UBI rejects complaint of wine merchant Giroud
The Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) has rejected a complaint of the wine merchant Dominique Giroud from Valais. He had objected to a report of the RTS television station in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
The December 6, 2013 report in the news program "19:30 le journal" was not appropriate, Giroud criticized in his complaint. Inaccurate facts and a one-sided picture of him had been conveyed and the presumption of innocence had not been taken into account. The UBI rejected the complaint during a public deliberation on Friday - but by a narrow margin of five votes to four. The majority was of the opinion that viewers of the program could form their own opinion "despite some shortcomings." Those UBI members who wanted to approve Giroud's complaint were critical, among other things, of the question of whether the presumption of innocence was taken into account in the RTS report. The UBI's decision can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. Giroud's spokesman Marc Comina left open on Friday whether the complainants will take this legal action.
Convicted of tax offenses
The Vaud prosecutor's office sentenced Giroud in July to a conditional fine of 180 daily rates of 300 Swiss francs each for tax offenses in a penalty order. A second trial on suspicion of fraud, forgery of goods and forgery of documents is still pending. In addition, criminal proceedings are underway in the canton of Geneva against Dominique Giroud and three others for hacking into journalists' computers. (SDA)
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