The president of the PLR and Aargau state councilor Thierry Burkart as well as the former Schwyz UDC state councilor Alex Kuprecht are the winners of the Golden Sabot 2024. This satirical prize is awarded each year by the 300 journalists of the investigativ investigative network .ch and reward for “preventers of informing”.
It falls to the two politicians due to a postulate from the Economics Committee of the Council of States, as part of the publication in February 2022 of “Suisse Secrets” on problematic accounts at Credit Suisse.
A postulate for not using illegally collected data
In the wake of these revelations, the National Council adopted a motion aimed at strengthening press freedom in the banking and financial sector. The Council of States had completely turned the tide, explains investigativ.ch, by adopting in December 2023 a postulate from its Economics Committee entitled “Subsequent use of data obtained illegally”.
Alex Kuprecht was then president of the economic committee of the Council of States and Thierry Burkart the committee’s rapporteur during the debates in the Chamber of Cantons. By this postulate, the Council of States instructed the Federal Council to examine whether the publication of illegally collected data should be punished. In the eyes of the research network, this would amount to toughening the provisions in force. Not only banking data would be affected, but all confidential information in general.
The publication of “Suisse Secrets” in February 2022 triggered a political debate in Switzerland on media freedom. An international research network (South German newspaperGuardian, The World et New York Times among others) then criticized Credit Suisse for having accepted autocrats, drug traffickers, war criminals and suspected human traffickers among its clients for years.
The Swiss media did not participate in the investigation, as the law prohibits Swiss journalists from publishing information on banking data under penalty of prosecution.
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