UBI approves complaint against reporting on Gaza protests
Published: Friday, Dec 13th 2024, 18:00
العودة إلى البث المباشر
Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) has violated the diversity requirement with its coverage of Gaza protests at universities. This is the conclusion reached by the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television. The complaint was lodged by a lawyer.
The Zurich lawyer had objected to 17 SRF reports on the protests at US and Swiss universities in connection with the conflict in the Palestinian-inhabited Gaza Strip, as announced by the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) on Friday. He also lodged a complaint about the overall reporting on this topic between February 14 and May 14, 2024.
These were radio and television broadcasts as well as online articles and a contribution on the online portal X. The complainant alleged that various relevant facts had not been mentioned and that the protests had been presented in a trivializing manner.
Diversity requirement violated
In its assessment, the UBI had come to the conclusion that the public had been able to form its own opinion on the individual contributions in accordance with the requirement of objectivity. On the other hand, the reporting as a whole had violated the diversity requirement. This was because the extremist and anti-Semitic tendencies in the protests and the background to the student protests had not been adequately expressed. The UBI upheld the complaint by six votes to three, according to the statement.
During its public deliberations on Thursday and Friday in Bern, the UBI dealt with several complaints against radio and television broadcasts, online articles and the handling of commentary columns.
The UBI is an extra-parliamentary commission of the Swiss Confederation. It consists of nine part-time members and a three-person secretariat. UBI decisions can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court once the written reasons for the decision have been submitted.
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