First ORF announcement!

SPÖ and NEOS Want to Limit Executive Salaries

The public broadcaster is facing a major reform(Bild: Zwefo)

Intrigue, interventions, hefty executive salaries, severance packages worth millions, and the battle for the top job—the ORF has been making mostly negative headlines for weeks. The government is now making its first announcements. The SPÖ and NEOS want to cap executive salaries in the future. A reduction in the size of the Foundation Board is also on the table.

“Limiting executive pay is a key goal of the reform and will certainly be on the agenda. Of course, we cannot interfere with existing contracts,” Media Minister Andreas Babler told the “Krone.” NEOS media spokesperson Henrike Brandstötter speaks of “excesses stemming from old contracts” that should no longer exist in the future.

Foundation Board to be Downsized
A reduction in the size of the Foundation Board—which, with 35 members, is significantly larger than supervisory boards in Switzerland or Germany—is also under discussion. “All of this will be part of the ORF reform agreed upon in the government program. It will kick off with a broad-based convention in the fall,” said Babler.

Media Minister Andreas Babler(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

The NEOS want to reduce the board to 12 members (which already includes the three works council members) and establish clear rules. “A Foundation Board that acts as a PR firm—whose job is to present clients in a favorable light—and which simultaneously has clients competing with the ORF is simply unacceptable,” says media spokesperson Henrike Brandstötter. 

The public broadcaster is facing a major reform(Bild: Zwefo)

Board members “intervened” on behalf of their clients
The entanglements between the economic interests of some foundation board members and their roles on the board repeatedly cause trouble, even within the ORF editorial department. As the “Krone” reported, Foundation Board Chairman Heinz Lederer and his deputy Gregor Schütze forwarded a complaint from the Vienna Medical Association regarding the reporting to the now-resigned ORF Director General Roland Weißmann. The controversial aspect: Both work for the Medical Association as consultants.

Schütze and Lederer are in the spotlight(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Both deny that this constitutes an intervention. However, the FPÖ wants to get to the bottom of this. Their Board of Trustees member Peter Westenthaler has had the issue placed on the agenda for the next meeting on April 23. He is demanding disclosure of all correspondence.  

Politicians are also addressing the numerous intrigues at Küniglberg. “The ORF has a massive internal issue with a work environment that is clearly toxic in many areas. That, too, will be the task of the future Director General. The ORF must finally become professional at this level as well. A new culture is needed at the ORF,” says Brandstötter.

At its last meeting, the Board of Trustees decided to investigate the affair surrounding the resigned General Director Weißmann with the help of external consultants. A parliamentary investigative committee, as some in the FPÖ are suggesting, is not legally possible because the ORF is not part of the direct federal administration, as ÖVP media spokesperson Nico Marchetti confirmed in an interview with the “Krone.”

When asked about the reform of the ORF, he is very cautious. He says there are no taboos, but he cannot preempt the negotiations. “In the course of the reform, we will address all points that are viewed critically by the public, by politicians, and by others.”