BaZ names names wrongly
The Press Council has reprimanded the Basler Zeitung for several articles about the Child and Adult Protection Authority (Kesb) in Basel-Stadt.
The Basler Zeitung has violated the journalists' code of conduct with the articles "Authorities refuse to provide information to a mother" and "A mother fighting the authorities". The Swiss Press Council upholds a complaint by the Kesb Basel-Stadt. In its decision, it states that the name of a Kesb employee should not have been mentioned. She works as a social worker and therefore has no decision-making function. The naming of the employee was also not justified by an overriding public interest.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Press Council gives BaZ credit for having removed the name of the employee in the available publications (SMD, online, e-paper) after the intervention of the Kesb, or for having made her name anonymous by using the first letter of her first and last name. However, this does not undo the violation of the Code. It is also disturbing that the Kesb employee was first mentioned with her full name in a follow-up article on BaZ kompakt.
