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) u200bu200bu200bu200bu200bu200bu200bOn 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 swis...

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 vehi...

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.xa0(Ennio Leanza/KEYSTONE) Child protection authorities are among the most unpopularxa0institutions in Switzerland, even after recent reforms. Why the backlash?Overshadowed by the dark past of so-called "slave children", Swiss ch...

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 Fanni Dahinden of the Vitamin B centr...

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...

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 helpsxa0them to integrate in Swiss society.xa0xa0It's run by the non profit group, interunidoexteal link, which specialises inxa0migration and integr...

Politicians inxa0parliament building celebrate a result of the Swiss national football team, which they watch onxa0television. (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 annual 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 Finnish and neighbours are Mexican. In expat hell, safety levels arexa0South African, leisure options are Finnish,xa0teachers are Mexicanxa0and...

Daniel Gasteiger's blockchain startup Procivisxa0recently announced 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)xa0lowered 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 herxa0difficult 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 leavexa0 (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 annually as part of th...