On Sunday 8 March, Swiss citizens rejected by a very large majority (61,9 % of votes) a referendum aimed at weakening the funding of national public broadcasting service through a drastic reduction in the annual licence fee.
The European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (ECCD) welcome this democratic mobilisation and clearly expressed desire of Swiss citizens to preserve a strong, independent and sustainable audiovisual service. By choosing to maintain funding for the SSR, voters have clearly reaffirmed their commitment to a public audiovisual service that guarantees independent information, a high-quality cultural offer and a central place for local creativity.
This vote has implications that extend far beyond Switzerland’s border, at a time when many European public audiovisual services are experiencing periods of turbulence, are sometimes facing increasing political pressure or are seeing their funding sources called into question.
The message from the ballot box is unequivocal: supporting public broadcasting means supporting democracy, pluralism and cultural diversity.
For the cultural world, the message is more important given that public audiovisual services in Europe account for nearly 40 M of investment in original European works and content. In other words, in a world saturated with global platforms, where algorithms do not always contribute to diversity, public broadcasting remains a defence against cultural standardisation.