If the Swiss press were to headline "Glory to our leaders
The federal councillors as radiant leaders with a visionary look on the front page of a newspaper - a "fiction, at least in Switzerland," finds the satirical journal Vigousse. Together with Reporters Without Borders, it launches a special issue on press freedom.
Vigousse does not spare provocations in the magazine either. Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter is illustrated as Napoleon, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer as a superhero, and a travelogue raves about Turkmenistan as a "paradise on earth. An alliance between Switzerland and Russian President Vladimir Putin is also enthusiastically celebrated. The 16-page issue is dedicated to freedom of the press, a principle that is sometimes difficult to understand in countries like Switzerland, Vigousse editor-in-chief Stéphane Babey told the media in Lausanne on Friday. It was inspired by everything that is reality in a dictatorship, Babey said. Only the editorial reveals the otherwise fictional publication about Switzerland. The booklet will be enclosed with the French-speaking Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche on Sunday.
25 years Reporters without Borders Switzerland
"It is a rather special, and to our knowledge, unique project," said Gérard Tschopp, president of Reporters Without Borders Switzerland. The publication comes on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Reporters Without Borders in Switzerland. The human rights organization has been fighting for press freedom since its founding. It stands up for journalists who have been imprisoned or even killed because of their articles or pictures and opposes censorship. (SDA)
