La vie en face (TV Series) Citizen Krone (2002) User Reviews

A shocking portrait of Austria's highest selling newspaper

[Wetbones · 6/10 · 17 December 2003]

This is a documentary about the Kronen Zeitung, Austria's most widely read newspaper. There are 8 million people in Austria and over 3 million of them read this newspaper. With such a large readership (in relation to the populace) comes enormous power and the film researches how this power is used or much rather abused.

First of all the Kronen Zeitung is extremely racist and pushes this opinion on its readers by portraying all foreigners as criminals and scum that needs to be thrown out of the country. In the film several key writers of the newspaper are interviewed and one of them proudly shows the camera-team his books of speeches by Adolf Hitler and his own paintings which are full of Nazi symbols. The film goes on to examine how this racist newspaper may have helped extreme right-wing populist Jörg Haider on his rise to power.

It then goes on to show how every politician in Austria is afraid of the Kronen Zeitung and always checks it first thing in the morning to find out what the editor thinks about certain things. Mr. Dichand, the owner and chief editor of the Kronen Zeitung, comes across as a very powerful (he has regular meetings with the Austrian president) and dangerous man who tries to rule the country through his newspaper.

I was very familiar with the Kronen Zeitung and with its political agenda but this film has revealed many things I had not known. It's scarier than most horror films, that's for sure!

Abuse of power deluxe!

[SebastienSpa · 22 May 2007]

What is the Kronen Zeitung? Actually it doesn't matter. What is being portrayed here is more than just a reflection of the most powerful newspaper of Austria. It's rather a revelation of how opinion is being made by people who don't have a fundamental education and merely try to transport their ideal of a better society which is very isolated, dualistic and racist. The truth is that this ideal is dark, fascistic and leaves no space for other opinions.

This documentary appears a little boring in the beginning and it takes some time to actually realize the weight of the messages that the Kronen Zeitung staff is transporting very clearly. It shows up the narrow minded interpretation of a better Austria and how it is being transmitted in a language that rather simple people would understand. The only criticism is the portrait of Jörg Haider, who is being linked directly to a demonized Kronen Zeitung. This association is not quite legitimate as Haider's ideals are not fundamentally the same as the ones of the newspaper.

But the bombs are being dropped regularly, a reporter who openly admits that he wants to control the politicians by manipulating people, an astrologer who appears like out of a bad trash movie, an editor from the animal department who puts animals above humans, a politics "specialist" who invites politicians to extreme activities in order to worm a secret or weakness out of them, and finally an Austrian president kissing a$$ to the boss of the Kronen Zeitung in order to get good headlines.

Fact is that the Kronen Zeitung tried to ban this documentary from the Austrian screens and even took Arte (the TV station that produced it) out of their television program after it broadcasted it. It is shocking to watch but eyes opening on the other hand. Definitely worth watching, even as a non-Austrian. I guess this form of abuse of power is very allegoric to a lot of other institutions on this planet.