Second Swiss parliament chamber rejects cuts to Swissinfo

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives gave a clear decision in favour of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)’s foreign mandate. Keystone / Andreas Becker

The Swiss government wanted to cancel federal contributions to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)’s international services. This would have severely affected the financing of Swissinfo. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted against the proposal, following a similar vote in the Senate in December.

The savings measure was one of 65 cost‑cutting proposals from the Federal Council. Scrapping federal contributions to SBC’s international services appeared as item 24 in ‘savings package 27’, the government’s broad plan to reduce spending across nearly all federal areas.

The House of Representatives discussed this package on Monday and Tuesday. The deciding vote for SBC’s international services was clear: 104 votes in favour, 84 against and five abstentions. Following the Senate, the House of Representatives also wants this service to continue to be financed by the federal government. Swissinfo – the platform you are currently reading – can now breathe a small sigh of relief.

Challenging savings idea

SBC’s international services cost the Swiss state CHF19 million ($24.35 million) per year. The federal government covers roughly half of Swissinfo’s budget with CHF9 million, while the Italian-language website TVSvizzera and SBC partnerships with TV5MondeExternal link and 3SatExternal link receive the remaining funds. SBC finances the other half of the international platforms itself.

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)’s foreign mandate

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s (SBC) foreign mandate is a federal mandate instructing SBC to provide information services abroad. It contains two requirements: the SBC must produce media offerings for Swiss citizens abroad and it must provide coverage for an international audience interested in Switzerland.

The aim is to support the political rights of Swiss Abroad and to counter disinformation internationally. Swissinfo’s reporting helps correct misunderstandings and false information about Switzerland while providing reliable news and analysis.

Swissinfo currently publishes in ten languages: German, French, Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese.

The foreign mandate is financed jointly by federal funds and SBC funds collected through the compulsory radio and television licence fee.

The federal government currently contributes around CHF19 million per year, with SBC providing a similar amount.

The difficulty with the federal government’s cost-cutting plan was that it wanted to maintain SBC’s foreign mandate while cutting its funding. One possible scenario for Swissinfo would have been to reduce reporting from ten to four languages. This emerged during the debate in the Senate.

You can also read our report on the debate in the Senate:

Discussions will continue in parliament over the next two weeks to resolve any differences regarding the entire savings programme. However, as there is no longer any difference regarding measure 24, federal funding appears secured for the coming years.

Swiss People’s Party and Radical-Liberals wanted cuts

The House of Representatives’ finance committee had earlier recommended rejecting the cut to the SBC’s international services, albeit by a narrow margin. By the time the issue was debated in parliament on Tuesday, most positions had already been established during party group discussions. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party was the only one to take the floor during the debate. Switzerland’s largest political party opposed the committee’s decision and supported the federal government’s savings plan.

The savings measure would have been a re-sizing rather than a dismantling, argued People’s Party parliamentarian Ernst Bürki. “The foreign service was created at a time when the Swiss Abroad did not have easy access to Swiss programmes,” he said. Today, however, access is widely available. “This service is not part of the core state mandate,” Bürki added.

‘Cutting out old habits’

Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter, a member of the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party, also defended the government’s cost-cutting measures in the House of Representatives. “Sometimes you need the courage to cut out old habits,” she said. Swiss citizens abroad could still access those SBC offerings financed via the domestic radio and television licence fee.

In the vote, Radical-Liberal lawmakers largely supported the government, with only three abstaining. The People’s Party also voted almost unanimously for the cuts. All other parties voted in line with the finance committee decision against the government’s proposal.

Relief among media unions

The media union SSM welcomed Wednesday’s decision. “More than 100 jobs could have disappeared and Switzerland’s voice abroad would have been weakened,” the union said in a press release. This decision is an “important signal in favour of media diversity, the Swiss Abroad and Switzerland’s international visibility”, it added.

Prior to the parliamentary debate, SSM representatives had submitted a petition to save the international mandate. In less than three months, they had gathered over 17,000 signatures in support of Swissinfo. The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), Soliswiss, educationsuisse and other media associations were also involved in the petition.

Edited by Mark Livingston/translated using AI/amva

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