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S U B S C R I B E
Geneva MPs vote to save WRS
Geneva cantonal government MPs have voted to adopt an emergency resolution backing efforts to keep WRS radio station as a public service channel funded by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
Back in April the director general of the SBC said that an English language station should no longer be publicly funded as English isn’t a national language.
Roger de Weck said the recommendation to close or privatize the station was not about money. WRS represents around 0.2 percent of the total Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s budget.
Following the Geneva cantonal government’s vote to support the station late last night, security minister Isabel Rochat called the radio a bridge between communities.
She said that to drop the station would send out the wrong message to the English speaking community.
Several weeks ago a coalition of MPs in Bern wrote to the SBC urging it to reconsider.a petition against closure or privatization.
The petition now has nearly 4,000 signatures.
The executive board of the SBC will vote in three weeks time on the the fate of WRS
Comments
Total comments: 1 | Add to the discussion.
There is a very large population of foreigners living in Geneva who speak English, regardless of their nationality. I am spanish and I communicate mainly in English, a living example. I understand that it is not possible to keep going radio stations in all languages but English, is not only the second most spoken language in the world, it is also common ground for all foreigns living abroad, the official language in the aviation business and the most common spoken language as a second language in any country in the world (academically speaking), not to mention that it is the common language of business worldwide. If the Swiss government does not understand and thinks that 40%! of the population in Geneva is not worth a radio station then we are clearly, more than ever, socially unwanted and excluded. This is irrational, unnecessary and politically incorrect. I don’t know what else to say. I am speechless. Good luck.
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