Uncertain future for swissinfo’s international offering

When political decisions deprive SRG SSR of money, this also affects its international offers: swissinfo, tvsvizzera.it and partnerships with broadcasters like TV5MONDE for the French-speaking world or 3sat for German-speaking areas. swissinfo reports news about Switzerland in ten languages internationally and in 2001 became the successor of the legendary Swiss Radio International. Just like the “Swiss Review” published by the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), the platform targets the over 826,000 Swiss people living abroad. swissinfo furthermore sees itself as the “voice of Switzerland in the world”.

However, the Swiss government is planning to scrap the annual federal contribution of just under 19 million Swiss francs to the foreign programming mandate as part of a savings package. Until now, SRG SSR and the Confederation have shared the cost of this, but the Confederation plans to bow out from 2027. This means that swissinfo in its current form is in jeopardy. Various organisations, including OSA, have submitted a petition asking parliament to safeguard federal funding arguing that swissinfo is a balanced, multilingual information source for the Swiss Abroad that strengthens their political rights.

The Council of States, the small parliamentary chamber, defied the government during the 2025 winter session and came out in favour of maintaining the federal contribution. A narrow majority felt that Switzerland could not afford to give up this window to the world. Proponents of abolishing the contribution argued that information about Switzerland is now also available from other sources. If SRG SSR wants to maintain its current foreign offer, it must “reallocate” resources, according to Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter. The National Council, the large chamber, will vote on the issue on 2-20 March 2026. 

swissinfo director Larissa Bieler believes that the foreign mandate “has been a quintessential bridge between the Swiss Abroad and their homeland since 1935”. Without this offer, Switzerland would lose visibility and understanding internationally. The announcement in November that Bieler would be leaving the SRG SSR management at the end of March 2026 made people sit up and take notice. SRG SSR justified this measure by saying that the management board was being streamlined as part of the austerity measures.

“Swiss Review” 4/2025: Swissinfo under pressure: a question of political will
An opinion piece by Larissa M. Bieler, swissinfo

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