UBI reports record number of complaints
The Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) received 43 new complaints in 2020. The UBI calls this a record. According to its figures, the last time it received more complaints than last year was 30 years ago.
Only in 1991 did it receive 50 complaints, the UBI wrote in a statement on Tuesday. At that time, however, there were no ombudsman offices upstream of the UBI. Today, these eight offices received 2021,194 complaints, compared to 636 in the previous year. Around four percent of these cases resulted in a complaint to the UBI.
30 of the 43 complaints received in 2020 were directed against TV broadcasts. In eight cases, the complaints concerned several media from the same broadcaster, namely TV, radio and/or online. Radio broadcasts were complained about five times. 37 complaints concerned the SRG, the remaining six broadcasts by private broadcasters.
One complaint concerned a satirical program. All other submissions concerned news and information broadcasts and documentaries. In the second half of the year, according to the UBI, a number of complainants criticized the SRG broadcasters' coverage of the pandemic.
The UBI settled 36 complaint cases last year. In five of these cases, it found a violation of the law; in 2019, this was the case in three cases.
According to the UBI, the decision on the SRF documentary about Adam Quadroni is not yet legally binding. SRG has filed an appeal against the UBI decision with the Federal Supreme Court. In the UBI's assessment, the film about the Graubünden whistleblower had violated the principle of objectivity.
The UBI has been in existence since 1984 and is an extra-parliamentary commission of the federal government. On complaint, it must determine whether the content of radio and television broadcasts by Swiss broadcasters, as well as the rest of the SRG's offering, has violated provisions on the content of editorial publications. Decisions of the UBI can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. (SDA)
