Next time please without
Column If it's all the same, then it's all the same: it's better to have tangible scandals than trunks stories stylized as affairs, writes Jürg Altwegg.
Column If you must, then go for it: it's better to have tangible scandals rather than stories that have been stylized as scandals in swimming trunks.The French "Clearstream" and Chirac scandals no longer need to shy away from comparison with the Watergate scandal that once brought down American President Nixon and turned two journalists into global heroes. But even compared to the caricature controversy, Berlusconi and the spying on journalists by the German secret service, the BND, our media scandals are mostly of a staid tranquillity. The last example: While an English tabloid showed the German Chancellor in thoroughly tasteless fashion changing her clothes and showing her bare bottom, the Blick aroused the public with stolen, but thoroughly chaste photos of Federal Councillor Leuenberger on the beach.The military justice system is now taking it a little easier with the stubborn pursuit of treason from some bunkers. The fax affair is apparently not quite so hot and explosive after all. The only dead person in a local media scandal was doomed to die anyway. In the case of the Zurich heart surgeon who - "knowingly", as the NZZ claimed on Sunday - implanted an organ with the wrong blood group into his patient, the Federal Court has just handed down a swift ruling: the NZZ is granted source protection. The Borer affair remains the lone highlight of our media scandals - with dirty sex, hush money and resignations.
But this has now been almost as forgotten and suppressed as the resignation of his successor in Washington, Carlo Jagmetti, which was also forced by the media. The publication of his secret report to the Federal Council in the middle of the past crisis was of public interest. The International Court of Human Rights called the punishment of the journalist responsible "a form of censorship". Another aspect is the dramatic, exaggerated staging by the SonntagsZeitung with its demand for his resignation. It was ten years ago, the climate was heated - hopefully the government would resist a demand for resignation a little longer today. In any case, politicians have now learned a thing or two about dealing with the media.
Moritz Leuenberger has managed to make maximum profit from the "swimming trunks affair". He is not only in a good physical position - his decision not to file a lawsuit against Blick makes him appear tolerant and not vindictive. There is no doubt that he would have won a lawsuit - but why should he? In a nice accompanying report, the NZZ am Sonntag wrote about the politicians and statesmen who like to show themselves bathing - from Mao to Villepin. A trial would have damaged Leuenberger's image - by not releasing the flattering stolen pictures for publication, he doesn't even have to take responsibility for them.
The most disgusting thing about the "swimming trunks affair" is its banality. Moritz in shape and on vacation. Almost everyone volunteered to take pictures like this. Only the methods are reprehensible: The private paparazzo was not only paid - he was also guaranteed anonymity. I wonder what Strasbourg would say about this?
Le Temps wrote of a "breach of taboo" - the boundaries are being blurred rather insidiously. Several newspapers claimed that such a violation of a politician's privacy had never happened before - they have obviously forgotten and suppressed Borer. In fact, only a complaint by Leuenberger could have given this affair a touch of subversiveness and a pinch of legitimacy. But the pictures are not worth violating good journalistic manners for. That shady informants and amateur photographers with cell phones are paid a share of the travel costs for the unscrupulous exploitation of other hotel guests and that the cowards are also guaranteed source protection. Even well-behaved tabloid media like Blick should only resort to these instruments when freedom and enlightenment are at stake. Or when it comes to causing a real scandal. Somehow the English tabloid was less hypocritical when it exposed Angie's backside. To be honest, we would have preferred to see our Moritz like that. At least we now understand Blick's problems a little better.
Jürg Altwegg is the cultural correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Geneva.
But this has now been almost as forgotten and suppressed as the resignation of his successor in Washington, Carlo Jagmetti, which was also forced by the media. The publication of his secret report to the Federal Council in the middle of the past crisis was of public interest. The International Court of Human Rights called the punishment of the journalist responsible "a form of censorship". Another aspect is the dramatic, exaggerated staging by the SonntagsZeitung with its demand for his resignation. It was ten years ago, the climate was heated - hopefully the government would resist a demand for resignation a little longer today. In any case, politicians have now learned a thing or two about dealing with the media.
Moritz Leuenberger has managed to make maximum profit from the "swimming trunks affair". He is not only in a good physical position - his decision not to file a lawsuit against Blick makes him appear tolerant and not vindictive. There is no doubt that he would have won a lawsuit - but why should he? In a nice accompanying report, the NZZ am Sonntag wrote about the politicians and statesmen who like to show themselves bathing - from Mao to Villepin. A trial would have damaged Leuenberger's image - by not releasing the flattering stolen pictures for publication, he doesn't even have to take responsibility for them.
The most disgusting thing about the "swimming trunks affair" is its banality. Moritz in shape and on vacation. Almost everyone volunteered to take pictures like this. Only the methods are reprehensible: The private paparazzo was not only paid - he was also guaranteed anonymity. I wonder what Strasbourg would say about this?
Le Temps wrote of a "breach of taboo" - the boundaries are being blurred rather insidiously. Several newspapers claimed that such a violation of a politician's privacy had never happened before - they have obviously forgotten and suppressed Borer. In fact, only a complaint by Leuenberger could have given this affair a touch of subversiveness and a pinch of legitimacy. But the pictures are not worth violating good journalistic manners for. That shady informants and amateur photographers with cell phones are paid a share of the travel costs for the unscrupulous exploitation of other hotel guests and that the cowards are also guaranteed source protection. Even well-behaved tabloid media like Blick should only resort to these instruments when freedom and enlightenment are at stake. Or when it comes to causing a real scandal. Somehow the English tabloid was less hypocritical when it exposed Angie's backside. To be honest, we would have preferred to see our Moritz like that. At least we now understand Blick's problems a little better.
Jürg Altwegg is the cultural correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Geneva.
