Referendums against the SRG have a long tradition - but it only got close once
The No-Billag initiative marks the fifth failed referendum aimed at shutting down the often-maligned so-called «state broadcaster.» However, this was the first time the SRG faced a close vote at the polls.
With an extremely narrow 50.1 percent yes and only thanks to the votes from French-speaking Switzerland, the people approved the new Radio and Television Act on June 14, 2015. Although the referendum was about lower reception fees and the household tax, it was a plebiscite on public service and programming.
Commentators spoke of a "slap in the face" for the national media giant, while Hanspeter Lebrument, then president of the publishers, called it a "dream result. In fact, SRG critics have never been this close to a victory.
In the past, popular initiatives to cut off the funding of license-fee-financed broadcasters have all proved to be a failure. In 1982, an initiative launched by the National Ring of Independents (LdU), "Freedom and Independence of Radio and Television," failed to gain enough signatures.
In 1994, the "Trumpf-Buur Initiative" for the abolition of SRG fees failed at the collection stage. It was named after the advertising platform of a right-wing bourgeois association which, like the Swiss Radio and Television Association ("Hofer Club"), took up arms against the "left-wing trend" in radio and television.
Two other referendums with the same goal were launched in 2011 and 2013. Here, too, the initiators had to throw in the towel prematurely. For the most recent project, the organization "Solidarische Schweiz" (SOS) did not even collect 10,000 signatures.
The petition "Radio and television fees: 200 francs are enough" was also unsuccessful. Although signed by 140,000 people, the "fee monster" petition was rejected by parliament in 2011.
Whipping boy television
Unlike radio, which is popular with the people, it has always been television that has drawn the most ire. Even before regular broadcasting began 60 years ago, TV was accused of destroying family life, breeding modern illiterates and damaging health.
Twice - in 1957 and 1967 - the electorate rejected an article on radio and television in the constitution. It was not until the 1984 referendum that the electronic media were given a constitutional basis. This meant that legislation on radio and television became a matter for the federal government.
After radio pirate Roger Schawinski began broadcasting to Switzerland from Pizzo Groppero in Italy, the SRG monopoly also crumbled in the early 1980s. Initially under the Broadcasting Experiments Ordinance (1983), and later with the new Radio and Television Act (1992), private stations financed by advertising were permitted. (SDA)
