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. approached the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) together with 24 co-signatories and complained that the contributions of Swiss Television DRS on February 8, 2008 regarding opinion polls on the "Corporate Tax Reform" and the "Fighter Jet Noise Initiative" violated the requirement of factual accuracy. The UBI dismissed the complaint by a majority, as the presentation of the survey results essentially met the program-related requirements.

X. then filed an administrative law appeal with the Federal Supreme Court. The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, insofar as it entered into it. The Federal Supreme Court concluded that X. as a mathematician and publicist did not have a close relationship to the subject matter of the contested broadcasts and was therefore not legitimized to challenge the decisions of the UBI.

Considerations

According to the case law of the Federal Supreme Court, a merely indirect or general public interest in a topic is not sufficient to be legitimized as a popular complainant before the Federal Supreme Court. Rather, the complainant must be more affected by the dispute than anyone else and have a particularly close, noteworthy relationship to it.

The Federal Supreme Court stated that X. as a mathematician and publicist certainly has special expertise on the problem of inaccuracy of opinion research results. However, he was neither the subject of the controversial broadcast, nor was he or his publications referred to in any way in the contested contributions. Thus, he lacked…