Federal Court: SF did not discriminate against animal rights activist Kessler

In 2008 and 2009, VGT President Kessler came to the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) with the complaint that he had been systematically boycotted by SF for years. SF should be instructed to abandon this "television censorship" against the VgT. Among other things, Kessler criticized the fact that SF had not reported on a 2009 decision by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The judges in Strasbourg came to the conclusion that SF had wrongly not broadcast an animal protection commercial by the VGT in 1994.

The UBI did not respond to the submissions, but was then obliged by the Federal Supreme Court to conduct an in-depth examination of the question of whether SF systematically discriminated against the VGT in its reporting. The UBI denied this in its decision of October 2010. The Federal Court has now dismissed the appeal lodged by Kessler. According to the court, an unlawful boycott of the VGT cannot be assumed. There were objective reasons for the relatively small number of articles about the VGT.

"Not a player to be taken seriously"

The mere fact that Kessler considers certain events to be very important does not mean that their non-mention on SF is unlawful. Moreover, the VGT has sufficient channels and opportunities to draw attention to its concerns.

However, according to the judges in Lausanne, some of SF's behavior may indeed indicate a certain animosity towards the VGT. For example, the then SF editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann stated in an interview in 2007 that "Kessler was not a serious player in the public debate".

This statement was misguided and could have given Kessler cause to fear that the VgGT's concerns would no longer be properly addressed. However, the SRG subsequently clarified that the statement was not directed against the aims and objectives of the VGT, but against the means used. (SDA)