A municipal referendum
In 2021, the people of Onex (a city in the canton of Geneva) will have to vote on a new set of rules for their municipal council. This is a crucial issue for freedom of the press, as the new by-law is intended to do no more and no less than allow the media to be banned from filming debates. The opposition parties are launching a referendum with the support of TV Onex. As an active member of TV Onex, I led the campaign, producing all the visuals and some of the arguments. Thanks to this commitment, over 60% of the population rejected the regulation, and freedom of the press in municipal debates was saved!
The political and media storm
The debate was taken up by several media representatives in French-speaking Switzerland. Bertil Cottier, Honorary Professor at the University of Lausanne and a specialist in media and communications law, described the regulation as a “crass violation” of press freedom in an RTS debate. The news was also reported in La Tribune de Genève, Léman Bleu and GHI. Switzerland’s largest journalists’ organisation, Impressum, also issued a press release denouncing the article and then, after the vote, hailing it as a victory for press freedom.
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The background
How did we get here? In 2018, after the demise of the communal television channel Canal Onex, the RésOnex association founded TV Onex! This new channel, which I co-constructed with Stéphane Jeanrenaud, covers news related to the commune of Onex. But the municipal administration didn’t approve the project. It preferred to commission reports from a regional television channel. But this concept, which does not comply with the independence of the media vis-à-vis the political authorities (LRTV art. 5 paragraphs 1, 2 and 3), fell apart. Only TV Onex remains as a news channel independent of the municipality, financed by donations, advertisements and a large proportion of voluntary work. At the time, relations with the municipal administration were very difficult. The authorities were particularly quarrelsome, preventing TV Onex from filming on communal premises for as long as possible. The new regulations were more and more arguments for restricting TV Onex’s work.
The other side
The defenders of these rules, made up of the authorities (one of whose members was running for a seat on the cantonal executive) and the Parti Socialiste d’Onex (the majority party), argued that only full broadcasting of the meetings would ensure the transparency of the debates. However, this was not prohibited by the current regulations. There also followed a legal tangle (which only the commune of Onex seems to have the secret of making) over whether or not the referendum would be applicable. The cantonal supervisory authorities were reluctant to give their opinion, creating a certain amount of chaos in the campaign. Despite this, the new regulations have been adopted and TV Onex can continue to film the proceedings without restriction.
As well as the campaign flyers and film, the TV Onex support group also produced its own poster. To illustrate press freedom, I came up with the idea of doing it the old-fashioned way. Using wooden letters and a mechanical press, we printed all the posters at L’association pour le patrimoine industriel, creating unique pieces for display in the town.