To the point: constraint
There are topics that come up again and again at regular intervals. They are as annoying as a garlic-flavored burp, but they are just as regular.
One of these topics is press promotion. Last week, it was that time again. The National Council's state policy committee sees the democratic political functions of the media "increasingly called into question". So the Federal Council should please present a funding concept and the draft legal basis for indirect and direct media funding by two years from now.
The Federal Council already opposed the request last year. Media Minister Doris Leuthard said it did not make sense to intervene in the middle of the process of reorienting the media toward the Internet. Pragmatically, she said that state intervention should only be considered if the industry could not solve problems itself. Possibilities would be, for example, state support for the training and continuing education of journalists or relief from value-added tax.
Those actually affected - the media - are also opposed. They fear that direct payments will be accompanied by interference in entrepreneurial or journalistic freedom. That's understandable. No one can be so naive as to believe that the state will simply give money. Those receiving funding would automatically have to meet certain criteria. There would be regulations and controls. Not exactly what one imagines freedom of the media to be.
Aktion Medienfreiheit is also opposed to this. The free market can only take place, it says, if media companies have entrepreneurial freedom and are in lively competition with each other. "The media must control the state and politics, not the other way around," says Filippo Leutenegger, president of Aktion Medienfreiheit. He is right. What's with the squeezing?
Proponents pointed to the death of newspapers. In 2000, there were 45 independent newspapers. Today there are 32, said Andreas Gross (SP, ZH) on behalf of the commission. This corresponds to a decline of 25 percent in ten years. Action must now be taken, he said. This is garbage. The decline in the number of newspapers will not be stopped by direct financial support and, at the same time, increased control of any regulations.
The state should simply ensure that certain framework conditions are improved. It's about postal taxes, VAT rates and a level playing field between the SRG and private media companies, i.e. a ban on online advertising for the SRG.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
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