“Female role models are usually kept quiet”: Politicians want more women’s sports at SRF

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Swiss radio and television are increasingly becoming the center of politics. The SVP of the SRG wants to significantly reduce fees with the halving initiative. The Greens, in turn, want to abolish traffic jam announcements on SRF radio.

And now SP state councilor Carlo Sommaruga (64) has also expressed his wish for the TV program. He would like to see more women’s sports at SRF in the future. In a proposal he calls for “equal appreciation for women’s and men’s sports”.

The Federal Council must support women’s sports

What exactly do the Genevans mean by that? He demands that the Federal Council promote equality between women’s and men’s sports when renewing the SRG’s sports license. Sommaruga wants an equal number of women’s and men’s competitions to be broadcast.

The current concession already stipulates that the SRG must do everything it can to adequately portray and represent genders in its journalistic services. “However, this is still not enough, especially when it comes to sports,” says Sommaruga.

More commenters needed

SRF must also ensure that in addition to more female top athletes, there are also more interviews with women in sports reporting and that more female commentators are given the opportunity to speak, the SP man believes.

In conversations with female top athletes, he learned that in their youth they mainly had to follow male role models such as footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (38). “There are and have been such female role models, but they are usually kept secret or little appreciated by the media,” says Sommaruga.

He assured female athletes that he would work in parliament to ensure that top female athletes receive more public attention.

The initiative is not only well received by the left. Middle-class women such as FDP Vice President Johanna Gapany (35) and Center Councilor Heidi Z’graggen (57) also support him. “We are fortunate to have champions who need to be seen, so that the next generations of athletes also have role models,” says Gapany.

More money in your pocket

In addition to appreciation, visibility in the sport is also of great importance for sponsorship, says Z’graggen. “When women are clearly visible in sports, important financial support opportunities are more likely to arise,” says the middle woman.

The initiative should come to parliament as early as December. It is not known what the responsible media minister Albert Rösti (56, SVP) thinks about this.

Source:Blick