Over 5000 artists mobilize against No-Billag
No Billag, No Culture: With this slogan, more than 5,000 artists from music, theater, film and literature are calling for a No to No Billag. The list includes celebrities such as Emil, Martin Suter, Melanie Oesch, Stefan Eicher and Anatole Taubmann.
On the website No-culture.ch the cultural workers have posted their appeal and personal statements. "The
Initiative strikes me as a doctor trying to beat his patient to death to cure his cough," writes author Charles Lewinsky.
Former folk music show host Sepp Trütsch fears, "Without SRG, folk music, yodeling and folk theater will lose an important platform."
SRG will be broken up
And musician Toni Vescoli also has nothing good to say about No Billag: If the initiative is approved, "bought media" would control "what is played on the radio" in the future.
Michael Egger, Philippe Gertsch, Demian Jakob and Marcel Kägi, better known under the band name "Jeans for Jesus" sum up their opinion like this: "Better RABE, 3Fach and co. than Blocher TV."
In their appeal, the cultural workers write that the No Billag initiative wants to break up the SRG. The existence of 13 regional television stations and 21 local radio stations would also be "threatened" by a Yes vote on March 4.
"This not only calls into question the freedom of expression, but also Switzerland's cultural tradition: from folk music to techno, from the Mortician to feature films, from crime thrillers to humor festivals."
Hardly any more Swiss music
Purely advertising-financed stations would have a "massively smaller share" of Swiss music than SRG and other fee-financed
Private radio. "Sections such as classical music, folk music, jazz or rock would no longer take place." SRG is also an "existentially important partner" for film and documentary production.
"Without SRG no The frozen heart, none The black Tanner, not a journey of hope - and no Oscar for Switzerland - and no Ursli bells", writes director and Oscar winner Xavier Koller about it.
It is true that SRG is "not perfect" and that the public service must be discussed, the artists write in the appeal. But they reject the "dangerous media monopoly" of No-Billag. "The dangerous thing about the No-Billag initiative is that it comes across as so harmless," write the clowns Ursus and Nadeschkin.
The call has signed cultural professionals of all genres and from over 50 associations: Musicians, actors, authors, literary translators, filmmakers, cabaret artists, speakers, dancers - both amateurs and professionals, according to a statement from the campaign management on Sunday. (SDA)
