Incredibly indignant
Op-Ed: «If publishers are engaging in fee-based cross-media activities, how can we then ban Swiss Television from operating a news portal?» asks Urs Gossweiler.
Reduction of the state quota, such as the sale of the
Majority shareholding in Swisscom by the Swiss Confederation. For radio and
However, I am against television. Why? Great Britain is the
Europe's pacesetter in terms of liberalization and deregulation. And
Nevertheless, there is no question of privatizing the BBC. And rightly so.
I understand from the press that we newspaper publishers are outraged about
the new news-based online presence of Swiss television. Since
my publishing colleagues are outraged without asking me, I am,
also without asking, not outraged. And there are two reasons for this:
Since the invention of the World Wide Web, it has been clear that the
media genres of radio, TV and newspapers overlap on the Internet.
SF is not responsible for this and should therefore not be allowed to
of this convergence. Secondly, SF is finally catching up on what SF
DRS has overslept for years. ARD, for example, has been operating
such a portal for years.
The real scandal is not the SF news portal, but the
policy of our association and its executive committee members. That leaves
the major publishers have been able to secure millions from Swiss television via Press TV.
fees per year and also haggle over paragraph
paragraph in the new RTVA for many more millions for the
own, voluntarily founded regional TV stations. The lobbying
was so successful that the state-imposed compulsory fees were not
only cover regional television deficits, but also those for online,
Teletext and, in future, even the losses of the daily newspapers. If
publishers are allowed to do fee-financed cross-media, how can one
prohibit SRG from producing an online edition of the Tagesschau?
With the new RTVG, SF would even have to produce a print edition of the Tagesschau
be allowed, which is perhaps already being planned.
Until five years ago, our association could have been credibly outraged,
because he advocated a dual system. This would have allowed SRG
are not allowed to acquire advertising and sponsorship money and we publishers
in return for no fees. Since 2001, however, publishers have mistrusted
the market and rely on state-imposed revenues. This
The regulatory fall from grace leads to confusion between private
and state providers. This is not credible and in the long term
harmful. For the consumer, who is aware of these connections both from the
politics, television and, of course, the press
would be the fact that he would be deprived of his rights with compulsory fees.
cross-subsidizes its subscription newspaper in addition to SRG, more
as annoying. Conversely, he expects Swiss television - despite
of the very successful new appearance - finally a medium for the whole
Switzerland, instead of just for Zurich. Public service required a somewhat
broader horizon.
Urs Gossweiler-Abegglen is a publisher and editor of the Jungfrau-Zeitung.
