Media professionals defend themselves against softening of protection of sources
Syndicom rejects the Federal Council's proposal to weaken the protection of media professionals' sources. The proposed amendment would allow the intelligence service to monitor journalists as third parties. The proposal would massively threaten the freedom of the press and the protection of sources.
The revision of the Intelligence Services Act proposes that journalists, as third parties, may be wiretapped and electronically monitored in the future.
The media and communications union Syndicom says: "The bill is another serious attack on press freedom, after parliament already waved through the simplification of super-provisional injunctions against the media and the banking law continues to de facto prohibit the processing of whistleblower data by Swiss journalists."
It is the protection of freedom of the press that makes democracy possible. The fact that the intelligence service is allowed to monitor journalists as third parties is therefore highly problematic, Syndicom continued. The proposed regulation goes much too far. In fact, it means the gradual abolition of source protection and weakens the role of journalists by making their access to sources more difficult.
syndicom calls on the Federal Council not to interfere with the protection of sources. That is why syndicom, together with many other organizations in the media industry, is participating in the consultation on the Intelligence Services Act. The message is clear: the protection of sources must be preserved.
