SGV files a voting complaint
The Trade Association (SGV) is fighting with all means at its disposal against the device-independent reception fee for radio and television. Because its position is not presented as fact in the voting information, it has filed a complaint.
The stumbling block is the sentence: "There is a threat of a media tax of CHF 1,000 per household per year over the next few years". The Federal Chancellery has replaced this with: "In the opinion of the committee, this threatens 1000 francs of media tax per household per year over the next few years." According to a written statement, the Federal Chancellery has not corrected any substantive statements made by the referendum committee. It had merely ensured that voters would be able to identify the referendum committee as the author of the estimate on the alleged future development of radio and television fees. For its part, the Federal Council is assuming reception fees of around CHF 400 instead of the current figure of CHF 462.
The SGV does not agree with this. The Federal Chancellery is refusing to provide information that all objective evidence points to an increase in the new Billag media tax, it wrote in a press release on Tuesday. This would violate the political rights of free decision-making and the freedom to vote.
The SGV has therefore submitted a voting complaint to the cantonal government of Bern, demanding that the text be formulated "correctly and truthfully". When asked, the Federal Chancellery described it as "absurd" that the addition of a reference to a source should violate citizens' political rights.
The revision of the Radio and Television Act will be put to the vote on June 14. Because households would have to pay reception fees in future even if they do not own a device, the sgv is talking about a tax. Companies with an annual turnover of 500,000 or more would also have to pay a device-independent fee. The SGV has launched a referendum against this (Werbewoche.ch reported). (SDA)
