UBI: Freedom of expression in SRF online forums
On Thursday, the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) ruled on two complaints regarding the non-publication of comments on SRF’s online forums. It upheld one of the complaints and dismissed the other. It also dismissed the complaint against a segment on the RTS radio program «Forum» regarding the elections in the canton of Zurich.
The subject of two complaints was the handling of comment columns on online articles by the community editorial team of Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF. The editorial team had not published two comments by the same user due to violations of the company's own netiquette. The community editorial team justified this in one case with "personal attacks" and in the other case with a lack of relevance to the topic. As part of the public consultations, the UBI had to assess whether the conditions for a corresponding interference with the freedom of expression of the user in question were met. In the case of the comment with the "personal attacks", it came to the conclusion that there were relevant reasons for a rejection. The user's comment contained several derogatory statements against the SRF News editorial team.
In the case of the other unpublished comment, in which the user criticized the many Anglicisms and the associated "mangling of the written language in SRF news", the UBI did not consider the conditions for an interference with freedom of expression to be met. The justification of the lack of reference to the topic was not valid, as the online article to which the comment referred contained an Anglicism ("overtourism") in the title and other users were able to comment on this aspect. While the UBI therefore rejected the first complaint by five votes to two, it upheld the second by the same proportion of votes.
Forum: Insufficient information about election results
Radio Télévision Suisse RTS reports on the day's news every evening in its "Forum" radio program. In the edition of 12 February 2023, the broadcaster included a longer report on the results of the government and cantonal council elections in Zurich.
In the popular complaint lodged against the broadcast, it was complained that the listeners had been inaccurately informed about the election results. In particular, the complainant criticized the selection of the people heard and the airtime given to them.
However, due to the essentially correct and transparent information provided on the election results, the UBI considered these complaints to be unfounded. The increased due diligence obligations for election-related broadcasts to ensure equal opportunities apply exclusively in the sensitive period before the ballot. The complaint was unanimously rejected.
