Newly founded "Media Freedom Campaign" fights against advertising bans

 
The conservative "Campaign for Media Freedom", chaired by Zurich FDP National Councillor Filippo Leutenegger, presented its program in Bern on Friday. It sees itself confronted with unnecessary state intervention and subsidies in the media market and wants to combat these. According to Leutenegger, the forest of paragraphs must be cleared. The state is beginning to observe and even control the media. The "Media Freedom Campaign" wants to counteract this trend. The campaign is also calling for advertising bans to be lifted. The ban on alcohol, tobacco and political advertising on television should be lifted, demanded Zurich SVP National Councillor Natalie Rickli. St. Gallen CVP National Councillor Thomas Müller said that advertising should only be banned for prohibited items, but not for permitted items. He thus reiterated the campaign's fundamental position on advertising bans.
When asked in which area the advertising bans should be pushed back, Filippo Leutenegger told Advertising Week: "Basically where the EU is more liberal than Switzerland, for example in alcohol advertising. In such cases there is also a chance of success, in other cases it is difficult due to the legal situation." He can well imagine working together with other organizations that are fighting against advertising bans.
The revision of the Radio and Television Act (RTVA) was also criticized. It had gone in the wrong direction, said Leutenegger. Instead of opening up innovation and entrepreneurial scope, it had created a state pot of money for publishers, radio and TV stations. The RTVA was a misconstruction. It weakens the private broadcasters by assigning them only regional functions. At the same time, it cements the privileged position of the SRG at national level. Private media pioneers would therefore have a difficult time.
In the autumn session, the campaign intends to submit parliamentary initiatives for the liberalization of media law. No proposals have yet been drawn up. It includes members of the National Council from the FDP, CVP and SVP.