Swiss Capital Region Association wants to keep radio studio in Bern
The Swiss Capital Region Association is extremely critical of a possible relocation of the SRF radio studio in Bern to Zurich. It argues that it is not in the spirit of a federalist Switzerland for all national media organizations to be based primarily in Zurich in the future.
The association announced on Friday that such an approach would not be in line with the political will or the public service concept that the population associates with the SRG. It therefore wants to campaign for a strong political center in Bern with a corresponding media center.
If editorial political SRF "flagships" such as "Echo der Zeit" were no longer produced in Bern, this would be a clear weakening of Switzerland's political center.
The association also addresses the economic consequences. "As a major employer in our region, SRG is also of great economic importance," said Christoph Ammann (SP), Bern's Director of Economic Affairs, in the press release. Job cuts on the scale feared would be clearly noticeable in the region and would weaken the media location in the long term.
SRG announced at the beginning of the week that it was considering relocating the Bern radio studio to Zurich Leutschenbach (Werbewoche.ch reported). The association Hautpstadtregion Schweiz was founded at the end of 2010. Its members are the five cantons of Bern, Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Solothurn and Valais as well as numerous cities, municipalities and regional organizations. The association aims to strengthen the capital region as a political center and position it as an equal area between the three metropolitan areas of Zurich, Basel and the Lake Geneva region. (SDA)
