Federal Council against language quotas for music on public service broadcasters
SRG radio and television stations should not be required to devote at least 50 percent of their music programming to songs in one of the national languages. The Federal Council has rejected a motion in which National Council member Josef Zisyadis (PdA/VD) calls for such language quotas.
Zisyadis wants to ban non-national languages - such as English, which dominates the music business - from being represented in music programs by more than 20 percent. The Vaud native wants to take action against the "cultural dominance" of English.
However, the Federal Council believes that the SRG's programming autonomy enshrined in the constitution would be disproportionately restricted by the required quotas. In addition, the Federal Council believes that the national languages are already adequately represented in SRG radio programs, as it writes in its response to the motion published on Thursday.
According to the latest program analysis, 56 percent of the songs played on DRS 1.56 were in English, 9 percent in French, 9 percent in Swiss German dialect, 6 percent in German and 5 percent in Italian. The Rhaeto-Romansh and Welsch speakers are somewhat more reserved with English-language songs: On Radio Rumantsch, around 33 percent of songs were in English. 13 percent of the titles were Rhaeto-Romanic songs. The first program on French-speaking Swiss radio broadcast 32 percent English songs. 35 percent were French songs. On Rete Uno, the proportion of English songs was 54 percent. Italian songs accounted for 36 percent.
