Victory for WOZ: Seco must release data on war material exports
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) must disclose to a WOZ journalist which companies based in Switzerland submitted an application for a war material export in 2014. The Federal Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of the responsible department.
In a ruling published on Wednesday, the Federal Supreme Court supports the decision of the Federal Administrative Court. In March last year, the court concluded that there was a heightened public interest in information about the controversial war material exports, which in principle required a license.
The exports were repeatedly the subject of controversial debates in public and politics. In this context, the media made an essential contribution to the control of official activities, the Federal Administrative Court wrote. It was the task of the media to report on whether the state control bodies were fulfilling their duties.
Seco had given the journalist of the Weekly newspaper (WOZ) refused to provide the requested data from the outset. It took the position that, in accordance with the War Material Act, only the Federal Council's Committee for the Control of Exports of War Material is to be informed about the details of war material exports.
Seco argues that the democratically legitimized control is to be carried out solely by the Audit Commission and not by the public. It also asserted foreign and security policy reasons.
The Federal Supreme Court sees things differently. It does not consider Switzerland's interests to be at risk. If no concrete business secrets can be claimed, Seco must disclose the names of the companies.
WOZ is pleased with the Federal Court's ruling, according to a media release on Wednesday. Thus, the interest of the population in transparency is weighted higher than that of the weapons lobby.
WOZ journalist Jan Jirat had made the request to Seco after the appearance of hand grenades from the federally owned arms company Ruag in the civil war in Syria. (SDA)
