According to “ZiB 2”, the Austrian media group did not provide the investigators with enough data. Media managers appealed the decision. When asked by APA, Wolfgang Fellner spoke of the “most serious breach of editorial secrecy to date”.
In the course of WKStA investigations, the Fellner brothers are accused of bribery and breach of trust. They are said to have made advertising and media cooperation agreements with the team around ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP). They are said to have reported obligingly for advertisements and published manipulated surveys from budgetary funds of the Ministry of Finance. The Fellners always rejected these allegations.
“Foot care” covered by editorial secrecy?
With regard to editorial secrecy, the law provides that protected communication may be sorted out by the accused themselves. The Fellner brothers had several months to do this. However, only 0.4 percent of the calendar entries were released and appointments such as “pick up the car” or “pedicure” were reported as covered by editorial secrecy. The Fellners also did not release invoices to the Ministry of Finance.
The regional court for criminal matters in Vienna has therefore decided “that all files can be taken on file and evaluated”. That was the “legal consequence of the failure to specify,” quoted the “ZiB 2” Monday evening from the decision. A court spokesman confirmed that there was an unsealing order from mid-November, against which an appeal was lodged on Monday. The Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG) must deal with the cause.
“Decision unlawful and arbitrary”
The lawyer for the Fellner brothers, Ronald Rast, emphasized: “The specification of the files, which are subject to editorial secrecy, was carried out without exception after a thorough review and evaluation.” The decision of the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters was “illegal and arbitrary” and represented “a gross encroachment on the protection of sources or editorial secrecy”. Wolfgang Fellner stated in a statement to the APA that it was “the most serious breach of the Editorial secrets in Austria”. Now the Higher Regional Court must decide “whether the editorial secret may be broken in such a brutal way”.
Source: Nachrichten
