Press council supports Landbote editor-in-chief in "hunter dispute
The editor-in-chief of the Winterthurer Landbote dismissed a columnist for valid reasons. The Swiss Press Council rejected a complaint filed by the columnist, as the council announced on Tuesday. The dispute arose over a column about hunters.
In the controversial column, the author Nicolas Lindt told a story that friends had experienced with their dog. The free-ranging animal had attacked a deer, which fled, but was later searched for by hunters and shot. The incident had a legal aftermath.
Lindt took the side of the dog, which kills according to its nature. Hunters against it are basically serial killers, who would commit a murder on each hunt from blood lust. The argument of the game population regulation was pure Bemäntelung. Then Lindt struck the bow to the meat consumption in itself: In the slaughterhouses a mass murder without equal takes place daily.
After the column appeared in the "Tribüne" of June 18, 2011, the hunting community contacted editor-in-chief Colette Gradwohl. Jagd Zürich sent a rejoinder, which was published in the paper a week later - with a note from the editors stating that Lindt's column did not correctly reflect the facts in essential points.
In advance, Gradwohl had sent the article to Lindt, but the latter had not responded. At the same time, she informed him of the end of the cooperation.
A "Tribüne" article does not have to reflect the editorial opinion. However, it must be possible to rely on the fact that the articles are correctly researched, that the facts presented are true and that the content is not disparaging.
This had not been the case with his column. Later, Gradwohl explained that the decisive factor in her decision was that the story was not about a friend's dog, but about Lindt's own. In doing so, he had deceived the editors and readers and betrayed their trust.
Lindt did not want to accept the termination of the cooperation. He filed a complaint with the Press Council. Gradwohl had acted hastily under pressure from the hunting community. It had violated the declaration of the duties and rights of journalists.
The press council rejected now the complaint, as it is called in the report. The assertion that the editor-in-chief had buckled under pressure from the hunting community was not substantiated. On the contrary: The indicated journalistic reasons for the termination of co-operation appeared plausible. Gradwohl had not violated the guidelines.
