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If you’re reading these lines, you probably know that you paid for it. With 71.6 percent, the 2018 voters rejected the No-Billag initiative, which wanted to put an end to media funding via fees, from which SRF benefits.
If you read journalistic lines online, for example at blick.ch or the startup “Tsüri.ch” in Zurich, then you can do that without having paid for it. You can also take out a paid subscription, but many people read along for free. The print and online media in Switzerland traditionally receive little support from public funding.
So-called technology-neutral funding
That should change, and radically so. The Federal Media Commission (Emek) proposed on Tuesday to replace the previous fee model, thanks to which not only SRG but also private radio and TV stations receive money with their online offers. A “uniform funding system” should now take all private media into account, regardless of whether they report their research via newspaper, radio/TV or entirely online. This is called technology-neutral funding.
The media industry as a whole should be supported: with “general measures”, with support for private companies, infrastructure, with payment for projects, training and research. A national news agency is also to be supported. The Emek doesn’t say anything about what all this can cost.
No new suggestion
The proposal for technology-neutral media funding is not new. Years ago, left-wing print and online media came together under the name “Verein Medien mit Zukunft” and were able to lobby right down to the Emek for technology-neutral, new media funding.
In October, the bourgeois think tank Avenir Suisse also endorsed the principle, but defined it more clearly, including the complete conversion of SRG to become a “content provider”. And the media promotion law aimed in the same direction as the Emek now, which was rejected in February 2022 with 54.6 percent at the ballot box.
Adjustment in smaller steps is probably a more sensible strategy
However, it is extremely interesting that the Emek is so clearly in favor of new, comprehensive media funding: The Emek advises the Federal Council on media issues. Until a few days ago, Simonetta Sommaruga was Switzerland’s media minister. Emek is now advising the new media minister, Albert Rösti, and his media ministry, Ofcom. Rösti repeatedly criticized the SRG as “state television” – dependent on public funding.
It will be interesting to find out how Media Minister Rösti would react to the question of whether private media houses should in future receive money from public coffers – perhaps even at the expense of the public service.
Even if media minister Rösti should take up the idea and promote it in the administration: Such a far-reaching reorientation towards an active media policy from Bern would need years of political comparison before it would be implemented. Referendum included. A political deal that perhaps only Albert Rösti’s successor would complete. Adjusting Swiss media policy in smaller steps that can be implemented in a timely manner would probably be the more sensible strategy.