Proposal to abolish the imprint sections

The 13 sections of the Swiss Journalists' Association should be dissolved if Daniel Knoll, the prominent radio journalist and outgoing managing director of the Bern section, has his way. In the editorial of the May issue of Journimail, he justifies this proposal by arguing that media professionals have a more global horizon and are less interested in their regional sections. Maintaining the sections would be a waste of time. The section contributions would be of more use to the umbrella organization Impressum. In fact, the sections run expensive offices and newspapers, but the most important tasks (organization, media policy, negotiations with employers, legal advice, etc.) are carried out by the head office in Fribourg. Knoll is flirting with the vision of forming inexpensive and powerful interest groups within the association, for example for freelancers, agency journalists and photographers, instead of dividing it into regional sections. The board of the Zurich Press Association has announced that it will discuss the proposal.