The International Press Institute (IPI) this week remembered journalist and long-time IPI member Gerd Bacher, who died of a stroke on Saturday at the age of 89.

Known for his dedication to independent journalism, especially radio and television, Bacher served as the director general of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) for 20 years intermittently between 1967 and 1994. He was named an IPI Fellow in 2003.

IPI Executive Board Member Karl Amon, who serves as director of Radio at ORF, recalled Bacher as “a great personality, a full blooded journalist and a visionary media manager”.

Amon continued: “He shaped Austrian journalism and the Austrian Broadcasting Corp. (ORF), which he always called the ‘love of his life’, as no other. Bacher launched the great information offensive at ORF, whereby an hourly news update and “Journale” [Ed. a variety of news information programs] were introduced on Austrian radio. He also expanded the news programming on television.

“I always found an ally in Gerd Bacher when it came to the development and implementation of high-quality programme content. He always lent an ear to good ideas, whereby it was the quality of the idea and the adherence to factual content that was more important to him, than who the idea came from. Independent reporting as an integral part of all democracies was a central concern to Mr. Bacher. For this reason he became a long-time member of IPI and was named an IPI Fellow in 2003.”

Bacher was born on Nov. 18, 1925 in Salzburg. He began his journalism career as an intern at the daily Salzburger Volkszeitung in 1946 and he became the editor-in-chief of the Vienna-based newspaper Bild-Telegraf in 1954. Later, Bacher and his editorial staff moved to the newly established Bildtelegramm, which soon became Express. He served as editor-in-chief of both of the now-defunct newspapers.

Bacher was an IPI member from 1959 to 1961 during his time at Express and again from 1968 to 2003 while serving as ORF’s general director. Just before starting his fifth term as ORF director general, Bacher served as publisher of the Austrian daily Die Presse.

For many years, he wrote weekly commentaries for Austrian daily Kurier and he served as editor-in-chief of the newspaper in 1975. Bacher also served from 1974 to 1978 as a media consultant for Helmut Kohl, including during Kohl’s initial, unsuccessful bid to become Germany’s chancellor in 1976.

In 1999, a jury of Bacher’s peers named him Austrian journalist of the 20th Century.

IPI Director Emeritus Johann P. Fritz remembered Bacher as “a great support” during Fritz’s 15 years at IPI’s helm.

“When IPI moved its headquarters to Vienna in 1992, he opened the doors of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation for a conference on ‘The Transition from State Controlled to Public Service Broadcasting’ which resulted in the Vienna Declaration on Public Broadcasting in September 1993,” Fritz said.

“He was also one of the main supporters of the IPI World Congress in Vienna in 1986, as well as a conference celebrating IPI’s 10th Anniversary in Vienna in 2002 and the successful IPI World Congress in Salzburg in 2003. He was a regular participant at many IPI events throughout the years and I always appreciated his friendship, good advice, his loyalty to IPI and his commitment to independent journalism and press freedom.”