Despite criticism

Westenthaler appointed to the blue ORF Foundation Council

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Despite opposition from the ORF editorial board and the SPÖ, Peter Westenthaler has been appointed as the new foundation board member of the Freedom Party at ORF. 

A corresponding nomination was passed by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. The former FPÖ party chairman replaces lawyer Niki Haas on the ORF's highest body. The committee is not new territory for Westenthaler, who currently appears on oe24.tv as a political analyst and panelist. He already sat on the former "ORF Board of Trustees" from 1999. 

The ORF Editorial Board had previously opposed Westenthaler's nomination and asked the government to check whether it was compatible with the ORF law. According to "Presse", he has submitted a signed declaration of no objection. A meeting of the Board of Trustees is planned for next week, which Westenthaler is expected to attend.

At loggerheads with the editorial board
In the run-up to his appointment, the 56-year-old was fiercely critical of public broadcasting. He spoke of a "propaganda machine" that only kept its distance from the FPÖ, and of discussion programs and the selection of experts as "propaganda tools".

The ORF Editorial Board firmly rejected these "unfounded insinuations" and reminded the former politician that, as an independent foundation board, it had to act in the interests of the ORF and not the FPÖ.