The Swiss Press Council dealt with 130 complaints in 2024, against 104 the previous year. According to the self -regulation body for media ethics issues, out of the 56 positions adopted, nearly two thirds of complaints were not founded and only a good third party gave rise to a blame.
Compared to the 2020 and 2021 record years, where 160 to 180 complaints had been filed, the number was again stabilized at a high level, close to the multi -year average, explains the annual report published on Monday. On the whole, 106 complaints concerned the German media, twenty related to French -speaking Switzerland and three in Ticino.
A quarter of “obviously unfounded” complaints
Twenty-one complaints were completely or partially accepted and 32 rejected. Thirty were not taken into consideration because they were “obviously unfounded”. In three non-entry decisions in matters, the press council still wrote a position because the motivation was of public interest. Fifteen complaints have been canceled or removed by their authors.
Last year’s decisions have notably focused on embargoes, corrections or discrimination. In summary: an embargo does not imply a ban on investigating, errors must be corrected without delay and in a transparent manner and finally, it is possible to account for minorities in a critical way, but not without evidence or generalizing.
At the beginning of 2024, the Swiss press council published guidelines that indicate to journalists how to use artificial intelligence instruments (AI). So far, there has been no complaints linked to an improper use of AI.
