Schweizerischer Verein für ausgewogene Berichterstattung
SVFAB does not measure by its own standards. We measure by the standards that law, science and SRG itself have set.
The Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTVG) obliges licensed broadcasters under Art. 4 to present facts «correctly and in a diverse manner» and not to exert «one-sided influence in favour of a party.» This is not wishful thinking — it is binding Swiss law, Oversight rests with the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI).
SVFAB operationalises this legal mandate: we translate «balance» from a vague impression into measurable, documentable criteria.
In 2016, SRG SSR commissioned the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) — one of Switzerland’s most renowned research institutes — to produce a foundational study on its future. The result: the study «Public Sphere 4.0 – The Future of SRG in the Digital Ecosystem» (GDI, Rüschlikon/Zurich 2016).
The GDI defined the normative core of SRG’s mandate as follows:
«A public media service does not have the task of transporting specific content into people’s minds. It functions as a platform where meaning is created through shared exchange.»
The most important quality criterion, according to the GDI, is integrative performance: the ability of a medium to include different social groups in a shared discourse — without favouring particular positions.
The GDI explicitly recommended verifying this integrative performance with measurable criteria. SRG never implemented this recommendation.
SVFAB does.
The GDI documented the societal damage of one-sided media coverage with international research. A study by Farleigh Dickinson University (2012) showed: regular consumers of a one-sided news channel were less well informed about political facts than people who watched no news at all. Best informed were listeners of the non-commercial public broadcaster NPR.
The GDI concluded: when public media fail to fulfil their integrative function, media segregation emerges — and with it, social division.
Art. 4 RTVG is not a bureaucratic appendage. It is protection of democracy. SVFAB verifies whether it is being upheld.
The Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society (fög) at the University of Zurich publishes the annual Quality of Media Yearbook — the authoritative scientific reference on journalistic quality in Switzerland. The fög measures journalistic diligence, diversity and relevance from an academic perspective.
SVFAB complements this approach with a different question: Are the positions of the population proportionally represented? Not whether an individual report is journalistically diligent — but whether the overall programme reflects the diversity of societal opinions, as Art. 4 RTVG requires.
Both approaches are complementary. The fög measures the quality of individual reports; SVFAB measures the balance of the overall programme over time.
SVFAB analyses SRG broadcasts (Tagesschau, Rundschau, 10vor10, Arena, etc.) using an AI-assisted method for 15 documented techniques of imbalanced reporting: from framing and selective word choice to expert selection and guilt by association, through to timing and temporal framing.
The analysis is reproducible, transparent and verifiable: every finding references the exact minute and second of the broadcast — every finding is independently verifiable.
As of March 2026, the SVFAB database contains over 25’000 analysed broadcasts.
SVFAB is not a political committee and not an interest group. We do not criticise any party and do not support any. We measure — using criteria that law, science and SRG itself have recognised as binding.
Our goal is an SRG that lives up to its own standards.
The SVFAB methodology is documented in scientific papers, freely available on SSRN:
Paper 1 — Framework
Schlaepfer, David (2026). Systematic AI-Assisted Analysis of Public Broadcaster Impartiality: A Scalable Methodological Framework for Measuring Structural Bias in Public Service Media.
SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=6688478 · DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.6688478
Paper 2 — Noise Detection (Suppression Index)
Schlaepfer, David (2026). Measuring Editorial Noise: A Retrospective Suppression Index for Public Broadcasting Content Analysis.
Results: svfab.ch/noise-detection · SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=6733280
Paper 3 — Source Traffic Light & Credibility Matrix
Schlaepfer, David (2026). The Source Traffic Light: A Six-Dimensional Credibility Framework for Systematic Source Assessment in Public Service Media.
SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=6733880 · DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.6733880
Sources: Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTVG), SR 784.40, Art. 4 · GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (2016): «Public Sphere 4.0», commissioned by SRG SSR · Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society (fög), Quality of Media Yearbook 2015 · Farleigh Dickinson University (2012): Study on information levels by media consumption