"Quite an own goal" SRG boss under pressure - interview refusal also causes internal turmoil

Susanne Wille says she faces up to every critical interview - but "20 Minuten" of all people turned her down. Now the pressure on the SRG director is growing, both internally and externally.

At the beginning of February, SRG Director Susanne Wille came under pressure. An interview in "SonntagsBlick" revealed that there had been a tug-of-war behind the scenes: SRG wanted to delete several critical passages. The accusation was that they were shying away from confrontation.

Wille then went on the offensive. She told journalist Christian Beck from the communications magazine "Persönlich.com": "I would like to emphasize: SRG, and therefore myself as Director General, should and must be allowed to be criticized, even harshly criticized. That is part and parcel of a public media company. And I face up to every critical interview."

The interview was published on February 11. When asked by blue News, Beck confirmed: "Susanne Wille said exactly that.

The surprise was all the greater when the online portal "20 Minuten" opened on Tuesday with the headline: "20 questions that Susanne Wille doesn't want to answer". The editor-in-chief wrote that Wille had refused to give a longer interview despite two requests. Instead, the editors published the twenty questions that remained unanswered.

The headline hit home. Internally too. Several SRF journalists reacted to their boss's decision with clear criticism.

Anger among SRF staff

There is a "complete lack of understanding" in the editorial offices, they say. One journalist told blue News: "The questions from 20 Minuten were biased. You can tell that the paper is interested in putting Wille in a bad light." Nevertheless, an SRG director must face such questions. "Susanne is our best communicator. We have zero understanding that she has squandered this opportunity."

Another journalist writes that he cannot understand Wille's decision. Although he does not know the background in detail, he describes the rejected interview as "quite a selfish move for Susanne Wille". A journalist expresses her anger and emotion. Crying, she says: "Because of this wrong decision, there is now a yes".

All the SRF employees asked only wanted to comment publicly on condition of anonymity. The reason: SRF's journalistic guidelines expect SRF employees to exercise great restraint when making public statements. Critical statements can also be punished under employment law, as they violate the duty of loyalty.

"20 Minuten" gave questions to Susanne Wille in writing in advance

"20 Minuten" itself did not want to disclose when and in what form the request was made. A company spokeswoman responded to a corresponding request in writing: "We ask for your understanding that we cannot pass on the wording of the emails." However, she confirmed that Wille had received the questions for the second request in writing in advance. "This request was also rejected."

The fact is: officially, Susanne Wille justified her refusal with a lack of time. This is said to have caused considerable incomprehension in the "20 Minuten" editorial team. Especially as Wille was giving interviews at the same time - for example with the news magazine, which is hardly read by the general public.

At the latest when she also granted an interview to Hotelrevue (circulation: 7061 copies), "20 Minuten" was finally "gnueg Heu dunne".

Schawinski is also waiting for an interview

Wille also found no time for radio pioneer and former SRF journalist Roger Schawinski. The "Radio 1" boss confirmed that he had also received several cancellations. For months there had been talk of "scheduling problems", but in the meantime the no had come categorically.

Former "Arena" presenter Reto Brennwald also voices criticism. In a post on social media, he wrote: "I don't understand. She really should have done it. With this reach. I could also answer most of the questions."

blue News wanted to know from SRG how it classifies the PR problem that has arisen. A spokesperson said in writing: "We received a large number of inquiries in the run-up to the vote and it is not possible to provide all media with the same level of detail. Accordingly, we unfortunately had to cancel this request from '20 Minuten'; there was never any promise to the contrary."

When asked whether Susanne Wille had not promised to face "every critical interview", the SRG spokesperson specified: "There was never any promise to '20 Minuten' to the contrary."

Further questions remained unanswered. blue News wanted to know, among other things, whether SRG could understand that it does not leave a good impression when a director with a salary of CHF 500,000 does not take the time for an interview with the country's largest online medium.

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Thomas Matter, SVP National Councillor and initiator of the SRG initiative, did not want to comment on the decision: "Susanne Wille has to decide for herself who she gives an interview to and who she doesn't." He himself said that he had given an interview to a "20 Minuten" journalist on the same day.