Acquittal of editor-in-chief Arthur Rutishauser overturned
Arthur Rutishauser was found guilty of publishing official confidential documents. In 2012, he had quoted excerpts from the confidential PUK report on the BVK affair. The Federal Supreme Court overturned the acquittal handed down by the Zurich High Court.
Rutishauser, now editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger and Sonntagszeitung, published two articles in the Tages-Anzeiger on August 28, 2012 and September 10, 2012 about the corruption case at the Zurich pension fund BVK. It quoted around a dozen passages from the draft final report of the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (PUK) of the Zurich Cantonal Council, which is still being kept under lock and key. The governor's office of the district of Zurich sentenced him to a fine of 800 francs. Rutishauser was subsequently acquitted by both the district court and the Zurich High Court. The High Court came to the conclusion that the public had a legitimate interest in being informed before the publication of the report, which was announced for the beginning of October 2012.
Contribution to the debate
The Federal Supreme Court has now overturned the corresponding decision in a ruling published on Monday. The decisive factor for the publication of a secret official document is whether or not the information makes a contribution to the public debate on the topic. This was not the case. According to the judges in Lausanne, the public debate could also have taken place following the official publication of the PUK's final report. The opinion-forming process within the PUK had not yet been completed at the time of publication of the first newspaper article. The work of the PUK could therefore have been disrupted. However, according to the Federal Supreme Court, there is a great state interest in keeping the activities of a PUK secret.
Tamedia: "Strange understanding of the media"
In the opinion of Rutishauser's employer Tamedia, the argument that the media could have waited until the official publication of the report before reporting is evidence of a "strange understanding of the media" by the Federal Supreme Court. A research stop during the work of a PUK is "out of the question", as Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer told the news agency SDA when asked. With its reporting, the Tages-Anzeiger had made an important contribution to clearing up the BVK affair, one of the biggest corruption scandals in Zurich's history with damages of up to CHF 1.5 billion, said Zimmer. Convicting journalists for publishing official documents was "a devastating signal for media freedom in our country". Zimmer also explicitly pointed out that there is still no legally binding judgment against Arthur Rutishauser. If the new ruling by the Zurich High Court ordered by the Federal Supreme Court is negative, Tamedia will "of course examine all legal remedies". It is therefore quite possible that the Federal Supreme Court will also have to deal with the case again. (SDA)
