SRF "Arena": Criticism of Zurich's dominance
In an analysis of the political talk show «Arena,» *Der Sonntag* points out that guests who are not from Zurich are at a disadvantage. The newspaper also criticizes regular guests who appear on the show with disproportionate frequency.
According to Der Sonntag, it is mainly Zurich and Aargau residents who take part in discussions in the "Arena" studio. In 2012, a fifth of all invited guests came from Zurich. Measured against the proportion in parliament (14.6 percent), this represents a clear over-representation, the newspaper said. However, this does not only apply to Zurich: the percentage of guests from Bern, St. Gallen, Basel, Graubünden, Zug and Glarus is also higher than the percentage representation in the National Council and Council of States. Western Switzerland, on the other hand, was strongly underrepresented.
Sonntag also criticizes the "presence of the same guests over and over again". For example, Balthasar Glättli, the Green Party National Councillor from Zurich, had already appeared seven times in the "Arena" in 2012, Roland Fischer (GLP LU) six times and Martin Bäumle (GLP ZH) five times. Glättli explains his frequent presence to the newspaper Der Sonntag by saying that many of his party colleagues only take part if they are invited by the editors for the ring in the middle. He, on the other hand, also sees the second row as an opportunity to express his opinion on the topics under discussion.
The head of the "Arena" editorial team, Marianne Gilgen, told Der Sonntag that the cantonal affiliation of the guests was not a decisive criterion in the selection process. It is more important that parties and genders are represented in a balanced ratio. According to Gilgen, the implementation of this requirement is already complicated enough to take cantonal affiliation into account.
