Issue 72/2005
Medienlandschaft der autochthonen Minderheiten in Österreich
Judith Purkarthofer, Maria Rainer & Anita Rappl
Under the 1976 National Minorities Act (Volksgruppengesetz) the Croatians, Slovenes, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Roma, and Sinti were officially recognized as minorities under Austrian law. The recognition as a minority initiates indeed a change in concerns like special cultural rights and the right to use the minority language in administrative matters. However, in order to ensure the preservation and development of the languages and culture of the minorities, it is also necessary to attach a great importance to a wide range of media supply.
This paper presents a survey of the media of the autochthonous minorities in Austria. After a short introducing overview of the associations, three sections analyze the availability of published weekly journals and periodicals, the broadcasted radio and television programs, and the situation of three publishing houses in Carinthia. Finally, positive and negative facts and their effect on the media sector are illustrated.
Our study shows that the media budget for autochthonous minorities are generally deficient and contends that it is at the very least doubtful whether the existing legal situation is sufficient for a successful development of the languages and cultures of said minorities.