SRG: Significantly more ombudsman cases than in the previous year

Ombudsman Achille Casanova and his deputy Sylvia Egli von Matt considered just under a quarter of these to be "more or less justified".

In 50 of the 171 complaints submitted in the 2011 financial year, it was not legally possible to formally address the complaint, according to a press release issued on Tuesday. These complaints were mostly forwarded for direct response. Of the 116 substantive ombudsman cases dealt with, 14 (previous year 17) related to radio, 101 (previous year 84) to television and 1 to other journalistic services, which now also fall within the remit of the ombudsman's office. As in previous years, it was mainly information broadcasts that were the subject of complaints. What is striking, however, is that only six complaints were submitted in connection with the federal elections. Of these, only one was judged to be justified, which indicates the strict observance of the special duties of care in the run-up to elections.

"Tagesschau" had the most complaints

The leader among the television programs with complaints was "Tagesschau" with 18 complaints, followed by "Wort zum Sonntag" and "Einstein" with nine complaints each. In radio, the news programs had the most complaints (3 complaints), followed by "Rendez-vous" and "Echo der Zeit" with two complaints each. Compared to the last three years, the number of cases judged to be "more or less justified" has increased slightly (23%). However, this percentage is below the average of the last 16 years.

Most frequently doubted appropriateness

As in the previous year, the majority of complaints were that a program was inappropriate or politically biased (51%, previous year 42%). A fifth claimed that a program defamed a person, association or company (20 percent, previous year 37 percent). Just under a fifth of complaints related to general objections and technical problems (18%, previous year 7%) and around a tenth complained because a program was deemed sexually offensive or unethical (9%, previous year 8%). Hardly any complaints were made about offending religious feelings (1 percent, previous year 4 percent) or depictions of violence (1 percent, same as previous year). Of the settled complaints, only 13 (previous year: 9) were forwarded to the Independent Complaints Authority (UBI), which confirms the role of the ombudsman's office in relieving the UBI.

The complete 2011 annual report of the SRG.D ombudsman's office and all final reports are available at here can be viewed.