Broadcasting referendum

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The radio referendum was the first referendum in Austria and was held in 1964 . The aim of the referendum was to keep the Austrian Broadcasting Company out of daily politics and the prevailing political conditions by means of a law, and thus to make it an independent medium.

Until then, the radio had been seen by the parties of the grand coalition as the mouthpiece of politicians in the service of party politics. After the Allies, the individual services were combined in the Austrian broadcasting system in 1955 , from which the Österreichischer Rundfunk Ges. Mb H. emerged in 1958 . The board of directors had to decide unanimously on important matters and consisted of a general director, a radio program director, a technical director and a television director. According to the proportional representation system , two men each belonged to the ÖVP and two to the SPÖ, with radio being black ( ÖVP ) and television being red ( SPÖ ).

Television, which was underestimated when it was introduced in 1955, has since been recognized as opinion-forming and the parties fought for influence. During the coalition negotiations in 1963 , Federal Chancellor Gorbach and Vice Chancellor Pittermann negotiated a secret agreement: every senior position in radio and television should be filled twice: a red head and a black deputy, or vice versa. The text of the secret agreement was leaked to the head of the daily Kurier , Hugo Portisch .

The courier then initiated the referendum. But other newspapers such as Kleine Zeitung , Wochenpresse , Salzburger Nachrichten or Die Presse also joined the request with calls for signing, while the media group concerned kept silent about the request in its reporting. The next coalition government, Klaus I , was benevolent towards this endeavor, but many within the parties feared a resulting loss of influence. Even the Arbeiter-Zeitung, as an organ of the SPÖ, did not mention the referendum during the signature phase and then tried to downplay the importance of the large number of signatures.

The 200,000 signatures required at that time were exceeded by far with 832,353 signatures between October 5 and October 12, 1964. Parliament had to deal with the request in detail. However, the law did not get beyond a draft stage in the National Council , not least because those politicians who feared for their influence sat in the committee concerned.

In the election campaign for the National Council election in 1966, the ÖVP named an ORF law as a target. After Josef Klaus had achieved an absolute majority with the ÖVP and formed the first sole government, he kept the election promise. On July 8, 1966, the Broadcasting Act was passed with the votes of the ÖVP and FPÖ and came into force on January 1, 1967.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Portisch: The referendum for the reform of broadcasting 1964. In: Haimo Godler (ed.): From steam radio to sound wallpaper: Contributions to 80 years of radio in Austria. Böhlau Verlag Vienna, 2004, ISBN 978-3-205-77239-2 , pp. 65ff. ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  2. ↑ See the leading article by Franz Kreuzer : The Broken Mirror. Arbeiterzeitung, October 14, 1964, p. 2 ( online )
  3. ↑ From the Parliament broadcast on July 8, 1966, recording starts after about a minute

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