Interesting Tips Arrive At Interesting Times

Michael Hedges May 20, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

Good investigative reporters have sources in high places and low places. And they are not waiting for a phone call. Nor do they wait to spring into action. Decisions must be made. Details must be collected. Great investigative reporters have the trust of the best sources and never forget.

Investigative reporting teams for German news weekly Der Spiegel and Bavarian daily Süddeutche Zeitung (SZ) last week brought reality to every politician’s worst nightmare. They broke a corruption story with details and evidence, in this case video, that left Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache stammering through his resignation speech 24 hours later. He had offered government contracts to a person he thought was the “niece of a Russian oligarch” in return for “contributions” that included taking over Austria’s biggest tabloid newspaper to provide friendly media coverage for the far-right, xenophobic Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which Herr Strache has led since its formation.

Reports from both publications were released simultaneously Friday afternoon (May 17), with video excerpts on the respective news websites. The recordings were of a meeting “lasting several hours” in Ibiza, Spain with Herr Strache, FPÖ parliamentary leader Johann Gudenus, the “Russian niece” and others. The meeting apparently took place in July 2017. Herr Gudenus served as Russian translator. He also resigned.

The investigative teams would say only that the video was obtained from a third party, who they refused to identify. Journalist sources are constitutionally protected in Germany. The reporters received the video at an “abandoned hotel,” said SZ editor Bastian Obermayer, quoted by news agency DPA (May 18). “Imagine a bad movie.”

“Then it had to go incredibly fast,” added SZ editor Leila Al-Serori. Once the material was in hand the investigative team worked about a week before publishing, suggesting a degree of time sensitivity. A forensic scientist was called in to review the material. “The sound quality was bad,” she added.

In an interesting quirk suggesting the source had been shopping around the video, German TV host and satirist Jan Böhmermann made an oblique reference in April to the video during the Austrian Romy TV Prize program. He said he was unable to be present for the show because he was "coked up and full of Red Bull, hanging round in a Russian oligarch's villa on Ibiza with a few FPÖ business partners." He also mentioned taking over Kronen Zeitung. His manager confirmed to DPA that he had become aware of the video “a few weeks ago” but had not been offered it.

In the Ibiza escapade video, Herr Strache proposed a take-over of Kronen Zeitung, discussed privatizing Austrian public broadcaster ORF and professed admiration for the media skills of Hungarian President Viktor Orban. He was certainly aware of contention within the Kronen Zeitung shareholding, the heirs of the modern newspaper’s founder Hans Dichand looking for a buy-out. Earlier this spring German media house Funke Group with the financial support of real estate magnate René Benko, through Signa Holding, took a run at dislodging the Dichand family for control over the newspaper. Funke Group, successor to WAZ Media Group, and Signa Holding hold a 49% stake in the publisher with operational control. Herr Strache named Herr Benko as one of the “donors” to an unnamed and supposedly FPÖ-controlled “charitable foundation.” Herr Benko also spoke at the Ibiza meeting, said Krone Zeitung (May 19).

Taking over Kronen Zeitung was the “main theme” of the Ibiza meeting, said Austrian daily Der Standard (May 18). “We have the right man to help with the reorientation of the tabloid,” said Herr Strache on the video, referring to Heinrich Pecina, the Austrian billionaire “who has bought and prepared for Orban all the Hungarian media in the last 15 years. We want to build a media landscape similar to Orban’s.” Herr Pecina is the principal at Vienna Capital Partners. He figured prominently in the Panama Papers.

After Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz banished Herr Strache from the government, President Alexander Van der Bellen announced (May 19) new general elections will be held in September.

See update (May 24) here...

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