On March 8, the Swiss electorate will vote on the SRG fee reduction initiative "200 francs is enough!".
As a former long-time SRG employee, I would like to share some important thoughts with you.
The initiative aims to reduce the radio and television fee - commonly known as the Serafe fee - from
the current CHF 335 per household per year to CHF 200.
What justifies our media fee, which is by far the highest in the world?
Switzerland is a very small country, but due to its linguistic and cultural diversity it also has to be
supplied with media in four different national languages.
This costs money, and SRG fulfills this public service mandate in accordance with the
Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTV Act).
Nevertheless, there are more and more people who are not satisfied with the SRG's services and are therefore no
longer willing to pay this very high radio and television fee.
What is the main criticism of these media consumers?
According to the RTV Act, licensed programs must "adequately express the diversity of events and views."
Unfortunately, however, it is precisely this requirement that is criminally neglected at SRG.
And this criticism is not just about an unmistakably ideological background to journalistic work.
In particular, it is also about the problematic selection of topics or "non-selection of topics".
Behind the scenes, I had to painfully observe for myself that balanced and broad-based reporting is unfortunately
not wanted in the interest of true public opinion-forming.
In the same way, journalistic work does not promote social discourse, but does everything in its power to
prevent it, even though the Swiss Press Council has expressly declared that this must be safeguarded.
After all, media consumers want to form their own opinions and not be tied into the SRG's prefabricated opinion corset.
The following impressive experience shows what serious consequences the ignorance of this
comprehensive information mandate can have in our society:
Just as the German Robert Koch Institute's coronavirus protocols - the RKI protocols for short - became public in spring 2024, I
asked a former SRG colleague and journalist when SRF would finally think about reporting on the
highly controversial content of these RKI protocols.
Her very revealing and at the same time sobering answer: "Oh, I don't even look at it
anymore, the whole thing is history for me."
No, it is not! The Independent Complaints Authority also came to the conclusion that SRG's omission violated
the diversity requirement and led to an unbalanced presentation of the pandemic response.
But it gets even worse: SRG was not prepared to accept this ruling and is taking the case to the Federal Supreme Court.
That's how hopeless the SRG is!
In the end, I could only reply to that journalist: "If it becomes unpleasant, just suppress it, sweep
it under the carpet, don't talk about it any more?
Is this the new kind of quality journalism that you've taken up the cause of and that you'll
seriously continue to practice in the future?"
I document the background to this personal experience and numerous other examples of journalistic
failure in my book "Im Hexenkessel der Bundeshaus-Medien".
Just how much the SRG fears the fee reduction initiative and is thinking about how to win the vote is shown, for example,
by the numerous public events under the name "SRG Beizentour".
In reality, however, SRG should be asking itself how the public's trust in SRG can be restored.
After all, this would be one of the absolutely central elements for the future success of SRG.
Countless letters from fellow human beings confirm that this trust has suffered a serious loss.
This loss of trust can only be corrected by a decisive change of attitude.
However, this requires a willingness to return to the Swiss Press Council's Code of Journalism,
to which Swiss journalism is ultimately committed.
As long as this willingness remains absent and the SRG continues to cheat like this, it should not be
surprised that the people say: "200 francs is enough!"