He does squats and sit-ups on the ORF morning program, runs laps around the ring in Vienna’s city center with Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler on the national holiday and “moves Austria,” as the ORF writes on its website. Philipp Jelinek has been doing gymnastics on television for years and has become an ORF figurehead: first as a sidekick on the show “Guten Morgen Österreich”, then from October 2020 in his own format, “Fit with Philipp”. The show reached 2022 according to ORF 1.87 million people – a quarter of the population over 12 years old.
Jelinek’s ORF career was steep – and he had a prominent sponsor: the former Vice Chancellor and Sports Minister Heinz-Christian Strache. As can be seen from chat messages available to profil, Jelinek was initially Strache’s coach. Then in February 2018 he sent him “Greetings from Küniglberg”.
Strache has already heard that Jelinek will soon be moderating – and is pleased about it.
Jelinek subsequently shows himself to be very ambitious, like at first Standard reported. He repeatedly informs Strache about his conversations with high-ranking ORF employees and fine-tunes his career. He writes to Strache: “With the appropriate support, we should be able to install me either in “Guten Morgen” or in the afternoon.” Strache replies: “Very good!!! Thank you for the information! Lg.”
Jelinek repeatedly wants to meet with Strache, offers him information from the house and apparently sees himself as a “go-between”.
Jelinek is not only concerned about himself, but also about the matter. There is always talk of a “we” – namely when it comes to who is favorable to the FPÖ and who is not. Jelinek also takes issue with a “NÖ ÖVP concentration of power in the ORF” (“It’s crazy what’s going on!”) and has program ideas for Sports Minister Strache.
Strache doesn’t answer that.
When the Ibiza video was finally published on the evening of May 17, 2019 and Strache’s vice-chancellorship came to an abrupt end, Jelinek contacted his sponsor.
Neither Philipp Jelinek nor Heinz-Christian Strache responded to a profile request.
There is, however, a statement from the ORF editorial board: “The chats show a sad moral picture of how little political parties – especially the FPÖ – think of independent journalism,” writes the committee led by eco-moderator Dieter Bornemann. The ORF should apparently be run or trimmed down by people from the party, it goes on to say: “That was the case when the FPÖ was involved in government and it is still the case today, as numerous public statements by the FPÖ have shown recently.” The editorial board also regrets , “that there are always people who ingratiate themselves with parties and hope to have a career in the ORF. This is a slap in the face to all journalists at ORF who stand for critical, objective and independent reporting.”
The ORF press office also says: “The ORF is against any political influence. In addition to many other regulatory points, the new ORF Code of Ethics also lays down clear rules for dealing with politicians and political parties.”
For Yannick Shetty, Neos parliamentary group leader in the ongoing investigative committees, the new chat shows once again that the FPÖ’s media policy is “threatening democracy”. The Freedom Party is only concerned with “raising blue people into important positions” and “cleaning out” unpleasant and critical journalists. This is “pure postal haggling,” says Shetty.
SPÖ federal managing director Klaus Seltenheim sharply condemned the FPÖ’s “attacks against independent media” in a broadcast: “The FPÖ dismisses everything that does not fit into its authoritarian worldview. Democracy, human rights, freedom of the press – nothing is safe from the attack of the Blues. The FPÖ is planning the Orbanization of Austria and wants to turn our country into a prison.”
“Once again it becomes obvious: the FPÖ is a threat to democracy in Austria,” comments the Green parliamentary group leader Meri Disoski: “With the aim of preventing critical reporting against their own party, the Freedom Party would prefer to control the entire media landscape.”