Thousands show support for public broadcaster in Ticino

SRG: More than 2,000 people for the public service in Ticino Keystone-SDA

Several thousand people in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona have demonstrated against the "CHF200 francs is enough!" public broadcaster financing initiative.

The participants – 6,000 according to the organisers, 2,000 according to the police – showed their support for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).

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Voters will decide on March 8 whether to slash funding for the national broadcaster by reducing the TV licence fee from CHF335 to CHF200.

According to the protest organisers, the initiative (also known as the “SBC initiative”) “would be particularly detrimental to Italian-speaking Switzerland”.

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“Public service broadcasting plays a fundamental role in our territory and strengthens national cohesion. This role would be compromised if the initiative were to be accepted.”

A study by Swiss economic research institute BAK Economics, commissioned by the Federal Office of Communications, suggests that an SBC budget cut would have a disproportionately large impact on the Italian-speaking region of the country.

SBC employment make up a larger slice of the local workforce (0.8% of jobs and 0.9% of wages) than in German and French-speaking parts of the country.

The BAK Economics study says the public broadcaster contributes 0.4% to canton Ticino’s economy, compared to 0.1% in other parts of Switzerland.