Schaffhausen and Basel against political ads
Schaffhausen and Basel-Stadt have opposed the request of the Political Institutions Committee to guarantee parties and voting committees free airtime on television and radio. The Commission wants to achieve greater fairness in federal votes.
The governments of the cantons of Schaffhausen and Basel-Stadt have spoken out against the request of the National Council's Political Institutions Committee to guarantee parties and voting committees free airtime on television and radio. With the parliamentary initiative, the committee wants to achieve greater fairness in election and referendum campaigns, as reported by the SDA. The cantons have until November 30 to submit their responses, and the Schaffhausen government wrote that the initiative is a welcome concern, but fairness in voting campaigns can hardly be enshrined in law. Parties and committees have enough suitable platforms in electronic media discussion programs to present their arguments. Voters, in turn, are mature enough to correctly classify any oversized or unfair voting campaigns.
The Basel government also welcomes the request for more fairness, but admits that the instruments proposed in the preliminary draft are not suitable. It sees no convincing reasons for softening the ban on political advertising on radio and television. In addition, an imbalance would also arise between financially stronger and weaker parties, as the advertising spots would have to be paid for by the parties themselves. With more money, more effective commercials could be produced.
