English Translation:
While non-commercial media – particularly community radio and TV stations – have been producing reliable, up-to-date, diverse, multilingual special programming during the COVID crisis (much of it on a voluntary basis)
– for example, ORANGE 94.0, FREIRAD 105.9 – Freies Radio Innsbruck, Radio Helsinki, and many others!
While the Association of Free Radios and the Association of Free Community TVs have been campaigning for years for structural improvements in the non-commercial sector
– ad-free, open access, with high educational and democratic value – in order to finally secure long-overdue support in areas such as staffing, technology/infrastructure, and facilities;
While participation in programming by citizens and civil society experts gives voice to thousands of people every year, providing training, media production knowledge, and access to nonprofit media infrastructure (see the Public Value Report on 20 Years of Free Radio);
While community broadcasters are constantly being told by politicians to endure, wait it out, and be patient
– a year ago, the Commercial Broadcasting Fund was increased from 15 to 20 million euros, while the non-commercial sector remains precariously underfunded at just 3 million euros total for all stations (see report in Der Standard)!
NOW THE COMMERCIAL MEDIA ARE BEING FURTHER FATTERED UP BY PUBLIC FUNDS
– on top of already completely disproportionate subsidies!
The justification is astonishing! The speed is disconcerting! The one-sidedness produces the wrong outcomes in an already broken system!
We demand a public media policy debate that includes our expertise, our interests, and our contributions to building an informed society of the future – especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic! It is unacceptable that the government favors the loudest, most commercial, lowest-quality, and weakest-content outlets merely because they allegedly have greater reach than high-quality, labor-intensive, content-rich, and critical media.
I sincerely hope that the famous poem does not come true in these politically sensitive times:
"If you have much, you will soon receive much more.
If you have little, even that will be taken away.
But if you have nothing at all, oh then let yourself be buried –
For only those who have something, you scoundrel,
Have the right to live."
(Weltlauf, Heinrich Heine)
Best regards,
Ulli Weish
(Managing Director, ORANGE 94.0)
Let me know if you'd like a more formalized or summarized version for a publication or report.