It should be put back. Nowak also exchanged views with ex-ÖBAG boss Thomas Schmid regarding a future position in the ORF boardroom.
At the beginning of 2017, for example, he wrote to Schmid, who was Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance at the time: “Although ORF boss is fine”. Schmid responded with two thumbs-up emojis and a fist, as “Der Standard” quoted from the WKStA report on Nowak. In March 2019, Nowak asked Schmid how his hearing for the position of sole director of the federal investment holding company ÖBAG had gone. “Really good,” said Schmid, which made Nowak very happy. Schmid then: “Now you’re still ORF boss”https://www.nachrichten.at/”Dude – but then it’ll go off”https://www.nachrichten.at/”Thanks for everything”. Nowak responded with: “A matter of honor. Now you have to help me with the ORF.” Schmid: “Absolutely.” Nowak has meanwhile stated that there was never a deal with the ex-ÖBAG boss.
The FPÖ may have had a problem with Nowak as ORF general director. As is well known, the ÖVP-FPÖ government dissolved soon after anyway. In the meantime, Roland Weißmann has made it to the top of the country’s largest media company with votes predominantly from the ÖVP and Greens “circle of friends” in the ORF Foundation Council.
The report also mentions that pollster Sabine Beinschab and ex-Minister Sophie Karmasin wanted to place polls in the “Presse”. But Nowak refused. The lawyer for the “Presse” boss, Johannes Zink, stated in the “Standard” that the quality of the surveys delivered was too bad. His client always remained steadfast and never gave in to these attempts.
Zink also announced that the WKStA had refrained from initiating proceedings and recommended that the senior public prosecutor’s office drop the complaint. A spokeswoman for the WKStA only confirmed that a project report on the ad had been submitted. So far there has been no formal settlement.
In the meantime, Nowak met with the editorial committee of the “Presse” about the cause. An editorial meeting is planned. In the “Presse” edition of today, Friday, it is reported that the editors have not yet received any indication of any influence. Nowak also addressed the readers himself. He apologized for the “tonality and inappropriate proximity” of the chat history.
He emphasized that the allegations concerned him as a person and not the editorial staff of the “Presse”. “None of the examined attempts at intervention was reflected in the reporting of the ‘Presse’. I can assure you that in this newspaper interventions in our reporting, as they occur again and again in the departments of politics and economics, are accepted in the editor-in-chief, there but ends,” says Nowak.
Source: Nachrichten
