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The Swiss government (Bundesrat) has abandoned its plan to fundamentally reform media law. It had originally planned to replace the existing Radio- und Fernsehgesetz (Radio and Television Act – RTVG) with a new Bundesgesetz über elektronische Medien (Electronic Media Act – BGeM) and, in June 2018, had launched a public consultation with interested parties concerning its draft Electronic Media Act (see IRIS 2018-06/11).  Under the draft tabled in 2018, public funding for services forming part of the public service would no longer have been limited to radio and television....

The Swiss Government has granted a new licence to the Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation - SRG) for the 2019-2022 period. The licence imposes more stringent requirements concerning the public service provided by the broadcaster. It comes barely six months after the referendum on the popular initiative entitled “Yes to the abolition of radio and television licence fees (abolition of Billag fees)”, which had called the SRG’s future into question. The initiative had been overwhelmingly rejected on 4 March 2018, with 71.6% of voters opposed to it. However,...

The desire to safeguard a strong public audiovisual service throughout Switzerland and the overwhelmingly positive assessment of the service provided by the Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation - SRG) were, according to a representative survey, the main reasons for the recent rejection of a popular initiative entitled “Yes to the abolition of radio and television licence fees (abolition of Billag fees)”. In the referendum on 4 March 2018, only 28.4% (833,630 people) voted to amend Article 93 of the Bundesverfassung (Federal Constitution), while 71.6% (2,098,139...

In a case against Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) strongly emphasised the right of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to use robust language on its website to criticise a politician, and to label his discourse as racist speech. The NGO had posted a blog post during the heated political debate on the referendum on banning the construction of minarets in Switzerland, in which it referred to B.K., the president of a local branch of the Young Swiss People’s Party (JSVP). In a public speech, B.K. had said that the Swiss guiding culture (“schweizerische Leitkultur”) was based...

On 19 December 2017 the Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (DETEC) circulated the draft of the new licence for the Swiss public broadcasting company (Société Suisse de Radiodiffusion et Télévision - SSR). The draft implements the recommendations made on 17 June 2016 by the Federal Council in its report on public service broadcasting (see IRIS 2016-8:1/6). The new licence increases the demands made of the SSR in the fields of information, culture, training, entertainment and sport. In particular, the draft stipulates that expenditure devoted to news should...