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The media landscape in Switzerland

The freedom of the press was firmly entrenched in Switzerland's constitution with the founding of the Swiss state in 1848. The Swiss radio broadcasting corporation SRG was founded in 1931, and today also owns the national television broadcaster SRG SSR. Private broadcasters have been less successful at establishing themselves at the national level, and today cater mostly to local audiences.

Foto: Amstuzmarco

SRG SSR operates several stations in the four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The station receives broadcasting fees and has the legal mandate of providing information in all of the country's regions.

Broadcasting was deregulated and private broadcasters were authorised in Switzerland in the 1980s, a move that considerably facilitated the concentration of media ownership. Although it improved the survival chances of new multimedia companies like Tamedia AG, NZZ Group and Ringier AG, media researchers identify a latent threat to the diversity of information in this concentration.

Print media occupy a position of dominance in Switzerland. Roughly 2,700 print media are published, including some 450 – mostly regional – daily newspapers. Of the national dailies the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) enjoys a special reputation for its informed, detailed and neutral reporting on domestic and international issues. A key role is played also by French-language papers like 24 heures and L'Hebdo as well as the Italian-language daily Corriere del Ticino.

Since 2000 nationwide free newspapers have been gaining ground, some of which – like 20 Minuten, Coopzeitung and Migros-Magazin – have more than a million readers. Likewise, competition from the Internet and blogs has increasingly been putting pressure on the established Swiss media.

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