Written by on May 17, 2022

What is happening to Swiss press freedom?

Politics

If Switzerland’s relation to its media representatives were to be described in a relationship status, it would probably be: “It is complicated”.

On the occasion of the “World Press Freedom Day” on the 3rd of May 2022, the international NGO “Reporter ohne Grenzen” (RSF) published a new ranking of countries based on their conditions for media institutions and journalists. Out of 180 states, Switzerland, a country that is always associated with political neutrality and a role model democracy, surprisingly fell to Number 14, leaving the top 10 for the first time in 6 years. What happened in Switzerland that made such a difference last year and will the situation even get worse?

In the worldwide ranking of press freedom by RSF, the situation in Switzerland is still considered as “satisfying”. Image: https://www.reporter-ohne-grenzen.de/rangliste/rangliste-2022.

Banking Secrecy and a Disputed Revision of Civil Procedure Rules

Of course, if you look at Switzerland in its international context, you could say that we are whining at a high level. We are still high up in the ranking, closely followed by our neighbour Germany, who is on place 16. According to RSF, Germany lost three slots due to “a law that threatens journalists and their sources, decreasing diversity in media as well as, most importantly, violence towards press at demonstrations”. While in Switzerland, diversity in media has been shrinking due to concentration of editorial departments and the increasing monopolization of big publishers, at least physical violence against journalists is less prominent. However, there are two serious threats for Swiss press freedom that are not going to be dissolved that quickly and they can be found within our law.

Salvador Atasoy, an editor at our public broadcasting corporation SRF, explains that two legal articles are critical: on the one hand, the revision of the civil procedure rules, which is currently being debated in parliament. This revision would make it easier to sue journalists for so-called “unpleasant” reports, which means that news coverage could become more obliging to influential figures like politicians or managers. The other critical notion is the fact that Swiss journalists are prohibited to investigate in banking issues, which has currently been illustrated in the story about the “Suisse Secrets”, an investigation by journalists from 48 international media companies such as the New York Times, The Guardian and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Their research revealed that the Swiss bank Credit Suisse allowed autocrats, war criminals and drug barons to open Swiss bank accounts. Indeed, some people were surprised that no Swiss journalists were involved in the investigation, but this is exactly explained by the article in the Swiss bank law that denies journalists the right to “analyse” and “publish” leaked bank data. The UN Human Rights Council has announced that they will “sharpy criticise” this article in the Swiss bank law, but I doubt that this will make a big impact.

International Influences

Finally, Atasoy proposes that worldwide developments have negatively impacted press freedom, which can also be seen in Switzerland. For instance, since the pandemic, there have been more shitstorms and menaces towards local authorities and politicians, as well as towards journalists. Moreover, the SRF editor explains that the war in the Ukraine has led to an “extreme polarisation” in society, while “news coverage on and in Russia has almost become impossible”. Lastly, he claims that global liberalisation movements, most prominent in the US and UK, have encouraged attempts to restrict stately funded sources for media institutions, which further threatens high-quality news coverage. This tendency can be seen in Switzerland, where there have been repeated initiatives to defund the public broadcasting corporation. (One such attempt was clearly rejected by the public in 2018, the committee of the initiative, however, has announced to relaunch another attempt this year). These developments will pose continuing challenges to Swiss journalists and media representatives worldwide.

“Fourth Estate” in Jeopardy?

So, is there no hope in sight? Are journalists giving up their freedom without a fight? Not necessarily: In the wake of the current revision of the civil procedure rules, Swiss journalists have joined forces to campaign against this threat of an independent and unbiased news coverage. They argue, for instance, that “freedom of press is a precious asset” that enables media workers to act as a “Fourth Estate” in a democracy. It remains open if their warnings will be heard by the parliament.

Back to the RSF rating: the stable Top Five worldwide are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Finland. These countries seem to prove that politicians and stakeholders don’t need to be afraid of diversity in media and independent journalism, but that they can actually profit from a broad and free news coverage that ensures the functioning of a democracy. So instead of weakening your own means, Switzerland, it’s time to up your game again, so that maybe, the relationship can get a fresh start.

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