Follow-up to: “Rebellion as Civic Duty: What Austria Can Learn from France”

The first article was about the streets — about the difference between a culture that understands protest as a civic duty and one that perceives it as a disturbance. But rebellion does not only take place on the streets. It takes place — perhaps even first — in the media. Or not at all.

The question is not only: who takes to the streets? But: who tells the story? Who decides what the public learns? And who pays for it?

France: Media as Battlefield

The Tradition of the Fighting Press

France’s press freedom goes back to the law of 29 July 1881 — one of the most liberal press laws in Europe, passed under the Third Republic. The first sentence reads, roughly: printing and publishing are free. That was not a gift — it was the result of decades of struggle.

From this tradition come media that exist nowhere else in Europe in this form. Le Canard Enchaîné, the satirical weekly that has appeared since 1915, takes no advertising and finances itself exclusively through sales. It has exposed scandals that brought down presidents. Charlie Hebdo, whose editorial team was decimated in the 2015 terrorist attack, embodies a tradition of satire that spares nothing and no one — a form of rebellion through the printed word.

This combative tradition lives on in the new generation. Mediapart, founded in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, operates entirely reader-funded and with investigative journalism uncovered the Cahuzac scandal and parts of the Sarkozy affairs. Blast, launched in 2021 by crowdfunding, raised 923,000 euros at launch — a record for French media start-ups. Its founder Salomé Saqué became known through videos from the Yellow Vest movement. Today Blast has 1.6 million YouTube subscribers and around 40 employees.

These media explicitly understand themselves as a counterweight — not neutral, but partisan on behalf of the public.

The Oligarch Takeover

At the same time, the French media landscape has been seized by a concentration that has no equal. Seven billionaires control 90 percent of the national daily press by readership and all private television channels. Vincent Bolloré, a conservative Catholic and logistics billionaire, owns Canal+, CNews, Europe 1, Paris Match, and the publisher Hachette. Le Figaro belongs to the arms industrialist Dassault. Libération was bought in 2005 by the banker Édouard de Rothschild — the newspaper that Jean-Paul Sartre had co-founded.

Bolloré has systematically installed ultraconservative positions on his channels. In June 2023, the editorial staff of the Journal du Dimanche went on strike for four weeks against the appointment of a far-right editor-in-chief forced by Bolloré — the first strike in the newspaper’s history. The regulatory authority Arcom withdrew a digital frequency from CNews for “partisan treatment of election news” and violation of pluralism and independence.

The reaction of French journalists: organised resistance. Over 100 media organisations and associations came together in November 2023 at the “États généraux de la presse indépendante” and formulated concrete demands — including the right of editorial teams to have a say in the appointment of editors-in-chief. In the media industry in France, one rebels in the same way as on the streets.

Journalists Under Fire — Literally

The other side: journalists in France are systematically attacked at demonstrations — by the police. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) regularly documents cases of baton use, chokehold grips, and damaged equipment against clearly identified press representatives. At the protests on 10 September 2025 alone, seven journalists were physically attacked by police — despite press passes and helmets marked “Press.”

During the pension protests of 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists documented numerous cases of arrests and abuse. A photojournalist in Rennes was thrown to the ground by a police officer. A journalist in Paris was attacked with pepper spray despite displaying a press pass. The message is clear: whoever reports on protest becomes a target themselves.

RSF ranks France 26th in press freedom — a shameful figure for one of the oldest democracies in Europe. And yet: French journalists’ unions respond not with retreat, but with counter-offensives. They have filed lawsuits, submitted complaints to the human rights ombudsman, and publicly protested. The daily newspaper Libération printed a front page with Macron’s face pixellated — as a protest against a security law that would have criminalised the publication of police photographs.

Austria: Media as an Instrument of Power

The Kronen Zeitung and the System

Austria’s media landscape is small, highly concentrated — and historically closely intertwined with political power. Two actors dominate: the public broadcaster ORF as the unchallenged market leader in television, radio, and online, and the Kronen Zeitung with a reach of around 30 percent of the population.

The Krone is not a normal tabloid. It has actively intervened in Austrian politics — not through reporting, but through campaigns. Many Austrian intellectuals hold the Krone partly responsible for the FPÖ’s rise in the 1999 elections. In 2008, the newspaper orchestrated the fall of SPÖ Chancellor Gusenbauer and his replacement by Werner Faymann — a longtime personal friend of publisher Hans Dichand.

Outside Vienna, media concentration has almost completely eliminated competition. In two federal states, there is no other regional newspaper besides the regional Krone edition. In the remaining states, a single publisher controls the market in each case — often including regional radio and regional television. The oldest daily newspaper in the country, the Wiener Zeitung (founded 1703), was shut down in 2023.

The Advertising Affair: Media Corruption as a System

The deepest insight into the relationship between media and power in Austria came in 2021 with the so-called advertising affair. The Economic and Corruption Prosecution (WKStA) investigated then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his inner circle on suspicion of using tax money from the Finance Ministry to purchase favourable reporting from the Österreich media group.

The approach was systematic: the polling researcher Sabine Beinschab produced partially manipulated surveys that were distributed through the channels of the Österreich media group. The invoices went to the Finance Ministry — as fake invoices for “studies” that were never conducted. In return, state advertising funds flowed. Internally, the system was called the “Beinschab-Österreich-Tool.”

A study by the Universities of Vienna and Fribourg, published in the International Journal of Press/Politics, examined 222,000 news articles from 18 Austrian media outlets between 2012 and 2021. The result: after the alleged agreements from 2016, Kurz was mentioned in the online outlet OE24 between 50 and 100 percent more frequently than would statistically have been expected without political influence. At the same time, his political rivals tended to be portrayed more negatively.

The affair led to Kurz’s resignation as Federal Chancellor. Beinschab entered a comprehensive confession. But the structure that made it possible — state advertising funds as leverage, lack of independence in tabloid media, no effective oversight — has not disappeared.

200 Million Euros: The Silent Lever

Beyond the advertising affair, there exists a legal but equally problematic mechanism: public institutions — ministries, municipalities, state-affiliated companies — spend around 200 million euros annually on advertising placements in media. This money is tied to no content conditions and is not centrally controlled. Tabloid outlets like Heute, Krone, and Österreich benefit disproportionately.

Since 2011, all public institutions must disclose their advertising expenditure quarterly. The data clearly show who the major recipients are — and raise the question of whether editorial independence is even possible under such conditions. In no other EU country is this system established in this form.

The ORF: Politically Occupied, Structurally Dependent

The ORF is the most important news provider in the country — with the highest trust rating of all media (63 percent). But its board of trustees, the central supervisory body, is half-filled by politically appointed members. National and state governments, political parties, and other powerful institutions thus have direct influence over the governance of the broadcaster.

The FPÖ had concrete plans in its coalition draft with the ÖVP (early 2025) to abolish the ORF household fee and replace it with direct budget financing — which critics viewed as an attempt to “Orbanise” the Austrian media landscape along Hungarian lines. The coalition negotiations failed, but the threat remains. RSF warns explicitly: the FPÖ wants to move the ORF “politically closer to the government and reduce its size.”

Remarkably: Austria was the penultimate country in Europe (before Albania) to allow private television, in 2003. And the last European country in which radio broadcasting was a state monopoly until 1998. Media freedom came to Austria not through revolution — it was granted from above, slowly and under control.

No Freedom of Information Act

To this day, Austria is the last EU member state without a Freedom of Information Act. Journalists have no legally enshrined right of access to government information. Various draft laws are being discussed, but none has been passed. In a country where the political culture is based on consensus and discretion, this is no coincidence — it is the system.

The Comparison: Two Worlds

In France…

…editorial teams strike against their own owners. Journalists are beaten at demonstrations and keep going. Reader-funded media like Mediapart and Blast grow as a counterweight to the oligarch press. Over 100 media organisations jointly formulate demands for independent journalism. Even under fire, the reflex remains: fight, expose, publish.

In Austria…

…the Krone sues critical small newspapers almost to the point of ruin. Public advertising funds flow disproportionately to tabloid media without content oversight. A Federal Chancellor buys favourable reporting with tax money. The ORF is politically occupied. The last EU country without a Freedom of Information Act. The reflex: arrange, tolerate, carry on.

The Decisive Difference

In France, media — despite all problems with concentration and police violence — are a space of conflict. Journalists understand themselves as actors, not observers. They strike, they sue, they found new media when the old ones are corrupted. The press law of 1881 is not merely law — it is cultural DNA.

In Austria, media — despite all formal press freedom — are a space of adaptation. The structures invite self-censorship: whoever depends on public advertising funds does not bite the hand that feeds. Whoever depends on the ORF board of trustees does not criticise too loudly the parties that fill it. And whoever writes against the Krone as a small outlet risks financial existence.

The few exceptions — the Falter, Profil, the WKStA reporting in the Standard — confirm the rule: investigative journalism exists in Austria, but it exists despite the system, not because of it.

The Music in the City

The first article was about someone walking through Feldkirch with a music box. A small rebellion in public space. The media question is the larger version of this: who is allowed to make noise in public discourse? Who decides what the public hears?

In France, everyone makes noise — oligarchs, journalists, protesters, satirists. It is loud and chaotic and violent and alive. In Austria, it is quiet. And the silence is not a sign of peace. It is a sign of who controls the volume knobs.

This article arose as a continuation of a conversation about protest, visibility, and the question of who owns public space — including the media space.

Sources and Further Reading

French Media Landscape and Press Freedom

Austrian Media Landscape

Advertising Affair and Media Corruption in Austria

  • ÖVP Corruption Affair — Wikipedia
  • Study: clustering of Kurz mentions after advertising affair — Profil
  • Study on advertising affair: indications of strikingly divergent reporting — University of Vienna
  • Advertising affair: study shows “striking deviations” on OE24 — APA Science
  • ÖVP advertising affair: the Beinschab protocols — Profil
  • Balluff, P., Eberl, J.-M. et al. (2024): The Austrian Political Advertisement Scandal: Patterns of “Journalism for Sale” — The International Journal of Press/Politics

By René Jochum and Claude (Anthropic). License: CC-BY-4.0.