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For everyone What we stand for. How we act. What we pledge. Contents Contents Foreword 4 1. Who we are and what we stand for 5 1.1 Free shaping of opinion – an attribute of democracy 8 1.2 Supportive and federal 10 1.3 Precision Swiss craftsmanship 10 1.4 Active diversity 11 1.5 Building bridges in multicultural Switzerland 12 1.6 Promoting and maintaining Swiss culture 12 1.7 Accessibility for people with visual and hearing impairments 14 1.8 Championing Swiss research 15 2. What we guard against 17 2.1 A weakening of the Swiss media 17 2.2 Purely commercial business models 19 3. What the public think 21 3.1 An everyday companion for the Swiss people 21 3.2 Why we need series and entertainment shows 23 3.3. Live broadcasts – bringing Switzerland closer together 24 4. What we are working towards 27 4.1 Purposefully investing funding in the future 27 4.2 Focussing on a digital society 29 4.3 Giving a face to our multicultural society 29 4.4 Reaching a sophisticated young audience 29 4.5 Dissolving traditional categories 30 5. Our ideas for the future 31 5.1 Focussing on the general public and society 31 5.2 Ongoing learning and self-renewal 31 5.3 Quality as a waymarker 32 5.4 Education and training as an investment in journalistic quality 36 5.5 Transparency and fairness 37 5.6 Joint initiatives in the Swiss media 37 5.7 More public-private partnerships 38 Closing words 41 Bibliography 42 3 Foreword 1. Who we are and what we stand for Foreword 1. Who we are and what we stand for Here at SRG, we see our task as providing We want to make our contribution to the “We” – that’s the four language regions the formation of well­founded opinions. services for everyone in Switzerland political and public debate. Day in, day out within the common framework of SRG. This idea – the core remit of public media – and creating added value for them. As a at SRG, we address the question of how Minorities that alone would not have has become firmly established in our public audio­visual media company, our we can put our values, which are reflected the strength to stand up to international democratic system of government over values should benefit society and democ­ in the SRG charter, into practice even better competition. “We” – that’s the 6,100 em­ recent decades. And it is more relevant and racy – both today and in the digital future. and more sustainably. Our aim is to find ployees of the Swiss Broadcasting Corpora­ endangered than ever. In many countries, answers to this question – for this genera­ tion SRG and its enterprise units RSI Radio­ we can see attempts to influence and In a media world that is drifting apart, tion and the generations to come. televisione Svizzera, RTR Radiotelevisiun control the formation of opinions via the we, as an independent public media com­ Svizra Rumantscha, RTS Radio Télévision media for the purposes of power or money. pany, are a politically and economically We firmly stand by our belief in what we do. Suisse, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fern­ And we can see this in Switzerland too. impartial hub. We ensure a varied range of sehen and SWI swissinfo.ch. With profes­ opinions and a dialogue between different This is our contribution to the discussion. sionalism and passion, we champion Radio, television and online services interest groups, as well as between mi­ the free shaping of opinion. Day after day, for everyone norities and majorities. And we are com­ we roll up our sleeves to portray our nation All regions of Switzerland, with their four mitted to ensuring that political discussion in all its diversity and create moments national languages, are entitled to good remains democratic and differentiated. of collective experience in order to bridge radio, television and online services – to be linguistic, cultural and generational informed, reflect, participate, laugh and The format of our mandate is the subject boundaries anew. learn. SRG endorses this democratic idea. of lively discussion by the general public For this reason, we divide our revenue in and policy­makers. This is a good thing, An achievement spanning decades such a way that the minorities benefit from because a public media company’s job is to We belong solely to the people of this the majority. So French and Italian­speak­ serve society. Society is its customer. It country, and are obligated to them alone. ing Switzerland have a similar service to has a right to accountability and is obliged Although this feature is common to all that of German­speaking Switzerland, irre­ to question it repeatedly and critically. public media companies, the Swiss system spective of their size. The smallest Swiss These review processes have existed since is very special in one respect: SRG is an linguistic minority benefits in particular the inception of the public media system. association. Over 23,500 association mem­ from this equalization within SRG: without They are an expression of the relevance bers across the four language regions financial solidarity between large and that the public attaches to a public media together form SRG’s ownership structure. small, there would be no Radiotelevisiun company. Every citizen can become a member Svizra Rumantscha for the Romansh­ and have their say. Thanks to its associa­ speaking population. tion structure, SRG journalists are able to operate completely independently, far Vital and valued removed from any specific political or The Swiss people are unanimous in their business interests. view that our public service is needed. 84 per cent of the population feel it is A pillar of direct democracy important that there is a TV, radio and An independent public media company is online service in Switzerland that is eco­ indispensable for open dialogue and nomically and politically independent. 4 5 Schaffhausen SRG: a presence in all parts of the country EN | ENGLISH Main studios DE | GERMAN Regional studios/offices Basel Zurich FR | FRENCH St Gallen IT | ITALIAN Aarau Delémont ES | SPANISH PT | PORTUGUESE Moutier JA | JAPANESE AR | ARABIC Solothurn ZH | CHINESE RU | RUSSIAN Biel/Bienne Lucerne Neuchâtel Chur Berne Fribourg/Freiburg Ilanz Scuol Disentis Savognin Lausanne Samedan Brig www.rtr.ch Sion RTR apps Geneva Lugano/ Comano www.srf.ch SRF apps www.rts.ch www.rsi.ch RTS apps RSI apps 1. Who we are and what we stand for The Link Institut comes to this conclusion and for the benefit of a robust direct Professionalism in a representative study (Link, 2016) on democracy. the image of SRG. For 79 per cent of those questioned, well­functioning public TV, Credibility radio and online services are important for 1.1 Free shaping of opinion – democracy. Two out of three people think an attribute of democracy that SRG and its enterprise units fulfil their Information content mandate well. The discussion on the meaning of and necessity for public media is becoming ever More important than ever in a digital world broader. One reason for this is the recent Balance The digital revolution has hugely advanced restrictions on media freedom in European globalization, not least in terms of commu­ countries such as Hungary, Poland, Turkey nication. Media services have never been as and Russia – developments that are of easy to access as they are today. New digital concern not only in professional circles. SRG’s strengths from the public’s point of view business models aim at meeting individual People in Switzerland are aware that an needs to the greatest possible extent. The independent media company is a valuable Source: Final report from OFCOM project “The usage and evaluation of Swiss radio down side to this is that social groupings asset worth cultivating. and TV programmes 2015” (Fretwurst et al., 2015). that were once large are splitting up into countless small fragments. SRG is working The Swiss population is discerning. This to counter this by communicating shared is apparent from the annual national public experiences in an individualized world and survey on media quality commissioned creating a common public and a common by OFCOM (Fretwurst et al., 2015). SRG sta­ identity. tions are generally perceived as more credi­ ble, professional and balanced than those In the service of upcoming generations of other commercial providers. Those sur­ We want to involve all generations in the veyed also corroborated that SRG stations debate on current social issues, particularly had a higher information content. young people. They are growing up in a totally digitized world and increasingly This finding is no coincidence. Several come from a migration background. They studies attest the important role played by are focussing on new communication public media for democracy and the com­ platforms, including social media. The mon good. For example, a study by the upcoming generations are our future. As a European Broadcasting Union (EBU, 2016) public media company, we must therefore shows that well­functioning democracies be even more flexible and closer to the usually go hand in hand with strong public public. This is of fundamental importance, media. Countries with strong public broad­ so that we can continue to fulfil our man­ casters tend to be less extreme and have date to the satisfaction of the general public corruption better under control. Another 8 1. Who we are and what we stand for 1. Who we are and what we stand for Solidarity with the smaller language regions Regional revenue sharing of licence fee income (1.2 billion francs). A large proportion of licence fee income from German-speaking Switzerland is allocated to other language regions (including redistribution of central services; rounding differences possible).

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