Press Council: complaints against Blick, Tagesanzeiger and Le Matin approved
The *Blick* newspaper wrongly linked Doris Stump, a National Council member from Aargau representing the Social Democratic Party (SP), to two controversial government guidelines on gender-neutral language, as the Swiss Press Council determined in a ruling published on Tuesday. In addition, the Press Council partially upheld a complaint against the Tagesanzeiger and Le Matin.
In June 2010, Blick mocked the official guidelines for gender-equitable language. The city of Bern's guidelines replace pedestrian crossings with crosswalks, and the federal government even tells its authorities to write parents instead of father or mother. One day later, the newspaper also named the "culprit for this "linguistic madness", the Aargau SP National Councillor Doris Stump. She complained to the Press Council that she had not worked on either of the two guidelines and had not prescribed any language rules.
It is unfair to base harsh criticism on inaccurate facts, writes the Press Council in its ruling and upheld the complaint. The newspaper wrongly accused the politician of being responsible for the fact that the federal authorities are supposedly only allowed to write parents instead of father or mother. It is true that Blick is entitled to describe the authorities' efforts to use gender-equitable language as linguistic madness and to sharply criticize Doris Stump's political commitment to this cause. However, it is unfair to base this criticism on distorted facts.
Reporting on spam mail senders not entirely flawless
Newspapers are not allowed to turn a police search in one country into a worldwide search. According to a decision by the Press Council published on Tuesday, mentioning the full name and printing a picture of the "world's most active spammer" was also excessive. After Tagesanzeiger, 20 minutes and Le Matin reported around a year ago that a Geneva resident was one of the largest senders of spam e-mails, the person concerned complained to the Press Council about what he claimed were untruthful, distorting reports by the three newspapers, which also identified him for no reason.
The Press Council partially upheld the complaints against the Tagesanzeiger and Le Matin and dismissed the one against 20 minutes. The three newspapers had for the most part reported accurately, as far as it could judge, on the basis of the documents available to it, wrote the Press Council. However, Le Matin had distorted the facts in the online version of the article with the unsubstantiated claim that the man was being sought worldwide. The Press Council described the Tagesanzeiger's use of the full name and publication of the picture as disproportionate. It would have sufficed to mention the complainant's relatively insignificant company in the report.
