Media diversity: National Council wants to strengthen indirect press funding – News

After a media funding package failed at the ballot box two years ago, the National Council is making a new attempt.

Recently, there have been increasing reports of cost-cutting measures in Swiss publishing houses – most recently, job cuts at the Tamedia newspapers in German- and French-speaking Switzerland made headlines. In the National Council, the regional media had advocates mainly from the center, the SP and the Greens: For example, the Graubünden SP National Councilor Jon Pult said: “If you don’t have local journalism in a town or valley, then there is simply no information. Njet, nada.”

The previously functioning financing models for the media have become obsolete, said Michael Töngi of the Greens: “For many years, newspapers produced journalism, and people read it. But the newspapers were financed with advertisements that were sold along with journalism. But that is simply over today.”

Not everyone shares the image of the struggling media

However, not everyone shared the image of the struggling media. FDP National Councillor Christian Wasserfallen (BE) asked the Green Michael Töngi: “Are you aware that, for example, the NZZ recorded a positive EBIT of 16.8 million in its core business last year? That was the best result in years. I don’t think you have the numbers under control.”

Media freedom is a protected space in which entrepreneurs are to be protected from state intervention.

And on the question of whether the state should help the media, the SVP had a decidedly different opinion than the Left-Greens. SVP National Councillor Gregor Rutz warned against state intervention in the media: “There is no mandate for the state to act. Media freedom is a protected space in which entrepreneurs are to be protected from state intervention.”

FDP: No funding for magazines from associations

The FDP, on the other hand, supported the plans for regional and local newspapers to receive more money. However, it rejected the additional funding for early delivery. And above all, it demanded that contributions to magazines run by associations and parties be cut. FDP National Councillor Andri Silberschmidt: “We are in a digital age, most associations have e-papers and online news. So this is an old tradition that needs to be broken.”

For fiscal reasons, this is not the time to make additional expenditure here.

The Federal Council was also against the proposal to expand indirect press funding. Federal Councillor Albert Rösti: “For financial policy reasons, this is not the time to make additional expenditure here.”

But the National Council saw things differently: It increased the indirect press subsidies for the regional and local press by 15 million francs. It now wants to grant an additional 30 million francs in discounts for early delivery. An increase of 45 million francs.

At the same time, however, the National Council has cut the previous support for the magazines of the parties and associations amounting to 20 million francs. In doing so, it is already implementing a savings proposal from the Federal Council in its relief package for the federal budget.

The bottom line is that the National Council has approved an additional 25 million for press funding.

But that is not yet final – the Council of States will also still have to decide on indirect press funding. In addition, this expansion of press funding will only apply for seven years. After that, the Federal Council will draw up proposals for media funding that are no longer tied to the newspaper channel.

source site-72