Deceptive ‘truths’
The intervention of the judiciary in disputing the reliability of viewing figures being issued by the AGB television ratings company has touched on an exceptionally important issue. After all, the firm is facing criminal charges of fraud, which makes the problem far more significant than the commonplace rivalries between TV channels and the financial games played by advertising firms. In this case, the proper functioning of crucial elements of our public life, and ultimately the judiciary itself, have been thrown into doubt. In this modern age, if a television ratings company exploits its monopolistic position to fabricate statistics which – in accordance with aspirations of certain third parties – create false impressions regarding the popularity of public and private media networks, it distorts reality and thus is indeed guilty of fraud on a massive scale. Television networks influence the opinions and thoughts of hundreds of thousands of citizens regarding the country’s political, economic and social problems. Moreover, they can also create images and situations which have an impact on our society’s aesthetics and culture. One can thus only imagine the damage to democracy itself when TV ratings companies fabricate «strong» and «weak» networks of public influence. Such a ruse gives extra-institutional forces and entangled political and business interests the ability to affect public life. This is obviously a major problem and the judiciary is quite right to approach it so strictly. For years, there have been whispers behind the scenes regarding the unreliability of viewing figures. Now we have the truth behind the whispers.
