Published3 August 2024, 14:28
Viktor Rossi: Does ZDF think that the Swiss Chancellor is the head of government?
In just four sentences, ZDF online summarizes the most important facts about Switzerland. Somewhat astonishingly, it mentions that Viktor Rossi was elected Federal Chancellor in 2023.
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ZDF describes Switzerland in a short introductory text on its website and mentions Viktor Rossi as the new Federal Chancellor.
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The mention of Rossi raises questions, as he is “only” the Chief of Staff of the Federal Council. There is nothing about the Federal Council in the text.
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The question therefore arises whether the broadcaster means that the Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Switzerland as in Germany.
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When asked about this, the public broadcaster adjusted the text.
Switzerland is a democratic state in Central Europe with over eight million inhabitants and is Germany’s neighbor. The capital is Bern and the country is known for watches, chocolate and its finance. This is how ZDF describes Switzerland in a short introductory text on a subpage of its website, which brings together various articles about Switzerland. So far, so good. But another piece of information in the text, which consists of only four sentences, is surprising: “In December 2023, Viktor Rossi was elected as the new Federal Chancellor.”
This information is not wrong, but the mention of this fact in the short description raises some question marks: As is well known, the Federal Chancellor in Switzerland is “only” the Chief of Staff of the Federal Council. For the Federal Council, he mainly takes on organizational and administrative tasks and has no decision-making powers in the Federal Council. The fact that the Federal Council elections took place in December 2023 and that Switzerland is governed by the Federal Council is not mentioned in the text.
But why does ZDF then mention that Viktor Rossi was elected Federal Chancellor in 2023? Does the public broadcaster believe that the Federal Chancellor in Switzerland has the same importance as the Federal Chancellor in Germany or that Viktor Rossi is the head of government of Switzerland?
This is what ZDF says
When asked about this by 20 minutes, ZDF wrote that the topic pages on their website bring together current and in-depth articles on various topics – whether about people, countries or political fields. “On the topic page on Switzerland you can find information on the 2023 parliamentary elections as well as on the mountains and tourism.” ZDF left unanswered the question of why the short introductory text mentions the election of Viktor Rossi as Federal Chancellor, but not, for example, the election of the Federal Presidency.
But the German broadcaster reacted anyway. After 20 minutes’ request, the sentence about Viktor Rossi disappeared from the website. ZDF wrote: “To avoid misunderstandings, we have adjusted the introductory text.” ZDF did not want to reveal whether an editor was responsible for the sentence or whether artificial intelligence was behind it.
When asked by 20 Minuten, the Federal Chancellery declined to comment.
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