From http://www.news-service.admin.ch/NSBSubscriber/message/fr/5765 (Automatic translation)
„Time Present “on the Witnesses of Jéhovah
Bern, 23.06.2006 (AIRR) - the Authority independent of examination of the complaints as regards radio-television (AIEP) rejected a complaint directed against the report „Témoins silencer “diffused within the framework of the emission „Temps Present “of French-speaking Switzerland Television (TSR). The disputed report did not violate the faithful principle of presentation of the events.
The committed journalist is licit when it is presented like such and that it satisfies more severe journalistic requirements. When a completely abroad elaborate emission is repeated in Switzerland, it is held to conform to the Swiss right of the programs. It is what AIEP in its last decision notenoted.
Heading „Pilot silencers “, the report blamed was bought Swedish and was on television diffused on July 14, 2005 on the first chain of the TSR. It is about an investigation into the silence which règnerait within the Swedish organization of the Witnesses of Jéhovah when certain members are suspected of sexual abuse nature paedophile. The report includes/understands in particular the testimony of children victims. The plaintiffs estimated in particular that the presentation of the sexual abuse in the report violated the faithful principle of presentation of the events.
The disputed report - which raises of committed journalism - addresses many criticisms to the Witnesses of Jéhovah. For AIEP, the point of view of the latter however was sufficiently exposed, in conformity with the right of the programs. The Authority of complaint recalls moreover which the presenter of the emission clearly stated that the report did not aim the Swiss community. Indeed, following a request of the plaintiffs who estimated that it did not appear in a clear way that only the Witnesses of Jéhovah of Sweden were aimed by this emission, the journalist specified in his comment at the beginning of emission that it was about a business which did not relate to of anything the Swiss community witnesses of Jéhovah. It also recalled at the end of the emission that the Witnesses of Jéhovah judged this report libelous and untrue „“.
During its diffusion in Sweden, the report was the subject of two complaints, which were rejected except on a precise point having milked at the age of one of the imposters. The comment of the diffused emission was modified by the TSR, eliminating any ambiguity. In its comment at the end of the report, the TSR declared that the Witnesses of Swedish Jéhovah „tried to obtain the judgment of the report “, but that the judges „finally gave reason to the authors of this investigation “. This information corresponded only partly to reality, the Commission of the complaints having established the error made by the report on the age of the author of the abuses, considered according to it a violation of the requirement for objectivity. The silence of the TSR, on this point, is a fault. This one is however only secondary insofar as it does not affect in an important way the overall impression which emerges from the emission. Moreover, the TSR removed ambiguity by modifying its comment.
The faithful principle of presentation of the events was thus not violated. The complaint was rejected by eight vote against one. The decisions of AIEP can be submitted with the federal Court by the way of a recourse of administrative law.
Authority independent of examination of the complaints as regards radio-television,
Post-office box 8547, 3001 Bern (Tel.: 031/322' 55' 33/38);
http://www.ubi.admin.ch
Switzerland: The Jw against a TV show denouncing them
by chasson 2 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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chasson
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parakeet
The translation is a bit hit-or-miss, but am I correct that the JWs objected to the program because the producers got the age of the pedophile wrong??? Talk about a red herring!
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Hellrider
I saw that swedish program. It was great! The investigative journalist was superagressive, he sure didn`t let them talk their way out of anything. Yes, the JWs tried to get out of it after the program was aired, by having their lawyers dig up some insignificant technicality (typically jw), but the impression left in the viewers was pretty clear. In the program, we even got to see classic power-abuse by the elders, when confronted with things like these: The young man in the documentary, that had been molested by an older jw (ms or elder, I don`t remember), who spoke out on all of this, and was part of the program/worked along with the journalists, was of course not looked kindly upon by the elders, who would much rather have just swept it under the rug (the pedophile was still a member of the congregation, and in good standing). So they called him in and had a jc over a cigarette that he had been caught smoking one weekend at a restaurant. To get rid of him, of course. It was a great documentary.