Swiss court upholds SRF coverage of Gaza war protests

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has upheld SRF’s reporting on student protests against the Gaza war, overturning an earlier ruling by the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television, SRF reported.

The court found that SRF had not violated the requirement for diverse coverage. The case concerned reports on protests at US and Swiss universities in 2024, which several private individuals criticised.

One man complained to the authority, arguing that SRF had failed to report students’ sympathies for Hamas terrorists and their alleged calls for Israel’s destruction. The authority agreed, finding that SRF’s coverage had been one-sided and tendentious, had downplayed the protests and had omitted antisemitism.

In a decision published on Friday, however, the Federal Supreme Court listed several SRF programmes that had addressed antisemitic slogans used by demonstrators, Jewish students’ fears for their safety and other critical aspects of the protests.

The court concluded that SRF had not systematically excluded criticism of the protests and had presented a sufficiently broad range of views. It said that a strict numerical balance between opinions and counter-opinions was not required, even over a longer period.

The case also concerned the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the slogan is antisemitic because it denies Israel’s right to exist and calls for violence.