Dismissal of the appeal of a mathematician and publicist against a decision of the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television

Facts

The Swiss mathematician and publicist X. contacted the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) on May 13, 2008, together with 24 co-signatories. He claimed that the contributions of Swiss Television DRS on February 8, 2008, regarding the "Corporate Tax Reform" and the "Fighter Jet Noise Initiative" violated the requirement of factual accuracy, as the opinion poll of the gfs.bern institute was wrongly presented as representative and the statistical margin of error was not sufficiently expressed.

The UBI dismissed the complaint on August 22, 2008, by a vote of 7:1, as the contested contributions had essentially met the program-related requirements. X. appealed this decision to the Federal Supreme Court.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court dismisses the appeal, insofar as it enters into it. It states that X., as a mathematician and publicist, has special expertise on the issue of the inaccuracy of opinion research results, but was neither the subject of the disputed broadcast nor was he referred to in any way in the contested contributions. Therefore, he lacks the close connection to the subject of the broadcast required by Art. 89 para. 1 BGG, so that his appeal cannot…