According to the ombudsman’s office, Swiss radio and television wrongly refrained from reporting. The editorial team refers to program autonomy.
The ombudsman’s office has reprimanded the SRF. Image: the SRF radio and television studios in Zurich Leutschenbach.
Patrick B. Kraemer / Keystone
When the Corona protocols of the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI) became public in the spring, the SRF decided not to report on them. The SRF ombudsman’s office received numerous complaints at the time. It was incomprehensible why the SRF did not address the protocols.
The ombudsman’s office subsequently looked into the case and concluded that SRF made a mistake. The editorial team should have reported on the Corona protocols. it says in a report, which was published this week.
Big discussion about the RKI files
The Robert Koch Institute is responsible for monitoring infectious diseases in Germany. During the corona pandemic, it collected data on Covid-19 and made recommendations to the German government.
At the end of March, the RKI had to publish minutes from the meetings of the Corona crisis team because the online media outlet Multipolar had successfully sued under the Freedom of Information Act. The material amounts to 2,000 pages.
There was a lot of excitement about the Corona protocols. In Germany, but also in Switzerland. Many Swiss media reported on them, including the NZZ. The explosive thing: some of the protocols were blacked out. For reasons of privacy protection, as the RKI said. But the blacked out sections led to numerous speculations and interpretations. At one point, for example, the impression could be created that the RKI had received and followed instructions from politicians. If that were true, the research institute would not have been independent.
SRF defends itself
The SRF writes about the ombudsman’s decision that the editorial team is free to choose its topics. What is reported on is decided based on criteria of relevance and public interest. The RKI protocols were discussed in the editorial team. The decision not to report on the protocols was the right one because the decisions of the German crisis team had no influence on the Covid measures in Switzerland. And because the protocols hardly contained any new findings.
The ombudsman’s office sees things differently. It writes that the protocols triggered a wide media response. Just because there is hardly any information to be found in the protocols does not negate the explosive nature of the issue. In addition, the Swiss government did indeed rely on findings from the Robert Koch Institute. The institute therefore indirectly influenced the way the pandemic was handled in Switzerland. SRF should have reported on the protocols, according to the ombudsman’s office.
