Consultation days across Austria Increased communications and public relations work Weekly TV show 14 The consultation days held across Austria continue to be very popular; on 189 occasions, persons in all the States had the opportunity to discuss their issue with an ombudsperson. Over the course of the year, almost 1,200 of these personal discussions took place. Vienna, with the largest metropolitan area in Austria, had the largest number of consultation days at 54. However, consultation days were held in all other States on a regular basis over the course of the year. In the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, where the AOB does not investigate any complaints regarding the regional and local authorities, 15 and nine consultation days, were held. Consultation days were held not only at the offices of the Administrative District Authorities or in administrative offices of the state government, but people were able to directly address an ombudsperson with their problems in penal institutions, police detention centres and federal army buildings. In order to inform the public even more comprehensively about its controlling activities, the AOB reorganised its communications. A new International Relations and Communication unit has been set up. It deals with all public relations issues and is the initial point of contact for all representatives of the media. In addition to direct contact with interested parties and the parties affected, the AOB's website www.volksanw.gv.at is an important instrument of communication. In 2009, the website registered more than 1.34 million hits from a total of 116 countries. Particular interest was shown in information about the ombudspersons and their concrete areas of responsibility. In order to enhance the public relations work, a new information portal was presented in July 2010. It offers concise information on the activities of the independent control body and its members Peter Kostelka, Gertrude Brinek, and Terezija Stoisits. Barrier-free services take the centre stage of the information portal. It includes all dates of consultation days held by one of the three Ombudspersons throughout the country and offers the possibility to submit complaints directly through the website. Exemplary cases are presented on a regular basis as well as summaries of the weekly TV show "Bürgeranwalt" (“Advocate for the People”). Information about the work of the AOB is available in English, Spanish, French, Turkish, Croatian, and Slovenian. The TV show "Bürgeranwalt" (“Advocate for the People”), which is produced by the public broadcaster ORF, remained an important platform for the issues handled by the AOB in 2009 as well. It was one of the few TV shows that was able to not only maintain its market