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The board of directors of Swiss television commissioned investigations into the allegations.
Thanks to a newspaper article, what goes on behind SRG’s facade is now being analyzed.
The exposure of cases of harassment and intimidation on the French-speaking Swiss television RTS by the newspaper “Le Temps” shocked the station. Now two investigations have been launched. And the news chief has temporarily retired from his post. There is also pressure on SRG. Because for Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga it is the responsibility of the company’s management to prevent sexual harassment and intimidation.
The institution as a model
The media minister welcomed the fact that the SRG board of directors had commissioned investigations. According to her spokeswoman Annetta Bundi, she was personally briefed on the investigations decided last week by the chairman of the SRG Board of Directors, Jean-Michel Cina. “Federal President Sommaruga condemns all forms of harassment and intimidation in the workplace,” Bundi said upon request. The SRG has a role model role. Bundi thus confirmed a report from CH-Media. Sommaruga women are important political issues. Therefore, it can be assumed that it will closely follow further development. According to Bundi, the board of directors is responsible for personnel problems that affect the administration. Sommaruga will decide how to proceed, knowing the results of the investigation.
People interviewed by “Le Temps” accused former star presenter Darius Rochebin and two members of the cadre of violating boundaries and abusive behavior towards subordinates. The RTS leadership is said to have looked the other way for years, saying there was a “culture of silence”. Rumors of harassment had been known for a long time. In addition to “Le Temps”, the newspapers “Tribune de Genève” and “Le Courrier” conducted a joint investigation. “Le Temps” was the first newspaper to publish the article on October 31.
Rappaz retires
The pressure on the RTS line is increasing. This was demonstrated by the announcement on Wednesday that the editor-in-chief of RTS television news programs, Bernard Rappaz, is retiring for the duration of the investigation that SRG’s board of directors had decided a week earlier on the chain of responsibility to do in front of incidents. The clarification affects all hierarchical levels of the company, RTS said.
RTS declined to provide any information about the reason for Rappaz’s withdrawal. According to an email exchange available to the Tribune de Genève, Rappaz was one of the members of the RTS management team that, in 2014, was informed of a file from the Swiss Syndicate for Media (SSM) with complaints from about ten employees. The men and women accused a cadre of harassment and intimidation whom “Le Temps” named in the article “Robert”. However, RTS only examined the complaints of two women. Rappaz was close to “Robert” and the second accused executive, to whom the newspaper gave the pseudonym “Georges.” “Robert” was rejected within RTS and no longer had any contact with subordinates.
In view of this approach, the SSM union was not surprised that information on harassment was not systematically transmitted through official channels to hierarchically competent authorities. According to SSM, current SRG CEO Gilles Marchand, who was RTS director from 2001 to 2017, was also informed.
“Without intervention”
Marchand regretted the incidents, he too is under pressure. Last week, CH-Media decided not to publish an interview with him because SRG’s media office had shortened the text considerably and changed Marchand’s responses. That raised the question of whether he was still allowed to take a position himself. “At no point did the Board of Directors intervene in relation to this interview,” said SRG Chairman of the Board of Directors, Cina, upon request. The journalist wanted to publish the part of the interview about the events on RTS on short notice on Thursday instead of Saturday as planned. The media office made this dependent on the outcome of the board meeting on Wednesday and the subsequent planned press release. The meeting had lasted, so the media office stayed at the time of publication on Saturday. Cina did not provide any information about the change in the text.
“Le Temps” awaits charges
Since then, “Robert” and “Georges” have been suspended for the duration of the investigation. Rochebin has filed a defamation lawsuit against “Le Temps,” his lawyers told the AFP news agency. Longtime RTS presenter Tagesschau switched to French news broadcaster LCI, which belongs to private broadcaster TF1, in the summer. “We were expecting a lawsuit,” “Le Temps” co-editor-in-chief Gaël Hurlimann said on request. Rochebin’s lawyers had announced it. Be calm. “Le Temps” has not yet received the indictment and therefore does not know exactly who it is targeting.
In addition to clarifying the incidents and responsibilities, as well as the suspension of the two directors, RTS staff had also requested a point of contact for those affected. Meanwhile, RTS hired a law firm to record statements from current and former employees about the incidents. Currently, however, many people report that those affected have to be patient for several weeks.
