Woz may describe Sascha Ruefer's statement as racist
The weekly newspaper Woz was right to describe a statement allegedly made by SRF sports anchor Sascha Ruefer about soccer player Granit Xhaka as «racist,» according to the Press Council. The statement «Granit Xhaka is many things, but he is not Swiss» could be considered racist—if not in the criminal sense, then at least in the sense of exclusion based on being different.
The Press Council has lodged a complaint against the Woz dismissed. The latter had accused the newspaper of violating the duty of truth in an article. The alleged sentence from the TV documentary had not actually been used. Moreover, according to the Criminal Code, it neither disparaged anyone nor referred to a specific ethnic group or race.
The Woz had in an article from April 6, 2023 described Ruefer's alleged statement as "racist". The controversial sentence is said to have been uttered in the raw version of a recording for the documentary series "The Pressure Game" on Switzerland's World Cup campaign in Qatar 2022. Other media who had seen the original version confirmed that the sentence was uttered in a similar way.
Only selected journalists had access to the documentary footage. They had to agree not to quote the sentence directly in order to be allowed to see the original film excerpts. The Woz was repeatedly denied access to the original, according to the Press Council.
The self-regulatory body for media ethics issues criticized the conduct of Swiss Radio and Television SRF. This was of little help in finding the truth. SRF had restricted access to information to selected journalists and told them what they could and could not publish.
The Press Council considered it a "restriction of media freedom" if a company or authority grants selected media exclusive access to information while excluding other media.
SRF denied the accusation of racism made by its presenter in April 2023. At no point had he made racist remarks about Xhaka as a person or his origin. In an initial version of the film, a statement had been taken out of context so that it could have been misunderstood. Sascha Ruefer therefore withdrew the entire statement. (SDA/swi)
