Complaint against 20 Minuten rejected

The decision of the Press Council was published on Friday. It concerns the Article "IV pension pays more than work".which appeared in the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten on February 4, 2014. As an illustration, the 20 Minuten editorial team had chosen a picture of a drunken party among young people.

The report was based on an OECD research report on false incentives of the IV, which made it more worthwhile for young people in Switzerland to draw a pension than to work. Overall, Switzerland is doing too little to keep people with mental health problems in the labor market.

The association Selbstbestimmung.ch filed a complaint against the article with the Swiss Press Council. The article violates the prohibitions on concealing important elements of information and on discrimination, as set out in the "Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists". to write them down.

In particular, the text does not mention the inadequate institutional cooperation and the lack of commitment on the part of employers, the OECD's main points of criticism. It refers one-sidedly to their criticism of the pension system. This and the picture suggest that mentally impaired people would rather party at the expense of taxpayers than work.

Important discretion

The Press Council rejects the complaint. In its opinion, it states that the article was not about an integral reproduction of the research report, but about the aspect of young mentally ill people. A journalist is free to report on a topic in his or her own way. This discretion is an essential part of the freedom of the press.

The choice of illustration was also at the editorial discretion. The picture may represent a not entirely unproblematic and probably also provocative generalization, and also express a critical attitude towards young people in general. However, this was not to be criticized in the context of the chosen focus of the report. (SDA)