a
democratic society, a free press fulfils a public duty and that the state must
be interested in ensuring the survival of as many newspapers as possible in
order to maintain a correspondingly wide range of public opinion. It went
without saying that in the event of state promotion being provided, any
government influence on the running of individual newspapers was to be
avoided. This form of promotion has been in effect since 1975. The annual
promotion amounted to some AS 65,000,000 in 1988.
Austria also has a Periodicals Promotion Act which dates back to 1972.
The budget for 1988 contained some AS 3,200,000 earmarked for their promotion.
This form of promotion is granted only if the publication concerned meets
certain requirements.
Media Law
Austria's Media Act came into effect in 1982. The preamble to this law
contains the following statement of adherence to the principle of freedom of
the press as laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights: "This
federal law is designed to safeguard the complete freedom of the media with a
view to upholding the right to freedom of opinion and free access to
information. W