Le Temps and NZZ will be publishing US cables on Switzerland, from WikiLeaks
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss newspapers Le Temps (registration required) and NZZ will publish, in French and in German starting next week, selected cables from the 5,814 that WikiLeaks collected. The two negotiated an agreement to receive the entire collection and several journalists from the two publications are meeting this weekend to determine which to publish.
The cables cover the period from 1978 to 28 February 2010.
Le Temps explains its decision: “It normally takes several decades for the reality, on which we want to shed some light, to surface.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Philippe Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), was handed a subpoena as he stepped off a flight in Washington DC, USA on his way to an International Monetary Fund meeting 6 October, Geneva newspaper Le Temps reveals 1 December. The subpoena was served by two fund managers, Kenneth Dart and Paul Singer, whose funds specialize in buying distressed debt, securities that are worth much less than their face value, in the hope that the securities will appreciate.
The funds had won injunctions in US courts against Argentina, almost $1 billion of whose debt the fund managers own. Argentina is alleged to be parking funds in the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements, of which Hildebrand is a director, to avoid the funds being impounded by the courts. Argentina has outstanding obligations on its debt dating from its default and devaluation in 2001.
Hildebrand invoked his diplomatic immunity and went to the IMF meeting. US authorities dropped the charges against Hildebrand in an agreement with the SNB 9 November, details of which have not been revealed.
Pierre Veya, Le Temps, new managing editor
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Le Temps, the main serious newspaper in French-speaking Switzerland, has named one of its own, Pierre Veya, editor-in-chief, after a three-month industry-wide search. Veya replaces Jean-Jacque Roth, who has held the post since 2002. Roth in February became head of a joint television-radio news team at Radio Television Suisse Romande (RTSR), created in January by the merger of public television and radio in the region.
Veya, age 49,will take up the new position 1 May 2010.
Veya received a graduate degree in business in Delémont, Switzerland, after which he worked at L’Impartial, covering the Jura and cantonal news. In 1989 he joined Swiss news magazine L’Hebdo, where he was responsible for the economy section.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The cost of subscribing to a Swiss daily newspaper will rise in 2010, between 1 and 11 percent, to keep in step with increased costs and lower advertising revenues. The rise is even greater in reality in some cases such as the NZZ, when a mid-2009 increase is taken into account, notes ats/TSR. The newspaper’s editor, Markus Spillmann, has written to subscribers saying that “High quality information is an expensive product.”
The traditional income balance has been one-third subscriptions and two-thirds advertising, but with the latter falling dramatically for several months, readers are now being asked to foot a larger share of the bill. Newstand prices are also set to rise.
The rising cost of Swiss papers, according to ats/TSR, includes:
- Le Matin and 24 Heures, CHF379 to CHF389
- Le Temps, 11 percent, from current price of CHF432 for 13 months
- NZZ, from CHF488 to CHF512.
Background, GenevaLunch
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Jean-Jacques Roth, who has just resigned as editor in chief of Le Temps newspaper, has been named to head the joint television-radio news team at the recently created Radio Television Suisse Romande (RTSR). The new entity is the result of the merger of public radio and television stations RSR and TSR, which join forces in January 2010. The two are already part of SSR, the Swiss public broadcasting company.
Roth is the only outsider of the eight person senior management team named Monday 21 December. The news teams will be coordinated, but remain separate, with Bernard Rappaz heading television news and Patrick Nussbaum heading the radio team.
The complete management group:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Le Temps, the main serious newspaper in French-speaking Switzerland, is making several changes to cope with a sharp drop in advertising revenue, cutting 7.5 percent of its editorial staff (10 jobs). It says the subscription price will be raised for 2010. The newspaper says that the advertising revenue decline, which has hit the entire industry, is the worst in 60 years and requires dramatic action. GenevaLunch spoke with another newspaper editor from the region Monday, who said more cuts can be expected at other newspapers in the region in the next two months. Le Temps notes that it was able to keep the job cuts at this level because of offers by several staff to reduce the number of hours they work.
Le Temps editor Jean Jacques Roth explains in a lengthy editorial that subscriptions and newsstand sales rarely cover more than one-third of a newspaper’s revenues but in the past few years costs have risen due to competition from free newspapers’, readers’ rising expectations for coverage, development of web sites, and in the case of Le Temps, good growth in readership.
Patrick Chappatte contributes cartoons regularly to GenevaLunch.
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site.
Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Zurich/Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss newspapers’ print versions are seeing their circulations rise, albeit a slight 0.6 percent. The most recent figures from the Remp survey, done by the Swiss advertising media’s independent research organization, shows that 92.4% of Swiss people over age 14 read a newspaper “more or less regularly,” without defining the frequency. Remp notes that figures for the number of readers has remained “remarkably stable” over the past 10 years.
Le Temps and 24 Heures are the winners for growth in French-speaking Switzerland, among the for-pay newspapers.
Tourists in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Hotels in Geneva are increasing the pressure on the government to improve security for visitors to the city, in the wake of accusations by the consul general of Saudi Arabia that police did not do enough when a Saudi citizen was seriously injured and robbed in what the man’s lawyer says was an attack in the city centre, according to news agency ATS.
© 2009 WHO
Geneva and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) recommends that people who come down with symptoms of the flu avoid contact with others to stop the spread of the disease. A humourous new advertising campaign (link below) says it quite clearly. This means staying away from work until the symptoms have gone away, or to care for sick members of the family. In a front-page article 4 August, Le Temps (Fre) asks whether this means that employers will not insist on having a medical cerificate for any absence longer than three days, as stipulated by law: to leave one’s bed to go and see a doctor defeats the purpose of the quarantine.
new Cisalpino II train, inaugural trip July 2009, Lausanne-Sion, Switzerland
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The inaugural run of the new, ultra-sleek Cisalpino II trains that link Geneva to Milan, Italy via Lausanne, saw the high-speed train journey from Lausanne to Sion. The ride itself was easy compared to the latest problems faced by the company. Cisalpino was under threat of losing its contract with the Swiss rail company CFF early in 2009 because of breakdowns and delays.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Dalai Lama will be in Lausanne 4-5 August, part of a European tour organized by the Tibetan community, but the Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) will not be sending a delegation to greet him. The highest-ranking Swiss official outside the Cabinet, the head of the lower house of Parliament, Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi, will instead travel to Lausanne to welcome him as head of a spiritual community. The Dalai Lama is scheduled to hold a public conference Wednesday 5 August on “World peace through inner peace” and this event, plus the other talks at the conference at the Malley sports centre, are sold out.
pssst - we have something to talk about -
Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Groups of 30 specialists, mainly university professors, from Iran and the United States but also from Switzerland, some Middle East countries and at times Israel, have been meeting secretly for six years, reports Le Temps. The Geneva newspaper, in a lengthy feature that probes the possibility of discreet, high level but informal talks, called Track II, between Iran and the US says this may be a sign that the two countries, which ended diplomatic relations 30 years ago, have been trying to keep lines open for talks.
Updated 16:55 Zurich and Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Le Temps Wednesday afternoon 18 February reports the potentially explosive news, not confirmed officially, that UBS, which has been under investigation by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service: tax authority) in the US, will turn over the names of 250 clients to the American Justice Department. Le Temps credits several sources, which it does not name. It notes that UBS, which has resisted pressure over providing names until now, “in the process, weakens the Swiss financial centre.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Le Temps, possibly the most respected French language newspaper in the Lake Geneva region, has a new look Monday, but more critically, it is making its online content free. That said, you have to register to have access to full versions of stories, the site indicates – but at least on day one all articles seem to be free and available without registration.
GenevaLunch (GL) editor Ellen Wallace met with Patrick Chappatte two weeks before Christmas at his office near Plainpalais in Geneva, where he was trying to juggle time for friends, family and journalists as the holiday rush began, with editors expecting the usual six cartoons a week.
In these days of dramatic if too often gloomy news, I told him I wanted a glimpse of his daily work life, but mainly his thoughts on his craft as we head into a future that many people worry is too uncertain.
GL carries his cartoons in English and occasionally in French, on Swiss and world affairs.
“The beauty of this job is that you never expect the next thing that turns up!” He becomes quickly animated as he talks about international affairs, for which he clearly has a passion.
“The big irony right now is that super-capitalism is begging for money from the State!”
Patrick Chappatte saves his sharpness and ability to get straight to the point for his cartoons: in person, he is a soft-spoken man with a gentle smile who looks younger than his 41 years. He is the multilingual editorial cartoonist for the International Herald Tribune (in English), Le Temps (in French) and NZZ Sunday edition (in German). And right now he is the author of two newly published books, a collection of his cartoons in English, Partly Cloudy, and another of his French cartoons, Super Contribuable.
Continued from Interview, part 1
. . .
“By then I wanted to quit cartooning here. I wanted to work with American newspapers – I thought they were the best [cartoonists]. And they’re still the best!” The boyish grin returns. “And if you’re going to have a 30s crisis, it’s not bad to do it in New York!”
The three years he spent in New York were a turning point for Chappatte. “I’m much happier now than before I was 30. I feel like I’m freer. It’s really refreshing when this happens – I was treated like a beginner and I loved it. I was starting all over again.”
