SRG Bern Fribourg Valais speaks of painful decision

The board of the regional sponsoring cooperative is observing the increasing concentration of German-speaking Swiss media in the greater Zurich area with concern, as it wrote in a statement on Tuesday. The merging of radio, TV and online would lead to the loss of "internal pluralism within the SRG". This, in turn, is likely to result in a reduction in the diversity of topics and perspectives.

According to SRG Bern Fribourg Valais, the retention of the high-quality magazine shows "Rendez-vous" and "Echo der Zeit" gives hope that "other voices and topics will continue to be heard in the great SRF concert".

The sponsoring organization intends to work "vigorously" to ensure that the editorial offices remaining in Berne are provided with the necessary financial resources to master the media upheaval and remain viable for the future.

The company's management would have to make a long-term commitment to Bern as an independent audio production site and disclose the funds saved by the move.

The regional SRG Bern Fribourg Valais cooperative forms the bridge between programmers and the public. According to its own information, it represents the media and programming interests of the region in the SRG media.

"A tragedy"

The Swiss Capital Region organization and the city and canton of Bern are also disappointed with the relocation decision. They criticize that part of the journalistic diversity within the public media house will be lost and the background formats remaining in Bern will be weakened.

Thanks to intensive educational work, however, it was possible to prevent an even greater reduction in journalistic competence in Bern.

The Pro Idée Suisse association sharply criticized the decision in a statement and called it a tragedy. At least half of the Bern radio studio would be emptied by 2021 at the latest, and the radio journalists would now be "located in the TV factory, closer to "Glanz und Gloria".

Earlier, the editors-in-chief had already let the staff know that further digital developments would in future be carried out exclusively in Zurich. "This means the death of the Bern radio studio in installments," criticizes Pro Idée Suisse. What is threatening is a "media-politically untenable one-size-fits-all from Zurich's Leutschenbach.

The Swiss Syndicate of Media Professionals SSM also noted with regret the decision of the SRF management on Tuesday, as it writes in a statement. The decision was a "loss for journalism in the capital - and especially for the radio studio in Bern.

The fear remains that background radio broadcasts will be cut off from digital development and phased out, he said. (SDA)