SSM concerned about SRG-wide cutback in cultural coverage

"Diverse and challenging cultural reporting in all parts of the country is part of SRG's core mission," the SSM wrote in a statement Tuesday. The Swiss Radio and Television Company SRG has a performance, supply and promotion mandate in the cultural sector and must also serve an audience outside the mainstream.

SRG is submitting to market logic and is making large-scale savings in cultural reporting in all parts of the country. In French-speaking Switzerland, the redesign of the cultural radio station Espace 2 was already completed last spring. The former culture station now broadcasts music. Audio and video contributions are increasingly found online.

According to SSM, the same is happening to the culture channel Rete Due in Italian-speaking Switzerland. The "Lyra" project that has been launched envisages a radical realignment of the cultural offering. Word contributions are to be significantly reduced and background broadcasts cut back.

At SRF Kultur, too, there was no end to the cutbacks. Other programs such as "Nachtflug" and "Fiori Musicali" on Radio SRF 2 would be canceled, would have to realign themselves and, like "Kulturplatz" and "DOK" on TV-SRF 1, would receive less funding. According to SSM, the cutbacks associated with the company-wide development of online formats are causing great uncertainty among employees.

According to the SSM, culture holds society together and is more important than ever. However, cultural production in Switzerland is in the greatest crisis in decades. The SSM considers it devastating that SRG is now further weakening the Swiss cultural scene by cutting qualified cultural reporting. (SDA)