When the Corona skeptics and measure critics called for a demo on Saturday in Uster ZH last week, between 2000 and 3000 people came to the Zurich Oberland. Among them was a team from the German TV station ZDF.
But the guests from the neighboring country had unpleasant experiences with the other demonstrators during the march through the small town. And otherwise the journalists paint a bad picture of the Swiss skeptic scene.
Skeptics talk about “high finance” and “gene therapy”
Right at the beginning of the TV report for the “foreign journal” of the ZDF it becomes clear that the reporters cannot really understand why such protest actions are taking place in Uster and other Swiss cities. “Why are so many people protesting in a country that is getting through the crisis with so few measures?” Asks the narrator of the video at the beginning.
The on-site team is looking for the answer in the demonstrating crowds. Among them are various conspiracy theorists who are also allowed to spread their versions of the pandemic in front of the ZDF camera. A Zurich landlord, for example, suspects that “high finance” is behind the Corona measures. And a woman in the costume of the “Freiheitstrychler” simply describes the Covid vaccination as “gene therapy”.
Camera damaged while filming
According to the Zurich cantonal police, the demo in Uster goes on without any “notable incidents”. The television team present should see it differently, however. The reporters get to feel another side of the activists during the filming. After an interview with the “Massvoll” poster sign Nicolas Rimoldi, the mood towards the journalists became increasingly hostile. One was “insulted, harassed and hindered”, ZDF wrote in a message following the report. A protester even damaged a camera while filming.
The German broadcaster’s contribution, which does not show Switzerland at its best, lasts just under seven minutes. But for the reporters it is also clear: it is only a small, radical group that is still taking to the streets at all. But this would only worsen the rift between the camps. “Switzerland, which is otherwise so neutral, is struggling to strike a balance between protecting freedom and protecting health,” is the conclusion of the article. (cat)