Swiss Review 1/2018

9 Swiss Review / January 2018 / No.1 well-educated and those less well-educated is greater in countries with market-based media than in those where the media system is funded by a licence fee.” Purely market-based media or public service? The ferocious debate currently being conducted in Switzer- land concerns the future of publicly funded radio and tel- evision. The abolition of radio and television licence fees – which iswhat the “No Billag” initiative is calling for –would result in the currently subsidised radio and television broadcasters losing three quarters of their income. The in- itiative’s authors argue on their homepage that these fees are “mandatory contributions which restrict the deci- sion-making freedom of all individuals”. Everyone should be able to decide for themselves what their hard-earned money is spent on. The “No Billag” supporters therefore want to break the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s “qua- si-monopoly” and replace it with media competition. They have set their sights on a media landscape which is “based purely onmarket economics”, writes the Federal Council in its dispatch on the popular request. And it warns: “Radio and television stations of the same qualitywould no longer be provided in all of the linguistic regions.” There would be nomore public service, the range of opinions and services in radio and television would be reduced and high-quality journalism affected. In contrast, the current system guarantees electronic media which contributes to the successful democratic formation of informed opinion and cultural development. The Swiss Broadcasting Corpo- ration, as a body independent of political and economic in- terests, is obliged to guarantee a diverse range of services which also takes account of the interests ofminority groups. Ferocious exchanges in Parliament It is not just the Federal Council but also Parliament that is unequivocally opposed to the initiative. So far the only sup- port for the proposal in the debate has come fromthe ranks of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). SVP National Councillor Lukas Reimann has dubbed the licence fee a “rip-off” and his parliamentary group colleague Claudio Zanetti has ac- cused the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation of being loyal to the government, EU-friendly and too left-wing in its cov- erage. The SVP’s ThomasMüller has called the Swiss Broad- casting Corporation a “licence-fee-funded opinion-shaper”. The broad coalition opposed to the initiative takes the exact opposite view. National Councillor Ida Glanzmann of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP) argues that opinion would be influenced and manipulated if the me- diawere controlled exclusively by private players. Matthias Aebischer of the Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP) even warns of a “Berlusconi-like situation” arising in Switzer- land, in other words media concentration in the hands of billionaires. If the initiative is approved, the Swiss Broad- casting Corporation would also be less appealing to adver- tisers due to its diminished reach, and foreign TV advertis- ing windows, Google and Facebook would benefit, according to Roger Nordmann, the leader of the SP parlia- The diversity of the Swiss press is dwin- dling, while the pro- cess of concentration in the hands of a small number of pub- lishing companies continues apace. Photos: Keystone AZ Medien and the NZZ Group merge their regional titles Just before going to print, we received news that AZ Medien and the NZZ-Mediengruppe plan to merge their regional titles and create a company that brings 20 paid-for newspapers in 13 cantons together under one roof. The new company aims to become the number 1 in Ger- man-speaking Switzerland. And indeed if you put together the regional titles of the two publishing companies, they extend from eastern Switzerland across central Switzerland as far as Solothurn, covering most of German-speaking Switzerland. The merger still has to be approved by the Competition Commission.