Facts
On June 2, 1980, the members of the Control Committee (GPK) of the National Council received a report from the EMD section on their clarifications regarding the Bachmann/Schilling matter. The report was marked "confidential until after consideration by the Committee".
Later that afternoon, the National Council member Georg Nef, a member of the GPK, provided the report and the appendix to Jürg Zbinden, the parliamentary correspondent of the daily newspaper "Blick". Zbinden copied the documents and published excerpts and verbatim passages from them in the next day's issue of the "Blick" newspaper.
Considerations
The High Court of the Canton of Zurich subsequently convicted Zbinden of publishing official secret proceedings pursuant to Art. 293 para. 1 of the Swiss Criminal Code (StGB) and imposed a suspended fine on him. Zbinden filed a nullity appeal against this judgment.
The Federal Supreme Court ruled that the term "secret" within the meaning of Art. 293 StGB is equivalent to the statutory or official exclusion of the public. It is irrelevant whether the documents are actually secret, but only whether the competent authority has declared them to be so.
In the…