Austria’s Media Landscape has a History of heavy State Involvement – and (fragile) Freedom of the Press

By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Reports Without Borders consistently ranks Austria among the best countries when it comes to press freedom in their annual investigations. In RSF’s 2021 report, Austria ranked 17th – putting into the second-highest bracket of countries altogether and near the top even of the European countries[1]. Curiously, there are some discrepancies…

The Decline of Poland’s Press Freedom should serve as a Warning to all of Europe

Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Historical overview of the region’s democratization and backsliding When the “communist” dictatorships of Eastern Europe fell, one by one, in 1989 – and, with the exception of Romania, in a remarkably peaceful fashion – western euphoria was great. These countries and their people, newly “liberated” from their…

Legislation and the Holocaust – how the “Rule of Law” paved the way and garnered support for the murder of more than six million (Long Read)

Introduction Adolf Hitler’s “Machtergreifung”[1] on the 30th of January 1933 created the foundation for open anti-Semitic violence, which would eventually pave the way into what became known as the holocaust: the “systematic, state-organized persecution and murder of at least six million Jews … by Nazi-Germany”.[2] Antisemitism was nothing new when the NSDAP[3] gained power in…