Ombudsman objects to "Rundschau" report on CO2 law
According to ombudsman Roger Blum, the report on the CO2 law broadcast on December 12, 2018, on Schweizer Fernsehen SRF's "Rundschau" lacked distance. Blum agreed with a complainant who criticized the report as one-sided and uncritical.
The complainant was of the opinion that the term "hardliner" used in the article for the SVP National Councilor Christian Imark had been used incorrectly. In addition, the article had been very critical of the SVP, but uncritical to sympathetic towards the left-green spectrum.
In his report published by SRF on Tuesday, Blum also came to the conclusion that the existing critical distance to the SVP was missing in relation to the Greens and the Left. According to the normal "Rundschau" concept, it would have been expected that the criticized Imark could have defended himself at the "Rundschau" counter.
However, this principle had been thwarted in the offending broadcast. He was replaced by the party president of the Greens, Regula Rytz. The moderator did not really come down hard on her. The critical questions had rather had a supporting effect, according to Blum.
At one point, the moderator even showed audible solidarity. Overall, the audience had been steered in a certain direction and had not been able to form its own opinion freely.
The "Rundschau" editorial director Mario Poletti contradicted this view: the program had reported fairly and factually. In the report before the conversation with Rytz at the bar, both Imark and Rytz could have presented their best arguments for or against climate protection measures. (SDA)
