Swiss Press Council rejects complaint against NZZ am Sonntag/St. Galler Tagblatt

In her complaint, the congress organizer accused the two newspapers of conducting a "smear campaign" based on unverified statements by a denouncer and a sect representative. All factual information about the congress and her person had been suppressed in the reporting. The newspapers had written that experts in sect prevention were appalled that the city of St. Gallen wanted to support the event. One sect expert was quoted as saying that the organizer represented a dogmatic world view and did not tolerate any other opinions. This puts the feminist group in the vicinity of a fundamentalist religious movement.
 
The Press Council rejected this complaint on the grounds that it was not objectionable from a professional ethics perspective that the two newspapers had reported critically on the Matriarchal Congress and questioned the city's contribution. It is also within the editorial discretion to limit reporting to aspects that are relevant from a journalistic point of view, even if these are not central to the organizer. This is what the Press Council wrote in a press release on Tuesday. The complainant was able to make a clear statement about the allegations. In addition, the reporting in the St. Galler Tagblatt revealed that the city of St. Gallen stood by its article because the sectarian accusation had not been substantiated.
 
The accusation of an orchestrated media campaign is just as unsubstantiated as the accusation that the quoted former employee is a denouncer, writes the Press Council. However, it is not the task of the Press Council to conduct evidence proceedings on disputed factual allegations. It therefore relies primarily on the documents submitted by the parties.
 
The Press Council did not address the allegation that the reporting violated the human dignity of the congress director due to a lack of sufficient justification.