Industry News
Former ski racer-come TV commentator Benjamin (‘Benni’) Raich looked stunned on live TV when his TV station told him “Stop” over his earpiece as he was talking about climate change during his coverage of the FIS Alpine World Cup in Sölden, Austria. “I’m not supposed to say anything more,” the 45-year-old said while still live on TV before the Austrian TV station ORF cut live feed to the starting area reporter instead.
Users on social media were quick to accuse ORF of censorship. ORF commentators Rainer Pariasek and Benni Raich were talking about the climate protests occurring on the access road to the World Cup area, where three protestors from the Austrian group ‘Last Generation’ had glued themselves to the road.
The two-time Olympic Gold medalist was in fact trying to put everything into perspective, saying “We have more than 500 glaciers in Austria, but we only ski on 10 of them. They are all receding. Skiing does not cause the glaciers to recede.” Comments on Twitter/X ranged from “This is fascist censorship” to “They are pushing fear-mongering.” Many social media users accused the ORF of trying to stoke the ‘climate change hysteria’ by not allowing a measured comment by the former ski racer.
“It would be convenient if skiing was to blame for climate change, but I think it’s the other way around. We [skiers] are rather the ones who suffer. Of course, we also have to stand our ground and do our part.”
– Benjamin Raich
The Austrian TV station ORF denies any accusations of censorship, explaining the events in a public statement “Due to an internal communication problem regarding the live feed between the finish area and start area, Benni Raich’s remarks were interrupted and continued shortly afterwards. The fact that Benni Raich commented on this topic in just as much detail at the beginning of the live broadcast at 9:25 a.m. shows that there is of course no ‘muzzle’ for the discussion about climate change and skiing.”
The topic of diggers on glaciers for preparations for the World Cup in Austria and Switzerland has been picked up by the European mainstream media and has been a topic of broad discussion in Europe. If you watch recordings of the moment Raich was cut off, one does get the feeling that this was more than a technical issue, as both commentators are visibly taken aback by whatever instructions they received over their ear-pieces.
