Press Council partially approves complaint against Le Temps
The Press Council has reprimanded the news portal Linth24. In its reporting on sports facilities, it had not sufficiently transparently identified comments and ties of interest. There is also criticism for the French-speaking Swiss daily Le Temps.
Against the reporting of Linth24 the city council of Rapperswil SG had filed a complaint. The executive criticized that articles about locations of sports facilities - especially the training hall of the ice hockey club Rapperswil Jona Lakers - had been heavily commenting. These comments had not been recognizable as such. In addition, the author, the editor-in-chief of the portal, had not made his vested interests transparent. He was politically active in a committee on the location issue.
The Press Council partially approved the complaint, as it announced on Friday. The commentary elements were not clearly separated from the rest of the reporting. Furthermore, the author should have been transparent about his vested interests in this matter. The Press Council rejected other parts of the complaint.
Le Temps should have corrected
On one of several points, the Council also rejected a complaint against the French-speaking Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps was approved. It came from the collective "Réinfo Santé Suisse International" and was directed against an article in connection with the measures against the coronavirus.
Le Temps did not use a misleading title as claimed, nor did it publish an unjustified accusation, writes the Press Council. However, the newspaper had spread an error of fact and a false allegation. "The assertion of the daily newspaper that the collective was the organizer of the demonstration against Corona measures on March 20, 2021 in Bern, however, violates the duty to tell the truth," the press council states. The editorial office of Le Temps should have corrected this information as soon as it had knowledge of it. (SDA)
