SWI swissinfo

Producing for diverse audiences is part of the job at an inteational broadcaster(Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi) ...

Here are some of the stories we'll be following the week of December 3. (© KEYSTONE / PETER KLAUNZER) Monday As Switzerland prepares to unveil the two newest members of its executive branch, who...

Voters overwhelmingly decided not to pull the plug on the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation(Keystone) Voters have rejected a proposal to do away with the mandatory licence fee for Switzerland’s public broadcasters.Provisional final results show 71.6% of voters throwing out the initiative, which was launched ...

Public broadcasting models around the world vary greatly in terms of funding models and govement influence.(swissinfo.ch) On March 4, Switzerland will decide on the future of its public service radio and TV. If voters tu out in favour of abolishing the licence fees that finance public broadcasters, the Swiss media scene will change drastically. What’s the situation for public media around the world?SWI swissinfo.ch tapped its inteational network to find out what kinds of media systems exist elsewhere and how they are maintained.Switzerland’s federal govement should stay out of the media altogether. So say those promoting the "No Billag" ...

US President Donald Trump has arrived in snowy Davos as this year's most-anticipated WEF attendee. What do the townspeople think of it all?A ski lift operator would gladly help the American leader on to the slopes, but doubts he'll venture that far from the WEF conference centre. Others are happy about the publicity Trump's visit brings for their coer of the world. And some take issue with the way he interacts with those around him.Thousands of security forces are spread out across town and vehicles are parked every which way. Helicopters buzz overhead and joualists rush after interviewees.Storefronts have been rented out to think tanks, companies and nonprofits, and lavish soirees book out ...

A demonstrator calls for the child protection authorities to be stripped of their powers following the case of a mother who killed her two children to stop them being retued to care. She later killed herself in jail.(Eio Leanza/KEYSTONE) Child protection authorities are among the most unpopularinstitutions in Switzerland, even after recent reforms. Why the backlash?Overshadowed by the dark past of so-called "slave children", Swiss child protective services were subject tosweeping changes in 2013. But their reputation has continued to suffer after a series of incidents, notably a mother who killed her two children to stop them from being ...

The village choir of Stans in traditional costumes posing for national event in 2011. Many local clubs are struggling to survive and are looking for new ways to attract young members (Keystone/Peter Schneider) There are tens of thousands of them, all around the country: clubs and associations. Often these are very local groups. The classic example is the village rabbit-breeders’ club. In Switzerland these groups are important for leaing democracy, says Fai Dahinden of the Vitamin B centre in Zurich, which advises and supports volunteer boards and knows what the issues for clubs and associations are. Its name is based on a slang expression in German for the power of networking. #Dear D...

Still breathing: a pig shortly before it is slaughtered in public(@ KEYSTONE / CHRISTIAN MERZ) A shot rings out. After a few milliseconds, a bullet pierces the pig’s papaya-sized brain. It sends the last signals through the nerve tracts, the pig’s pink legs are twitching in the hay. Two men pick up the heavy corpse. One of them cuts the carotid artery, dark red blood splatters into a white kettle. Small drops stain the butchers' plastic aprons and the collars of their finely striped shirts.On this wet Saturday moing, the small village of Sissach in canton Basel Country in the north of Switzerland, sees two pigs publicly slaughtere...

Tama Vakeesan was bo in Switzerland – to Tamil parents from Sri Lanka. This week, she joins a club for foreign women called "Femmes-Tisch" in her home town of Langenthal, which provides members with different forms of training such as German classes, and helpsthem to integrate in Swiss society.It's run by the non profit group, interunidoexteal link, which specialises inmigration and integr...

Politicians inparliament building celebrate a result of the Swiss national football team, which they watch ontelevision. (Keystone) Parliament is continuing its debate of a people’s initiative which aims to scrap licence fees for the services of the public Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). At stake is the value of information in a direct democracy and an aual per capita fee of up to ...

While expats considered Switzerland’s leisure options, such as Zurich’s techno parade, to be average, they appreciated the country’s security and stability (Keystone) In expat heaven, safety levels are Swiss, leisure options are South African, teachers are Fiish and neighbours are Mexican. In expat hell, safety levels areSouth African, leisure options are Fiish,teachers are Mexicanand...

Daniel Gasteiger's blockchain startup Procivisrecently aounced that it is working with canton Schaffhausen to create a digital identity for citizens (Ester Unterfinger/swissinfo.ch) “Civic tech” activist Daniel Gasteiger is a former investment banker who wants to digitise Swiss govement. ...

Switzerland has imported more cheese than it has exported in some recent months. (Keystone) Stressed are the cheesemakers - Switzerland’s, at least. As the European Central Bank (ECB)lowered interest rates to help the bloc out of its deflationary slump, businesses in neighbouring countries ha...

The northweste Swiss city of Basel is one of the country's most inteational regions, bordering both France and Germany (Keystone) A Basel resident from Turkey was inspired to reflect on herdifficult Swiss integration process after a citizenship case involving a Turkish woman made waves in...

Two potential Swiss apprentices attend a career fair to consider their future options. More than two-thirds of young people in Switzerland do an apprenticeship after leaving secondary school. (Keystone) US President Donald Trump’s administration is in talks with Swiss leaders about bringing Sw...

American writer Chantal Panozzo lived in Switzerland for almost ten years – long enough to fill a book with nearly 100 travel tips. In 99.9 Ways To Travel Switzerland Like a Localexteal link, Panozzo focuses on attractions and activities that might go unexplored by the average visitor. (Cross B...

A colourful crowd with balloons, prams strolled through the streets of Be before they handed in signatures for their initiative for a statutory paid pateity leave (Keystone) Swiss voters will have the chance to overtu parliament’s rejection of paid pateity leave after campaigners figh...

Bon pour la tête launched last week after a successful crowd-funding campaign. (Keystone) As media habits shift in Switzerland, new projects are emerging to complement traditional publications. One of them launched last week. Zeynep Ersan Berdoz is full of energy. When swissinfo.ch meets the p...

A still shot from Swiss public television during coverage of the first moon landing(SF DRS)Switzerland has been debating the role of its public broadcaster in the digital age, and it’s not alone. We looked at the state of public media around the world in countries where swissinfo.ch joualists have...

Leaders of Swiss political parties comment passionately on the first results of parliamentary elections for public television and radio. Like those in EU countries, the Swiss have confidence in audio-visual media. (Keystone) The existence of solid, well-financed public service media is a sign of an equally solid democracy. That’s one of the conclusions of a study led by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The study Trust in Media 2016 is based on data gathered twice aually as part of the European Commission’s Eurobarometer. The survey was done in 28 EU member countries (before Brexit), as well as five candidate countries (Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and Turkey). The first f...