Press Council: Complaint against Bieler Tagblatt partially upheld
The Bieler Tagblatt should have given a hearing to a man against whom it had made serious allegations in an article. This is the conclusion reached by the Press Council in a ruling published on Tuesday.
In the article published on November 10, 2010, the newspaper harshly criticized the head of the Biel/Bienne Office for Adult and Youth Protection and accused her of favouritism. The woman had filled several positions with people she knew from her previous job. The prime example cited in the article was a former chef who had been made head of the office's internal auditing department. The man had previously gone bankrupt with his restaurant, according to the article, against which the Biel/Bienne city government lodged a complaint with the Press Council.
According to the Press Council, however, the documents submitted by the parties showed that the man had not gone bankrupt, but had liquidated his small hotel in the normal way. The newspaper could have found this out with serious research, according to the Press Council's statement. The alleged bankruptcy was just one of various accusations made against the man in order to portray him as unsuitable for his office, the Press Council continues. The Bieler Tagblatt should therefore have heard the person concerned about the allegations.
The Press Council considered a public survey launched by the Bieler Tagblatt a week later under the title "Should the director resign?" to be problematic, although not yet in breach of professional ethics. The following week, the newspaper then published a series of anonymous responses that made sweepingly negative comments about the office and its management.
A majority of the Press Council was of the opinion that such an anonymous shard court was still within the bounds of freedom of comment. Nevertheless, it would have been more appropriate to publish and justify such harsh criticism in a named editorial commentary, the Press Council continued. The most important task of independent media, to critically monitor the work of the authorities and point out possible abuses, should not be delegated to anonymous reader surveys. (SDA)
