Press Council: BaZ missed confrontation
The Swiss Press Council has partially upheld a complaint against the Basler Zeitung newspaper. It should have compulsorily confronted an employee of the federal administration with the accusations made against him.
In June 2014, the newspaper published anonymous allegations against the head of the Shipping Section of the Federal Office of Transport. The accusation was that he harassed the inland navigation industry with petty interpretations of paragraphs and favored long-time favorites. According to the Press Council, there is a public interest in investigating and possibly publishing any abuses in a federal office, as it announced on Monday. However, BaZ should have confronted the official in view of the seriousness of the allegations. This duty applies all the more if the authors of the allegations in the newspaper remain anonymous.
In a second case, the Press Council rejected a complaint against the Basler Zeitung. This concerned reporting on the award procedure for a school complex in Oberwil BL in the first half of 2014. The municipality had awarded a contract for the new building to a company whose co-owner is the husband of the Oberwil municipal president. The municipality complained against what it saw as unfair reporting. The Press Council has now come to the conclusion that the municipality was heard and had its say. Only in one case was it given a "relatively short period of time to comment". Nor were any untrue statements of fact made.
The Press Council has no sanctioning powers; its opinions and recommendations are only declaratory in nature. (SDA)
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