Styria ranks last for clarity of government press releases

About 83 percent of press releases from the government of Styria, an Austrian state, are difficult to understand, a review found. Styria ranked last among Austria’s states in the Klartext Index, ORF reported.

The Institute for Systemic Communication and Media Design (ÖSKM) assessed the texts. By comparison, 35 percent of Vienna’s government releases were judged difficult to understand. The Carinthian state press service had the clearest releases, followed by Vienna and Salzburg.

More than half of government releases across Austria were rated difficult to understand. The review covered more than 650 texts, including draft laws and announcements about projects such as new roundabouts.

The average sentence in an Austrian government text is 17 words, near the upper limit for easy reading, according to the ÖSKM. The longest sentence identified had 50 words. The most common official phrase was “Im Rahmen,” meaning “as part of.”

The index uses the Vienna factual-text formula, which the ÖSKM describes as a recognised measure of how readable German-language informational texts are. It compares releases only with others of the same type, such as cultural announcements. ÖSKM director Markus Feigl said the index is not intended to criticise press offices, but to show which ones are doing well and where there is room for improvement.

The ÖSKM will publish the index on its website every two weeks as a service for the public.