With 61.9% of the vote, the Swiss electorate rejected the halving initiative, with which a few eternally grumbling right-wingers and libertarians attempted to curtail public broadcasting. They failed to win over a single canton.
Following the extremely close vote on the new Radio and Television Act in 2015 and the overwhelming rejection of the No Billag initiative in 2018, voters have again spoken out in favour of a strong SRG for the third time in just a few years. The broad political, social and cultural alliance can be satisfied. The SRG is saved.
But as media journalist Dennis Bühler points out in the magazine Republik, there is little time to breathe a sigh of relief. The Federal Office of Communications is still headed by hardliner Albert Rösti, co-initiator of the halving initiative and admirer of Trump, who has already used regulations to bypass Parliament and reduce broadcasting fees from 335 to 300 Swiss francs. The result: 900 full-time positions will have to be cut.
And Rösti plans to curtail the SRG for years to come under the new licence, which takes effect in 2029. The media minister was quoted yesterday as saying: “The Federal Council is keen to define more clearly the roles of private and publicly funded media in the interests of media diversity. This primarily concerns the SRG’s sports and entertainment offerings and its online presence. The Federal Council intends to impose restrictions on the SRG in this regard. This is being done out of consideration for the private Swiss media.”
Of course, it is deliberately ignored that the Constitution states: „Radio and television contribute to education and cultural development, to the free formation of opinion and to entertainment.“
Neither Parliament nor the electorate have any say in the matter. Bühler goes on to write: „Investigations by Republik show that Rösti wants to issue the licence for ten years instead of the usual four. This makes little sense in terms of content, because the media industry is likely to undergo rapid and unpredictable change in the near future.“
Although the sledgehammer blow against the SRG has now been fended off, it will not stop those on the far right from continuing to weaken the SRG. Among those supporting this effort are private media companies such as the TX Group, which yesterday continued to apply pressure via the Tages-Anzeiger.
Build Resilience
The future of the SRG appears to be anything but secure. It’s still unclear where the 900 full-time positions will be cut and whether this will also affect formats for musicians.
Although the music industry can consider itself relatively secure as part of the cultural sector, if the new licence restricts the SRG’s content at the discretion of politicians, it will weaken the institution as a whole. Furthermore, no one can really say what the ‘core mandate’ in the cultural sector will look like. Even if the answer is clear to us, is pop music culture or entertainment?
At the same time, we must recognise the reality: the far-right forces that want to destroy public service broadcasting do not care about the local music scene. Their sole aim is to privatise and concentrate public opinion. The SRG stands in their way. The consequences of this plan can be seen everywhere, from Czechia and Hungary to the United States.
The Swiss music industry can therefore hardly afford to rest on its laurels. It is still imperative to fend off attacks on the SRG, the most important and strongest platform for local music production.
At the same time, especially outside the mainstream, we need to think about how to help build a sustainable and resilient ecosystem that is not completely dependent on the SRG.
Even more so if we consider that with a robust local ecosystem of labels, venues and publishing platforms pushing in the same direction and creating lasting value, the dependence on the oligarchic tech giants also decreases.
