Das Prinzip Trotzdem: Warum wir den Journalismus vor den Medien retten müssen

Without democracy, there would be no critical, uncomfortable journalism. Without journalism, there is no liberal democracy. But these twins are in danger. Some democracies are becoming illiberal, see the omnipotence of Donald Trump or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. And both the economic crisis of many publishing houses and digitization are promoting a media business driven by clicks that disregards all standards – increasingly also in Switzerland.

Differentiation and nuance give way to the bold, even minor errors are scandalized. What to do? In search of a more democracy-friendly journalism.

Dr. h.c. mult. Roger de Weck is an author, podcaster and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He was Director General of Swiss Radio and Television, President of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and Editor-in-Chief of Die Zeit in Hamburg and Tages-Anzeiger. He says: "Journalists criticize politics or the economy from early in the morning until late at night. So they have a duty to take a critical look at their own industry."

The bilingual de Weck studied
Economics at the HSG in St. Gallen. Currently
he is writing his next book: on the
Conservatives and the bourgeois.


You and your friends are cordially invited.