Swiss Media: Marc Walder elected to the Presidium
At the general meeting of Schweizer Medien in Flims, the publishers oppose an expansion of SRG's online offering. They also elect Marc Walder to the association's presidium.
As its name suggests, SRG was created as a radio and television broadcaster, and its legal foundations are designed accordingly, according to the Swiss Media Association. If it wants to expand into new media beyond that, a new basis for this must be discussed and created in the democratic process - anything else would violate the principle of legality. The SRG has a public service mandate to fulfill, it continues; the public service of the publishers is historically and currently also very important - it cannot be "that this valuable and indispensable service of private media for a free, democratic society is undermined by competition through fee-financed online offerings of the state-supervised broadcaster". At most, online can accompany the program at the state broadcasters. Any expansion of the offering, and especially financing through advertising, would already violate constitutional and legal provisions and distort the market even more.
Marc Walder replaces Martin Werfeli
In addition, the members of the association approved an amendment to the contribution and voting regulations. The association is thus implementing what was initiated last year with the amendment to the Articles of Association, namely that the circulation figure no longer forms the basis for the membership fee. Electronic media can now also become members of the association. The Presidium and members expressed their thanks to the retiring Martin Werfeli for his great commitment to the Publishers Association. Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier Switzerland and Germany, Zurich, was newly elected to the Presidium.
Just positive result expected
The association management presented its members with a large number of ongoing actions and projects and also showed itself to be in solid financial condition. A profit of 60,225 Swiss francs was reported for the 2010 accounts - after provisions of 40,000 Swiss francs from the operating profit for future projects. The unfortunately still weakening economic situation also has an impact on the association's activities, it is said. Nevertheless, a just positive result is expected for the current year.
Among the ongoing media policy issues, publishers are currently concerned with the revision of the Postal Act Ordinance, which is currently in the hands of the Uvek department. The central issue is the system of reduced postal rates for the press. The Swiss Media Association is in favor of continuing the current practice of implementing indirect press subsidies.
