Press Council: Weltwoche has insufficiently verified anonymous sources
The Swiss Press Council has partially upheld a complaint against *Die Weltwoche*. It criticized the weekly newspaper for failing to carefully verify the claims made by two anonymous sources before publication. Furthermore, it stated that the newspaper corrected the false report too late and only inadequately.
In June 2010, Weltwoche reported in its "People Control" column that the Judicial Commission of the United Federal Assembly had promised an applicant for a judgeship at the Federal Patent Court an "illegal bonus" in the form of a supplement of CHF 30'000 per year on top of the starting salary, in violation of regulations. The court commission immediately denied this. It was not until September 2010 that Weltwoche stated that the Commission had not formally violated the law, but that it had violated the "internal guideline for setting judges' salaries.
The Press Council partially upholds the complaint filed by the Judicial Commission against Weltwoche. Before the first publication, the weekly magazine would have been obliged to confront the commission with the accusation, according to the statement of the Press Council. The clarification, which came only three and a half months after the publication of the first report, was also too late and incomplete. Weltwoche should at least have pointed out that the commission denied any irregularities. The Press Council, on the other hand, does not consider the requirement of fairness in research to have been violated. Weltwoche was allowed to publish the information it had received through an indiscretion and to criticize the Commission's behavior towards its journalist.
