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Patrick Budgen, Editor ORF Vienna #18 Better fast than right? "Violent shooting at Schwedenplatz. Large-scale police operation" was one of the first pieces of information posted on Twitter by a journalist on the evening of 2 November 2020 at 8:13 pm. He happened to be near the site of the attack. It was not only the start of one of the darkest nights in the federal capital, but also the start of hours of speculation and conjecture. Is it a rampage or a terrorist attack? Is it one perpetrator or several? Did he or she strap on an explosives belt? Is there a hostage situation in a pub on Mariahilfer Straße? Almost every minute, wilder and wilder rumours have been making the rounds, which have also made their way into the public domain through the most diverse channels.

We at ORF have not taken part in this. At first, it may seem to viewers that our reporting was too slow or ponderous. Because while we were still researching that evening to get valid information and competent interview partners, pictures and videos of the attack were already being shown on a continuous loop on other stations. Through perseverance and commitment, we finally succeeded in getting the first official interview with a representative of the Ministry of the Interior.

In the approximately ten-minute conversation (which was watched by over two million TV viewers), valid information about the attackers, the crime scenes and the injured was provided at around 10 p.m., thus bringing a form of calm and order to the situation. This is exactly the task of public service broadcasting in such an obscure event as that evening. Thanks to good internal networking, the interview was also available on ORF's online channels within a few minutes, whether on orf.at, the TV-Thek or even on Facebook. There is probably room for improvement in the integration of our viewers. The whole city centre was full of people who experienced the situation first hand and could provide first-hand information. Only: where should they deposit it? Where does everyone converge? And then who checks them for accuracy? It would probably make sense to install a prominent (and well advertised) online tool that facilitates audience participation in such cases. But here too, if the worst comes to the worst, it is better to do it right than to do it quickly.