An Austrian investigation has highlighted how interaction between the media and political players can deteriorate into corruption and abuse.
As Australia’s Parliament works through the National Anti-Corruption Commission, there’s news out of Austria that asks a big question: what’s the role of news media in corruption — not as reporters, but as players, even accomplices?
Misuse of government advertising, dodgy polls to boost political allies, politicised appointments to supposedly independent posts — the investigation by Austria’s Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Crime and Corruption has got it all. It’s already ended the career of once-was-rising conservative star Sebastian Kurz.
And it’s forcing a recognition that everyday practices can deteriorate into the dodgy, from the dodgy to abuse of power, from abuse into corruption.
Read more about the corrosive relationship between politics and the media.
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