Press Council rejects a complaint against BaZ and approves a good
The Basler Zeitung has accused gender researcher Franziska Schutzbach of writing against freedom of opinion and calling for a boycott of politicians. The Swiss Press Council says that the newspaper has sufficiently substantiated these accusations. On the other hand, the claim that Schutzbach had lost her lecturer position was false. The Press Council reprimanded the Basler Zeitung for this statement.
When a university lecturer writes on a political topic in a publicly accessible blog, journalists are allowed to report critically on it. In addition, the Basler Zeitung questioned Schutzbach about the accusations and published the decisive passage from Schutzbach's answer verbatim in the article. According to the Press Council, the Basler Zeitung has thus fulfilled its obligation to hear serious allegations. However, the author did not mention with a single word that the blog entry was in large parts a thought experiment. This information would have helped the audience to interpret Schutzbach's statements. However, the journalist code was not violated by this.
A second complaint on the same subject criticized another article in the Basler Zeitung. The Press Council upholds this complaint and finds a violation of the "Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists". The title "Schutzbach loses teaching assignment" was wrong. It was based on a misrepresented quote. It is correct that no teaching assignment was withdrawn, but that it had been clear for some time that no new one would be granted.
