National Council Commission demands emergency aid for media
The Committee for Transport and Telecommunications of the National Council (KVF) is calling on the Federal Council to support the media during the coronavirus crisis. The media should receive help in the form of free delivery of newspapers and free agency reports.
This is what the KVF is calling for in a motion, as the parliamentary services announced on Tuesday. The Council of States committee has already formulated an identical motion. While this committee reached its decision by a large majority, the motion was narrowly approved by the National Council committee by 12 votes to 10 with 2 abstentions. The motions are likely to be dealt with in next week's extraordinary session.
The motions demand that the Keystone-SDA news agency be supported with additional financial resources so that it can provide its basic text service to its subscribers in three languages free of charge. The costs are not quantified in the motions.
CHF 25 million is to be made available for the free delivery of regional and local newspapers by Swiss Post, and CHF 10 million to reduce the cost of delivering other daily newspapers.
Interim solution for media
In the Commission's view, the support is a transitional solution. It is to be replaced by the package of measures in favor of the media. Media Minister Simonetta Sommaruga is expected to present the matter to the Federal Council tomorrow, Wednesday. Emergency aid for the media has not yet found a majority in the Federal Council.
Both committees unanimously adopted a further motion calling for regional radio and television broadcasters to be supported with an additional CHF 30 million compared to 2019. This emergency aid can be distributed from the existing fluctuation reserve of the radio and TV levy.
Help for public transport
The commissions also agree that public transport must be supported. Although demand has fallen by up to 80 percent, 70 to 80 percent of public transportation is still in operation, according to the press release. The KVF of the National Council expressed its satisfaction with the Federal Council's immediate measures.
Nevertheless, it wants to use a motion to oblige the government to work with the cantons and transport companies to develop a proposal to mitigate the loss of revenue. The aim is to find a balanced and fair solution in which the transport companies and the cantons as well as the federal government should bear a share of the loss, according to the press release.
The decision in favor of the motion was made in the National Council's KVF by 16 votes to 8. The Council of States committee had merely formulated a corresponding recommendation to the Federal Council. (SDA)
