Soon, all Swiss public channels will have a revised and corrected diversity checklist. This document will be optional and no longer obligatory, as was the case with German-speaking radio and television.
11.10.2024, 18:5211.10.2024, 21:15
This news will be of interest to film producers requesting funding from the SSR, the umbrella body of Swiss public broadcasting. It also has a sensitive political dimension, since it refers to societal aspects that are regularly controversial, such as questions related to gender or sexual orientation.
In the future, producers contacting the SSR to request financial assistance for the production of a work will be able to choose whether or not to complete a questionnaire called a “diversity checklist”. Until now, this process was obligatory, at least in German-speaking Switzerland. Remember that under the terms of the concession, the SSR, a public service, contributes to cultural creation in Switzerland by means of subsidies.
“A revised version of the questionnaire will soon be put online”indicates to watson the SSR spokesperson to the general management, Nik Leuenberger. “It will be clearly specified that completing the diversity checklist is optional when submitting the application”adds the spokesperson. Which further specifies: the diversity checklist, whether completed or not, “will not constitute a criterion for the selection of projects”. So what is its use?
“It is used to check, for statistical purposes and once the project is completed, whether or not there is diversity in the productions”
Nik Leuenberger, spokesperson for the SSR
Another clarification relating to the checklist which is very important:
“The fiction sector was informed last June of the optional nature of this document when submitting the funding request”
Nik Leuenberger, spokesperson for the SSR
Until now, the checklist was obligatorypotentially decisive in the evaluation of applications, for productions processed by the German-speaking channel SRF and the Zürcher Filmstiftung, a Zurich foundation supporting fiction. The files processed by the RTS were exempt from this obligation.
“In the future, the SRF, the RTS and the radio and television of Italian Switzerland will be placed in the same boat: the new document in preparation, of an optional nature, will be in force in all national channels”
Nik Leuenberger, spokesperson for the SSR
In its current version, visible for some time to come on an SSR internet page, the diversity checklist contains the following passage:
“This checklist aims to raise awareness of the issue of diversity. It serves as a visualization tool for production, commission and editorial. It’s not about checking as many “yes” as possible, but about addressing the issue as honestly and openly as possible. In project evaluation, diversity is one criterion among others.” (See the questionnaire in question at the end of the article.)
It says here in black and white that “diversity is one criterion among others in the evaluation of projects”. Will this criterion cease to be one with the new questionnaire? We understand at this stage that the diversity checklist, becoming optional, valid at the very end of the production process and no longer upstream of it, should no longer be perceived by some as an obstacle to creative freedom.
The diversity checklist was created in 2022 at the initiative of German-speaking radio and television SRF and the Zürcher Filmstiftung, a Zurich foundation supporting filmmaking.
What we say on RTS
Asked about him Wednesday evening in the show “Le poinG” on the Léman Bleu channel by Jonas Follonier, author of an essay which has just been published, The spread of Wokism in Switzerlandthe director of the RTS Strategy and Programming Department, Thierry Zweifel, responded:
“The checklist exists but we have never used it at RTS”
The checklist “never obstructed the choice of a project”, its use “was mainly for statistical purposes”, he added.
Not everything is necessarily clear in this matter. On the one hand, the SSR explains that the diversity checklist, in its new version, is not part of the file constituting the financing request, which includes “the scenario, the financing plan and a budget”. On the other hand, she adds that, although not constituting the funding request, the checklist “serves as a statistical tool, in order to have an overview of themes linked to diversity. It also makes production, authors and also fiction commissions or departments aware of this issue.”
Asked about this last May by the French-speaking site L’ImpertinentSophie Balbo, head of the RTS communications department, responded: “The checklist aims to strengthen awareness of diversity in all its forms, on screen and within teams.” Joined this Friday by watsonSophie Balbo confirms her comments at the time, adding:
“For SSR, the checklist makes it possible to raise awareness among all people who work in the sector thanks to the statistics that emerge”
Sophie Balbo, head of communications at RTS
The diversity checklist has become a source of embarrassment for the SSR due to the questions asked, which are potentially intrusive and could lead to a situation of self-censorship. This is what emerged from an article in the New Zurich newspaper published in September 2023, in which some of the directors interviewed expressed their fears regarding this “tool”. Hence the adjustments made at the moment.
They have not adopted the diversity checklist
In the sector of assistance with the creation of works of fiction, not everyone has such a checklist. This is the case, for example, of Cinéforom, the French-speaking Foundation for Cinema. Its secretary general, Stéphane Morey, says:
“When the SSR and the Zürcher Filmstiftung informed us of their draft checklist, we discussed within our Foundation Board whether we wanted to adopt it as well, but we ultimately decided against it. It did not seem wise to us to mix two registers, that of artistic selection and that of societal and political issues for which our experts do not bear responsibility. It seemed to us that the imperative to act in favor of diversity must be located at a structural level, so that it is present at the source, and that the selective process can be carried out solely on artistic and professional criteria. »
Stéphane Morey, general secretary of Cinéforom
The choices made by the SSR in terms of diversity are in line with the logic of platforms such as Netflix or Disney. The public broadcasting umbrella wants to be pragmatic. For Swiss channels, it is a question of ensuring that the fictions do not resemble each other, but, on the contrary, address the diversity, in all its aspects, of Switzerland, it is explained. Will the optional aspect of the future questionnaire be interpreted as a trap? As an additional chance to see your file selected?
Some may not see how a “statistical tool” like a diversity checklist, even if optional, would prevent the client, RTS, SRF or RSI, from imposing conditions on producers regarding the script or casting.
The online questionnaire, partly obsolete since June????
The news in Switzerland is here
Related News :