Facts
On August 21, 2013, Swiss Television (SRF) showed video recordings of a police arrest in Lucerne in the "Rundschau" program. Subsequently, the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Canton of Lucerne initiated an investigation for breach of official secrecy against an unknown person who allegedly passed on the recordings without authorization. Journalist [A.] from SRF was summoned as a witness and was to surrender the video recordings in his possession.
[A.] filed a complaint against the orders of the Public Prosecutor's Office, according to which he as a witness was not to have the accompaniment of legal counsel and was to surrender the video recordings. Furthermore, he was imposed a duty of silence.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court decided that [A.] as a witness generally has no claim to the presence of legal counsel during the examination. The Public Prosecutor's Office was allowed to refuse this at its discretion, as [A.] as a media professional merely asserted his right to refuse to testify and there were no special circumstances that would have required the accompaniment of legal counsel.
With regard to the surrender of the video recordings, the Federal Supreme Court found that [A.] as a person entitled to refuse to testify under Art. 265 para. 2 lit. b CCP was not obliged to surrender them. The Public Prosecutor's…