Press Council approves complaint against Bodensee Nachrichten

 
The Swiss Press Council has partially upheld a complaint by the political community of Rorschacherberg against the Bodensee Nachrichten and the Rheintaler Boten. The newspapers published articles in January and February 2007 about various alleged grievances in the St. Gallen municipality. In March, Rorschacherberg appealed to the Press Council. The Council declared that three points of the "Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Journalists" had been violated: the two newspapers would have been obliged to hear the mayor about the accusations made against him and to grant him the right to the best argument. In addition, an excessive number of anonymous letters to the editor had been printed. Finally, the Press Council criticized the omission of important information. For example, readers should have been informed that the editorial director had filed a supervisory complaint with the Department of Home Affairs of the Canton of St. Gallen because of the alleged abuses in the municipality.
The newspapers criticized an allegedly exorbitant salary for a secretary to the mayor, allegedly overpriced street lighting and other alleged abuses in the political municipality of Rorschacherberg. The editorial director of Bodensee Nachrichten rejected the municipality's complaint to the Press Council, which was launched in March, as unfounded.