Press Council: Overheard conversations
Are newspapers allowed to use private conversations that are overheard by chance by their own journalists or by third parties? Only to a limited extent, says the Press Council.
Media are not allowed to evaluate everything that journalists overhear in the public sphere, as the Press Council announced on Tuesday. If, however, the persons concerned are public and the content of the conversation is of public relevance, publication is permitted.
Snatched up information for the gossip columns
On May 6, 2012, Der Sonntag reported in its "Newsroom" column on a conversation between Filippo Leutenegger and Christoph Blocher that had taken place on an Intercity train between Zurich and Bern. The packed train had not stopped the two politicians from having an "audible" conversation about the Basel newspaper. "A Thurgau journalist sitting nearby became a forced listener," Der Sonntag wrote.
A short news item published by the Solothurner Zeitung on May 19, 2012, also falls under the heading "Picked up". It was about the magazine Schweizer Soldat, which had praised the secondos in the army and described them as "capable cadres". The Solothurner Zeitung wrote: "So far, a nice article," a DDPS spokesman for Ueli Maurer's Defense Department (DDPS) said to his seat neighbor on the train yesterday. The only thing was that the author claimed that the percentage of rejected secondos at the security check for recruits was strikingly high according to "initial surveys"; many were not entrusted with a weapon. The DDPS employee was even more annoyed that the article drew the attention of an AZ journalist to the topic. Based on his research, the author had to make a confession: A survey on rejected Secondos does not exist at all." (Summary: SDA)
No unfair methods
Both Der Sonntag and Solothurner Zeitung used information picked up in a train compartment to fill their political gossip columns. However, according to the Press Council, they did not use unfair methods, because anyone who overhears conversations in a train with other passengers is neither conducting undercover research nor does he have to introduce himself as a journalist. Moreover, the conversations were not about purely private matters, but about content relevant to the public, according to the Press Council.
Background information on this case can be found in the PDF format can be downloaded.
Teaser image: Keystone
