It is not only since the Arab Spring that we have known how social networks are used to freely express critical opinions, organize democratic rallies and exchange ideas with like-minded people, bypassing totalitarian governments. These freedoms are a thorn in the side of regimes in power. As a result, the internet is monitored, censored or blocked in countless countries around the world.

The software, developed at the University of Toronto since 2006, circumvents censorship by making the PCs of individual users available as proxy servers. The Psiphon user in an environment affected by censorship can connect to a Psiphon user in a free country via an encrypted connection to gain unfiltered access to the Internet.

The Canadian agency Rack & Pinion provides Psiphone The new version of the app is now attracting more attention through a smart campaign with serious content in order to gain additional users for circumventing Internet censorship. A Mac and Linux version is in development. (hae)

Tamedia's Bern printing center will take over the printing of an additional 620,000 copies of the Coopzeitung. The Swiss media group already prints 620,000 copies at its Lausanne printing center. As of June 2015, Tamedia's newspaper printing centers are thus the largest printing partner of the Coopzeitung with 1,240,000 copies of the total circulation of 2'550'290 copies. The Coop Group and the Swiss media group Tamedia have reached an agreement in view of the Closure of NZZ Print in Schlieren concluded a corresponding agreement with a term until 2019.

The Coopzeitung is published every Tuesday in the three Swiss national languages German, French and Italian. With 3,533,000 readers (Wemf Mach Basic 2014-2), the Coop Group's customer magazine is the biggest weekly newspaper in Switzerland. Since fall 2014, the three editions Coopzeitung, Coopération and Cooperazione have been published in magazine format.

"Printing the Coop newspaper in magazine format is technically demanding and demonstrates the high quality that is possible in newspaper printing today," Christoph Tonini, Chairman of Tamedia's Management Board, said in a statement. "The cooperation with Coop helps us to utilize our printing centers to capacity during the day as well, while at the same time we are the only company that can offer Coop three modern newspaper printing sites spread across German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland."
 

He played a key role in developing Swisscom's social media presence from 2009. In 2011, he took on the role of Social Media Manager at Group level, a position he held until the beginning of 2015. "We also want to anchor the strategic use of social media in PR," says Patrick Moeschler, "companies, associations and offices must integrate social media into their overall communication, brand management and business processes."

The 43-year-old Patrick Moeschler holds a law degree from the University of Bern and an MAS in Communication Management from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He lectures on social media and online courses at the Swiss School of Journalism MAZ and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and is a sought-after speaker, according to the press release.

Markus Somm, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of Basler Zeitung, remains Vice Chairman. Hanspeter Kellermüller, Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG, and Rolf Bollmann, Basler Zeitung, were elected as new members of the Board of Directors by the Annual General Meeting.

Presse TV is a joint venture of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the German-Japanese Development Company for Television Program MBH (DCTP), Basler Zeitung Medien and Axel Springer Schweiz.

Image. Nzz.ch

Together with a well-established team, Blank is in charge of the projects John Twenty, Best Offer, Deals@K Kiosk, Rotary Magazine and the newly created 20 Minuten marketplace, among others. "Roberto Blank will continue to consistently and continuously expand the Sales division, which is significant for Factum," says Valentino Mauriello, managing director of Factum Kommunikation. According to the statement, Roberto Blank is a proven sales and media specialist who has held various management positions in well-known publishing houses in the past. Most recently, he was senior key account manager at In-Media - a subsidiary of the DMC Group.
 

The result: Respondents trust firefighters, nurses, and—believe it or not!—pilots the most. Journalists continue to lose credibility: Only 26 percent trust the profession. This puts journalists in a sad tie with tour operators and union leaders. Only professions such as professional soccer players, politicians, financial advisors, and car salespeople fare worse. «Trust is good, control is better,» as the saying goes. So let’s do a thought experiment and ask how relevant it is for each profession that people trust them. Firefighters—it doesn’t matter at all, as long as they put out the fires. Nurses—it doesn’t matter either; you just feel better when you trust that the injection is administered correctly. Pilots—no comment at the moment. Tour operators—no trust, no revenue. Soccer players—what counts most here is self-confidence; a goal is a goal. Politicians—highly relevant; otherwise, no votes. And journalists? Let’s put it this way: In the best-case scenario, they smell the fire before the fire department arrives, aim the syringe straight at the wound, and then pull off a precision landing. So has someone miscalculated here? Don’t trust any study! afh
 

The Jury Award goes to the clip "Osama Obama" by the band Larytta, directed by Julien Mercier. The audience award goes to the clip "Du bisch willkomme" by the artist Effe and director Haris Dubica. Both "Best Swiss Video Clip" awards are endowed with 5,000 Swiss francs each and are being presented for the third time.

"Best Swiss Video Clip": Jury Award

Winner: "Osama Obama
Band: Larytta
Director: Julien Mercier

The jury has decided to award the prize to the clip "Osama Obama" by Lausanne band Larytta. Jury president Germinal Roaux says about the award: "The clip convinces with its perfect balance between a hit song and a strong visual presence that immediately captivates you. Julien Mercier's animation clip intelligently illustrates parallel human worlds that intersect in everyday life. With apparent ease, it allows for multi-layered reflection."

The jury was composed of: Jury President Germinal Roaux, filmmaker and photographer, Michael Kinzer, Artistic Director of the Festival de la Cité in Lausanne, and Eliane Laubscher, producer and music editor of the music section of Swiss Radio and Television SRF.

"Best Swiss Video Clip": Audience Award

Winner: "Du bisch Willkomme" (You are welcome)
Artist: Effe
Director: Haris Dubica

This audience award was determined by means of online voting on the Mx3 platform. A total of around 5'170 people cast their vote.

The jury was composed of: Jury President Germinal Roaux, filmmaker and photographer, Michael Kinzer, Artistic Director of the Festival de la Cité in Lausanne, and Eliane Laubscher, producer and music editor of the music section of Swiss Radio and Television SRF.
 

Beni Hirt combines many opposites. As a student, the business economist was intensively involved with the Young Socialists and the SP. He sees himself as a strong team player, but found too much democracy and too little decision-making freedom for himself in the four-member founding team of his own company. He loves the dynamism of a startup, but also appreciates the stability of a large parent company. He doesn't see this as contradictory. Rather, they are things that should be reconcilable. The 34-year-old looks younger than he is, and you can imagine that he is sometimes underestimated. The fact that he doesn't try to overplay it makes him likeable. He is open and sociable - you could easily spend an afternoon chatting with him. He has "no fear of strangers" and quickly strikes up a conversation with someone, Hirt says. "But I find building on existing relationships more exciting than making small talk. I'm also not a classic sales guy who can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. I'm someone who cultivates professional relationships."

Political commitment

Politics plays an important role when Beni Hirt talks about his career - even if he now only pays the "income-dependent membership fees" at the SP, as he sums up with a smile. At the age of 24, the former Steiner student and business administration student made it into the Bern city parliament for the Young Socialists. After completing his studies, he worked in the national secretariat of the SP, where he was first responsible for campaigns and communication issues and later headed the finances. In 2010, however, he had enough of party work and moved to SBB. He had already hung up his political posts a year earlier. For one thing, the first of his two sons was born at that time. For another, "the desire and passion had been lost. Hirt was tired of "the same local political issues all the time and that everything was moving forward so slowly.

The own agency

This was followed by his first own company, Apps with love, which Hirt founded in 2010 with three friends. In an instant conversation back then, they came to the conclusion: we want to implement our ideas in our own tools. "The mills of the political system grind slowly. A startup is the opposite. It's brutally dynamic. I liked that." Apps with love was strongly art- and culture-driven and remains so today, Hirt tells us. The agency was founded with the motivation to realize its own app ideas, he says. Only later did the agency accept client orders in order to cross-finance these app ideas. He still finds the development of his own tools exciting, but for him - in contrast to the rest of the founding team - "the entrepreneurial development was already in the foreground at the beginning," Hirt admits in retrospect.

A few months ago, there was a break with Apps with love. According to Hirt, the deciding factor was different ideas about the future of the agency. "I wanted to grow more, for market considerations, " he explains. "There will be consolidations. At the same time, small startups will drive down the price. In a middle position, I think it's difficult to compete." Apps with love is successful in its own right. The likeable Bern-based agency has more than a dozen employees and has won several Best of Swiss Apps awards for its creative apps. But Hirt feels that his economic considerations were not given enough weight in the founding team. Over time, there was a lack of mutual appreciation and trust. "I pushed through decisions that didn't suit everyone." A dismissal on Hirt's part that was not agreed upon was the straw that broke the camel's back. The friction losses became too great for him, and he had to "orientate himself too strongly inward" due to the conflicts. Hirt speaks calmly about the events of the last few months. However, these had already taken their toll on him. He speaks of a mourning process with various phases. In the meantime, however, he has also made plans for the future and discussed them with many friends and acquaintances. His dream scenario was to be active again as an entrepreneur. In terms of industry, Hirt was open. "I brought the network and experience that matched for the current position at Swiss Digital. But that could be applied elsewhere," he says. Hirt describes himself as a generalist. He's interested in mobile technologies "because it's a growth market in which you can grow along with it and there are still a lot of unexpected things possible.

Technology know-how through the parent company

Swiss Digital is part of the Europe-wide NTH Group, which employs 25 mobile developers and designers, among others. Thanks to the close cooperation with the parent company, the startup, which has only three employees, can offer comprehensive solutions in the area of mobile technologies, such as specially produced beacons including software modules. A small, agile team of consultants and, in the background, a large resource base with a lot of technology know-how, that is the strength of Swiss Digital for Hirt. A lot of administrative work is also handled by the NTH Group. He appreciates this comfortable situation. "It allows us to focus on the core business. Of course, it's not the same as building a company from scratch. But we are very free with the further development of the offering." Creating ideas out of thin air is not his thing anyway. But when he gets some, he's relatively good at developing something from it. "One of my strengths is modeling things and making more of them." And Swiss Digital has nothing standing in his way.

Simone Isliker
 

As a professional cyclist, Loosli was mainly under contract with Italian teams. He took part in the Tour de France four times and the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta twice each before retiring at the end of 2011. Today, Loosli is employed full-time as sporting director of the Tour de Suisse at Infront Ringier and is at the forefront of preparation, planning and implementation.

Loosli can be heard for the first time at the Gold Race with finish in Maastricht/Holland. SRF will be broadcasting the race on Sunday, April 19, 2015. "I'm really looking forward to commentating and working with my colleagues at SRF. As a former professional cyclist, it is a particular pleasure for me to pass on my knowledge to the audience," says the 34-year-old from Bern. Martin Zinser, Editorial Director of Sportlive at SRF, is also delighted with the addition to the team: "In David Loosli, we have brought a proven expert into the team alongside Sven Montgomery. He knows the scene from different perspectives and can draw on his many years of varied experience."

Even empty phrases occasionally provide insights. For example, in the case of Federal Councilor Alain Berset. As a Social Democrat, he is a member of a party that constantly and rightly emphasizes and laments the social differences in Switzerland and the world and tries to reduce them. Berset said last week in the National Council that the current and heated debate about Swiss historical images was dividing the country "unnecessarily". Interposed question: Are there necessary divisions that the country has to endure? The striking differences in income and wealth, for example? Unquestionably acceptable, since they are important for the success of the big banks and for their shareholders at home and abroad? And what about the increasingly difficult access for foreigners to citizenship - and thus to political rights? One question remains: What kind of democrats are these who deprive other residents and taxpayers - sometimes for decades - of political participation? Is this a society with limited democracy, a GmbD?

No, such questions were not Berset's intention. He was guided by the bourgeois and boring national tradition of talking down contradictions. Anyone who asks questions and makes demands outside of this unwritten agreement remains an outsider. This happened to the Social Democrats until they accepted national defense and stopped talking about the class struggle that the bourgeoisie continued to wage.

Where rifts open up, calls for harmonization no longer help. Specifically, in Switzerland - as in other European countries - a culture war has been steaming for years, driven by traditionalist/fundamentalist Christians, pro-lifers and nationalist economic liberals. Battlegrounds are topics like families (exclusively for heteros?), registered partnerships, abortion, drugs and national identity in a Christian-Jewish Occident (with or without Muslims?). Or in other words: Many social liberalizations of past decades are to be stopped or reversed. (If you want to read how intolerant, narrow-minded and joyless Swiss society was in the 1950s to 1970s, read for an hour in the late journalist Max Schmid's book. Democracy from Case to Case. Zurich 1976.)

This national-conservative alliance has a starting advantage. It cultivates images of history that were still a bourgeois consensus until the mid-1980s, summarized in the formula "Switzerland as a special case," which could also be used to justify political isolation (no membership in international organizations such as the UN or the EU). The rest was and is folklore: no battle celebration without men in Landsknecht uniforms, no OLMA guest canton without halberd bearers.

These Swiss myths dominate even in places where one would not expect it. Historian Thomas Maissen, once NZZ editor, then history professor in Heidelberg, now director of the German Historical Institute in Paris, mentions an illuminating example: almost all of his interviews on Swiss historical images were illustrated in the print media by the editors either with "some copperplate engraving of the federal oath" or with a photograph from World War II. They would thus "reduce Swiss history to two phases of heroic resistance against foreign villains," on the one hand the Habsburg bailiffs, on the other the "Nazi henchmen. This is the construct that Blocher & Mörgeli & Köppel are trying to spread in these weeks. They respond to criticism with insinuations, like Christoph Blocher: Maissen is belittling Switzerland because he wants to lead it into the EU. Conclusion: Controversy is necessary. Even media professionals, whether in editorial offices, PR bureaus or advertising agencies, cannot avoid turning more to the enlightened and urban Switzerland. And to the liberal traditions that were able to develop in Switzerland against the resistance of patricians, clergy and mountain farmers.

Hans Stutz is a journalist in Lucerne. He is also a member of the Cantonal Council and the Green Party.
 

"First and foremost, a business report must fulfill the central components such as accountability, publication obligations and a description of the course of business. This basic approach was the inspiration for our guiding idea. Enriched with a story that serves to deliver on the brand promise and reinforce the brand values, it was a perfect fit," sums up Denise Nick, Managing Director of Partner & Partner.

The idea is simple: Zürcher Kantonalbank is on the road all year round in the service of its stakeholders, and its tasks are diverse and complex. The concept of annual reporting creates a narrative bridge between activities and bare figures. Readers are taken on a journey through the Canton of Zurich. In both the annual report and the sustainability report, figures and information are presented in a factual manner and enriched with surprising little stories about individual municipalities. Infographics, maps and figures play an important role. The data for this comes from research by the agency, in collaboration with Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Statistical Office of the Canton of Zurich.

The annual report is accompanied by a magazine in which Partner & Partner was able to showcase its expertise in publishing and storytelling. In the print and online magazine "Unterwegs," photographer Markus Bühler and author Benno Maggi document a journey from the smallest community in the canton to the largest. On foot, by boat and by train, the two flaneurs show a lot of what makes this canton special, with untouched nature that makes you think you're on the Amazon, with the agglomeration in constant transformation with its contradictions, and with the cultural diversity in the city of Zurich. A successful mixture of hard and soft facts, duty and freestyle, wit and seriousness, picture and text information.

Zkb.ch/annual-report

Responsible at Zürcher Kantonalbank: Roman Oberholzer (Head of Internal Communication & Publicity), Luca Aloisi (Project Manager Internal Communication & Publicity). Responsible at Partner & Partner: Denise Nick (strategy/concept), Benno Maggi (creative direction/text), Tiziana Mascolo (project management/consulting), Julia Gleichauf (AD/print), Kushtrim Xhaferi (AD/online), Urban Fetz, Bettina Baumann (balance sheets/infographics), Ueli Steingruber (photography portraits), Markus Bühler-Rasom (photography reportage).