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In a “clarification about the report”, Niki Fellner apologized to the viewers, whose feelings were hurt. The victims were not mentioned.
The reporting of two local media outlets about the terrorist attack in Vienna was followed by a wave of outrage. Wolfgang Fellner’s television station Oe24 in particular attracted attention with the distribution (often without comment) of videos and images of crime and crime scenes. Many viewers were surprised. 1450 complaints against Oe24, but also against krone.at, were received by the press council, outraged advertisers announced on Tuesday that their ads would be stopped. A video showing a victim of terrorism being shot several times from close range was particularly criticized.
Tuesday night, Oe24 editor-in-chief Niki Fellner responded. In this “informative clarification” he wrote about the video itself that “hurt the feelings of many viewers. They want to “apologize in all ways”, but also make something clear. Namely, that the video “does not come from oe24-TV but from Israeli television.” The scene was filmed by a surveillance camera and on Monday “already since 11 pm” it was not played anymore and the video was not available on the online site oe24.at.
No apologies to the victims
No further videos and images were discussed, and there were no apologies from the victims of the attack that were shown. There was also no answer to the question of why the images had been brought in (despite clear requests from the police and the Interior Ministry) and if this would be done again in the future.
Since the “Kronen Zeitung”, which had also shown the video online, nothing has been heard until now.
Demands for reorganization of media funding
After reporting on Monday, media spokesmen for the SPÖ, Greens and Neos speak out in favor of reforming media funding based on quality criteria. The city of Vienna is also considering stopping advertising. Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) said the comments made by the press council would be checked.
KommAustria, which is responsible for audiovisual media services, including video offerings on the Internet, has already started a legal review. “I can confirm that we are officially examining individual reports on the attack,” a spokesman said.
Green Media spokesperson Eva Blimlinger sees the need for action on several points. In the area of media subsidies, there are several legal matters in which “unfortunately to date no quality criteria have been formulated.” The Greens would do their best to negotiate this. The Greens also would have liked to define quality criteria for federal government ads, but that “was not easy to achieve.”
“Misconduct must have financial consequences”
SPÖ media spokesman Thomas Drozda also considers the current form of press funding to be “ridiculous and completely wrong”. “The misconduct must have financial consequences,” he demanded. He is in favor of a fundamental reorganization of the system in which journalistic work and quality must be the focus. Neos media spokeswoman Henrike Brandstötter was also “very concerned about this irresponsible behavior”. “Here journalistic and ethical standards are ignored just to generate clicks,” he criticized.
Media spokespeople for all parliamentary parties were asked to comment, but the FPÖ and ÖVP have yet to receive comment.
(rovi)
