The two bodies of the president

Guest commentary The publishers' association is by no means divided, as Norbert Neininger knows, and Hanspeter Lebrument would be well advised to
before the last Presiding Committee meeting at the plants of the
Elizabethan crown lawyers. They wrote to the king
two bodies: the natural, and therefore mortal, and one
supra-personal, who is never hungry, sweats or passes away, it is
the official body that is transferred from person to person. This
principle of distinguishing between the public function and the
The President would have called upon the people who hold them
could, indeed must. After all, at the Epiphany meeting he had his
public body, the presidential body, and what remained was the
the actually existing private Lebrument, and he pleaded for the
To the amazement of all for the end of direct or indirect
Press promotion.

Now - apart from the cartoon controversy - we no longer live in the
Middle Ages, and the astute distinction between private and
public person has been lost; even militia presidents are
always in office, especially at the Epiphany. What follows,
is quickly told: Astonished or outraged, but definitely irritated,
colleagues, members and journalists reacted until the
Association's Executive Committee brought things back on track. Unanimously
The association's leadership confirmed last week what was never in question.
the course taken will be continued, the publishers are in favor of
indirect press funding. Unanimously? How so? Well, this time
had the one, the public body of the president's hand
while the other remained motionless.

"Retour à la collegialité chez les éditeurs", reported "La Liberté"
and the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" said, "Publishers' association whistles
Lebrument back." And now everyone wants to know what it was really like.
Well then: The publisher's board of directors does not consist of pastors' daughters or
Crown lawyers, and the ten men are friends of frank words. Whether and
how much the president's cap has been washed over it.
report, I am forbidden by our decision to maintain discretion and thus the
Censorship. Just this much: The windows on Baumackerstrasse remained
open for once to keep the temperatures at a tolerable level.
and questions of content and form were discussed at length
...

So no split and no scandal either. Then relief in the
Association, but disappointment among the industry services: there is no
extraordinary general meeting, and the demand for a
Co-Presidents are also off the table. We don't need presidents either
have, as we now know, two bodies in one.

Norbert Neininger is a member of the board of the Swiss Press Association and CEO of Schaffhauser Nachrichten.