Outlet profile

SWI swissinfo.ch

Swiss public-service international news (publicly funded, centrist)

Owned byPart of SRG SSR, the Swiss public broadcaster. SRG SSR is a private-law association with regional member cooperatives, not a government agency or a commercial company.

FundingMostly federal money. The Swiss Confederation pays a mandate-based contribution to SRG for swissinfo's service for Swiss citizens abroad and for Switzerland's image abroad. The rest comes from SRG's budget, which depends mainly on the household and business media licence fee (about CHF 1.25 billion a year for SRG overall). It carries little or no commercial advertising and no paywall.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Swissinfo traces back to the Swiss Short Wave Service, started in the 1930s to reach Swiss citizens abroad, which later became Swiss Radio International. In the late 1990s it launched the swissinfo online service, and it later dropped most shortwave radio to become mainly a digital news outlet. It publishes in around ten languages, including English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian, and is rebranded as SWI swissinfo.ch. Its mandate, set by the Swiss government and SRG, is to inform the Swiss diaspora and foreign audiences about Switzerland and to present the country abroad. Its coverage therefore stresses Swiss politics, direct democracy, business, neutrality and diplomacy, with a consensus-oriented, institutional tone. Its funding is politically sensitive. In March 2026 about 62% of Swiss voters rejected the 'Halving Initiative', which would have cut the licence fee from CHF 335 to CHF 200. Even so, the fee is due to fall to CHF 300 from 2029, forcing SRG to make major savings that may affect its services. Critics on the Swiss right accuse the public broadcaster of a left-leaning or overly large footprint, while supporters point to its legal duty to be impartial and diverse. Swissinfo has also covered the initiative that threatened its own funding, which is a conflict of interest worth noting. On the second Trump administration, it reports mainly on effects for Switzerland, such as US tariffs and trade talks, using wire reports and its own reporting without a strong editorial line.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-11-01; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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