Swiss government ends Swissinfo services in Portuguese and Japanese

The Federal Council has approved a 2027-30 agreement with SRG that will end Swissinfo’s Portuguese- and Japanese-language services because of budget cuts, SRF reported. The agreement takes effect on January 1, 2027.

Swissinfo, SRG’s online portal for audiences abroad, will focus on German, French, Italian, English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic. The platform tvsvizzera.it will also be discontinued.

SRG said the agreement would cut Swissinfo’s budget by 8.3 million francs, from 18.8 million to 10.5 million francs. Staff reductions cannot be avoided, it said, and affected employees will be covered by the broadcaster’s current social plans.

The share of Swiss programmes on 3sat, a television channel run by broadcasters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, will fall from 10% to 8%. Switzerland’s share of French-language channel TV5 Monde will remain at 9%.