Ombudsman: "Reporter" about Giusep Fry was OK
According to the SRG Deutschschweiz Ombudsman, a «Reporter» segment on SRF television about Giusep Fry, a hotelier on Zurich’s Üetliberg, is not grounds for complaint. He considers a viewer’s complaint about the segment to be unfounded.
On November 23, "Reporter" portrayed the controversial hotelier (Link to the film). The president of the Pro Üetliberg association did not agree with the film at all. In her opinion, the report was one-sided and embellished. Untruths had gone unchallenged. She turned to the ombudsman Achille Casanova. According to the SRG-D newsletter, Marius Born, head of the SRF "Documentaries and Reportage" department, stated in his statement that it was a portrait of the "notoriously controversial protagonist". The aim was to "trace his personality".
According to ombudsman Casanova, it was permissible to give the portrayed Fry the opportunity to comment on the conflicts with nature and heritage conservationists as well as with the legislator from his point of view. For the individual program, objectivity does not mean "balance in the sense of presenting all points of view as equally as possible". If a topic is approached from a certain angle, this must be made transparent and the essential facts must be conveyed correctly. This was the case with the "Reporter" program. In addition, the report "clearly pointed out Fry's conflicts with the law and the concerns of nature and heritage conservation on several occasions". (SDA)
