UBI reprimands SRF’s “Regionaljournal” Bern voting preview
Published: Thursday, Oct 31st 2024, 21:00
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The Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) has upheld complaints against a voting preview of the "Regionaljournal Bern, Freiburg, Wallis" of Swiss Radio SRF. The duty of care had been neglected in relation to the Bernese vote on the introduction of urgent legislation.
The canton of Bern voted on this amendment to the cantonal constitution on March 3. In mid-February, the regional journal reported on the bill and also published a corresponding article online. As the UBI criticized after the public consultation on Thursday, the broadcast and the article had incompletely reported on the parties in the "no" committee.
In addition, only one representative from the proponent side had her say and the arguments of both camps were not presented equally, as the UBI found. The increased duty of care prior to a vote was therefore disregarded.
The fact that the cantonal parliament had unanimously adopted the new constitutional article did not justify unequal treatment of the two camps. The UBI upheld the complaint against the radio article by six votes to two, and the complaint against the online article by five votes to three.
However, the complaints office rejected complaints against the SRF program "10 vor 10" due to a report on the internet television channel "Klagemauer.TV". "Klagemauer.TV" and a complaint from the public criticized the fact that internet television was described as a "fake news factory".
However, the editorial team sought reactions from the broadcaster. As the broadcaster's representatives did not want to speak in front of the camera, they included written statements. The UBI ruled that this satisfied the minimum requirements for fairness.
The appeals body also rejected a complaint against a report by the Italian-language radio station RTI about right-wing extremism in the German police force. A complaint against an online article in connection with the allegations of abuse in the Abbey of St-Maurice VS was rejected on formal grounds.
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