Criticism of Trump 'arena' hits home in UBI annual report
Last year, the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) received more complaints than it had at any time since 1991. Eight of those complaints alone concerned the «Arena» episode «Trump’s War on the Media,» which had sparked a great deal of controversy.
A total of 31 new complaints were received in 2017, according to the UBI's annual report published Tuesday. That is 12 more than in the previous year. The eight ombudsman offices upstream of the UBI even reached a record level with a total of 881 complaints. In the previous year, the number of complaints was 320.
The SRF program "Arena" entitled "Trump's war on the media", which was broadcast on February 24, 2017, was primarily responsible for this flood of reports. The ombudsman received almost 500 complaints about this "Arena" alone.
Polarizing arena broadcast
Eight new complaints received by the UBI in 2017 were also directed against this program. Among other things, they criticized the way presenter Jonas Projer dealt with historian Daniele Ganser, who was a guest on the program. The UBI ultimately rejected the complaints by a narrow margin, with a casting vote by the vice president, because in her view the program did not constitute a violation of the Radio and Television Act. In the UBI's view, the decisive factor was in particular that what many complainants considered to be unfair treatment of Ganser was addressed in the broadcast itself, thus making it transparent for the audience.
Two complaints approved
In two of the complaint proceedings handled in the reporting year, however, the UBI found a violation of the law. On the one hand, it approved the criticism of the video "Putin macht den Cowboy", which was shown on the Facebook page of SRF News. From the UBI's point of view, the audience was not able to form its own opinion, as essential facts about the footage of a horse reintroduction campaign were not mentioned and Russian President Vladimir Putin was also criticized in a sweeping manner for his Syria policy.
The UBI also upheld a complaint by the SVP against a report on the future of energy broadcast by Radio SRF's "HeuteMorgen" program. The report was broadcast 19 days before the federal vote on the energy law. In particular, a statement by the editor that the SVP was "certainly not right" with its cost calculations was misleading and biased in the view of the appeal authority.
Criticism of online messages
The other new complaints received were also all directed against SRG publications, with one exception. In addition, a contribution from the private broadcaster Tele Züri was objected to, which was also broadcast on Tele Bärn and Tele M1. The proportion of complaints against online publications was strikingly high, the UBI states in its media release. Although it has only been possible to complain to the UBI about SRG online publications since mid-2016, seven complaints were received against corresponding contributions, which is already more than against radio broadcasts (5 complaints). However, television remains the most complained about medium (19 complaints). (SDA)
Image: UBI
