Schwyz government against free annual newspaper subscription for young people
The Schwyz government has spoken out against the idea of a free annual newspaper subscription for 18-year-olds. It considers this instrument for promoting young people's interest in regional media to be inappropriate.
The cost of a subscription does not appear to be the main obstacle to the lack of interest, as can be seen from the government council's response on Thursday to a postulate from the SP. In many cases, parents even have a newspaper subscription in their household.
The "Newspaper at school" project has also been in existence for some time. In this project, students and teachers from more than 20 classes receive the Messenger of the original Switzerland.
From a media policy perspective, the Government Council is not primarily concerned with promoting the purchase of subscriptions. Rather, high-quality media content must be developed in the formats used by this age group, as it goes on to say. However, this is the task of the media.
The government also states that the media are covered in the Schwyz curriculum. Political education would also be addressed in several subjects. Learners would also be sensitized to use established media as a safe source of information instead of social media.
SP cantonal councillors Martin Raña and Alex Keller had emphasized the importance of local media for democracy in a postulate. Young people should discover the personal benefits of paid-for local newspapers with a one-year free subscription to a title of their choice. The postulate was also intended to support the local media.
The Government Council proposes that the postulate be declared irrelevant. (SDA)