While the ORF leadership is currently trying extremely hard to force the new ORF tax – aka “household tax” – with the black-green federal government on the Austrians, various starlets and stars of the fee-based broadcaster do not really increase the Austrians’ understanding of certain financing gaps: in short after it was revealed that ORF employees had very high corona aid payments transferred to them for the short-term loss of their part-time jobs during the pandemic, an answer to a parliamentary question from the FPÖ revealed another oddity in the ORF, which was approved from the very top.
oe24 is currently reporting that several well-known moderators received money from parliament, i.e. from politics. Also on Parliament’s fee list: ZiB1 moderator Nadja Bernhard, who is currently also causing discussions on the web with her styling.
The Austrian taxpayers, via the parliamentary administration, ensure that several ORF employees receive nice additional fees: for example, the culture editor Clarissa Stadler collects, or the weather expert Isabella Krassnitzer, as well as the report employee Julia Ortner. Also named: Judith Weissenböck and ex-state studio director Robert Ziegler. And the “Hohes Haus” moderator Rebekka Salzer even received eleven moderation fees. According to oe24, most payments should be four-digit sums – which is not a little for a quick additional income.
The ORF’s statement on this: “Basically, it should be noted that the Parliamentary Directorate, as a potential client for sideline activities, is not a regular subject of reporting in the ORF and insofar an incompatibility can be ruled out. As a rule, the ORF does not report about the institution of parliament, but rather from it. Accordingly, in the examples you have given, the client is not always the parliamentary administration, but the respective organiser, and the parliament only the venue. In addition, care is taken to ensure that the moderators and journalists concerned neither report on the respective events nor influence the corresponding reporting.”
The Austrians will certainly get a good picture of the neutrality of the reporting by the moderators and ORF employees in the future.