The fine art of the deadly embrace

Dissertations are dull because they almost always lack practical relevance or socio-political explosiveness. An exception to this rule is the doctoral thesis "Wipe out WEF - or not?", which a certain Franz Egle wrote in 2009 under the Zurich journalism professor Kurt Imhof (of all people!). In it, the ex-head of communications of the Swiss Foreign Ministry and long-time top advisor to WEF founder Klaus Schwab describes with scientific precision how he took his client and his Davos do-gooder association out of the line of fire at the height of the anti-globalization protests: "by opening the Davos annual meeting to media representatives." Until the WEF in New York in 2002, only a few hand-picked editors-in-chief from the Anglo-Saxon world business press had access. The fact that today Krethi and Plethi can report from the Davos Congress Center is therefore thanks to the communications strategy skills of the nimble Franz.

Those who are allowed to join this global six-star elite naturally ask fewer fundamental and uncomfortable questions than the people in the media, who do not "cultivate the exchange of ideas on economic policy" (Zeit editor Josef Joffe), but have to fill three hard days with special broadcasts and special pages. But even among the panelists, the lulling effect cleverly anticipated by Egle, which constitutes the actual "Spirit of Davos," has long since spread. In and around the congress center, the density of celebrities and cameras is so enormous that the meaningful short messages of the dutifully polled top shots neutralize each other. Journalistic curiosity looks different. Almost only the reporters without badges, such as Deirde ("just call me D") from CNBC, offer entertaining dissidence and original perspectives on banal events.

At her first WEF, she was determined to portray the last protesters and followed me and my Public Eye colleagues with her iPhone camera to collect "as authentic footage as possible. At the same time, she was sneering at the "amortization of our personnel and material costs" through as much non-controversial broadcasting time as possible, as her narrow-minded bosses had urged. Anyone observing the strong presence and weak programming of Swiss radio and television at the WEF is reminded of this motto. Instead of the ordinary media center, the 15- to 20-member SRF crew sits on the roof of the convention center, where CNN, BBC or CNBC also have their tent studios. Up here, Eco presenter Reto Lipp interviews business and political leaders live on the conveyor belt for the special WEF format - as cordially as harmlessly. 33 hours of cultivated chitchat that does no harm to anyone, but certainly benefits someone: Klaus Schwab's chatterbox, which has recently been granted special status by the Swiss government, thus receives the additional seal of relevance from the Swiss state media.

Disclaimer: The Public Eye was a prominent part of this year's SRF coverage from Davos. Ironically, this was also thanks to Klaus Schwab's request to his harshest critics to participate in the WEF's publicly accessible "Open Forum" in the future after all. However, the postscript to the generous offer was revealing: "...although of course it will not tolerate more critical questions there". Paradoxical, but true: Since the opening of the WEF, this restriction also applies to the journalism that takes place in and about it.

Oliver Classen is media spokesman for the Berne Declaration, a development policy organization, and Public Eye spokesman. Previously, he worked as a media journalist.