Six in ten Swiss media professionals encountered insults or hate speech last year, according to the first systematic study of journalists’ safety in the country. The research, by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), paints a picture of a profession increasingly exposed to harassment. Eleven per cent of respondents reported physical (19%) or verbal (81%) harassment; 17% faced digital attacks, a proportion higher among investigative reporters. Four in ten were threatened with legal action.
Occasional high-profile cases hint at the pressures. In mid-November Pascal Crittin, director of the French-language broadcaster RTS, received a death threat, reported Blick. Such cases remain rare. Yet many more go unreported. Journalists think several times about what they make public, so as not to expose themselves further.
The findings worry the study’s authors. Such incidents affect well-being and journalistic work, says Vinzenz Wyss, who led the research. The study suggests that only a small minority—about 15%—publicly disclose the hostility they face.
Press freedom, says Reporters Without Borders, is under strain worldwide, eroded by wars, crises and creeping authoritarianism. Physical and verbal attacks in Switzerland eased somewhat after the pandemic, and conditions remain comparatively better. But they are not as good as they could be, according to the organisation
The ZHAW threat monitor concludes that Switzerland’s overall security environment is still favourable by international standards. But Wyss is not sanguine. With no long-term domestic data, trends are hard to track, he says, but I assume that threats will increase. We must remain vigilant—even in Switzerland.
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ZHAW study (in German)
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