Switzerland to vote on right-wing pressure to cut public broadcaster’s license fees

Swiss voters will go to the polls this weekend to decide whether they want to slash their national broadcaster’s annual license fee.

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s license fee has already been reduced in recent years, but currently costs 335 Swiss francs (£320; $435) per household per year. This is higher than in neighboring Germany (£190) and Austria (£160).

If the proposal is adopted, the Swiss tax would decrease to 200 francs (£190; $260) per year, and businesses would be exempt.

The move is backed by the right-wing People’s Democratic Union, which says the current cost is unjustified as Swiss citizens grapple with the cost of living crisis.

The party also questions the effectiveness of SBC. “In the 21st century, programs can be produced much more cheaply than 30 or 40 years ago,” SVP MP Manfred Bühler told Swiss media. “Two hundred francs is quite enough.”

With young people particularly turning to streaming companies, early opinion polls indicated a close vote, with many Swiss questioning whether their national broadcaster should do the same.

But opponents of the move say a large part of the fee is used to ensure the representation of Switzerland’s four languages ​​- German, French, Italian and Romantsch.

All four have their own radio and television channels, and each broadcasts national and local news daily.

Fabian Molina, a Social Democratic MP, fears that the reduction in license fees could undermine Switzerland’s “national cohesion”, where all regions and linguistic communities are supposed to be treated equally.

He also worries about the impact on SBC’s coverage of foreign news. The channel has correspondents in the United States, Russia, China, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Rome and London.

“As a neutral country, we have a unique perspective on the world, and only our correspondents can convey it to people,” Molina said.

The SBC warned of hundreds of job losses if a license fee cut was approved, and said the organisation’s coverage of news and sport would be significantly reduced.

Unlike many other European countries, including the United Kingdom, where premier league soccer has moved to private channels requiring subscription fees, the SBC still broadcasts plenty of soccer broadcasts, as well as all the winter sports at which the Swiss excel.

Until a few weeks ago, it looked like voters would be willing to support this reduction.

Then came intervention from an unexpected source. In the German version of the Russian news newspaper RT, someone calling himself Hans-Ueli Läppli called on Switzerland to support the reduction in license fees. The name is so cliché that it is almost certainly a pseudonym.

The writer accuses SBC of “Russophobia…selective, moralistic reporting on political issues and ignoring uncomfortable facts” and “manipulation” of the Swiss population.

For many voters, both left and right, this was too much. Neutral Switzerland has supported European sanctions against Russia, calling the invasion of Ukraine a violation of international law, drawing widespread criticism from Moscow.

Although Switzerland and its government have been the target of several Kremlin-backed disinformation campaigns, they have not joined the EU in banning RT, which remains available online here.

But the article telling the Swiss how to vote appeared to many as a blatant interference in their widely respected system of direct democracy, and caused real anger.

Members of the committee leading the campaign to reduce license fees say they had nothing to do with the RT article, have no contact with Russian media and disagree with the accusation that SBC’s journalism is selective or manipulative.

Their objective, explains Susanne Brunner, member of the commission, is to “reduce the SBC license fees to 200 Swiss francs, in order to reduce the burden on households and businesses”.

After the RT article was published, the debate over SBC licensing fees changed. Posters appeared from an anti-populist group urging voters not to “do favors to autocrats”, using images of Vladimir Putin of Russia, Viktor Orban of Hungary and US President Donald Trump.

Most of Hungary’s independent media outlets were taken over by supporters of its nationalist-conservative prime minister, and RT’s article came out around the same time the Washington Post announced mass layoffs.

The Swiss government and all political parties, with the exception of the People’s Democratic Union, are calling for a “no”. Many sports associations and cultural groups are also campaigning for no.

Recent opinion polls conducted in the run-up to Sunday’s referendum suggest that 54-57% of voters will choose to keep the license fee as it is.

“People understand that the cost of living crisis will not be solved by reducing the relatively modest fees that every household must pay just once a year,” Molina says.

Also put to the vote in Sunday’s ballot There are proposals to create a multibillion-dollar climate fund, enshrine in the Constitution a guarantee that cash payments with coins and notes will continue, and change the way married couples’ income is taxed.