25/05/2010

Public service radio and television company SRG SSR idée suisse, which supports independent production through the Audiovisual Pact (nearly €16m for 2011), has just found a new director general.

Roger de Weck – former editor-in-chief at Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger and German newspaper Die Zeit, president of the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and member of the management board at press group Tamedia – will take up his post as Armin Walper’s replacement from January 1, 2011.

The appointment of this renowned and respected intellectual, who is also a staunch European, has been greeted with relief and enthusiasm by those in cultural and journalistic circles, who feared that a technocrat would get the post.

Weck commented: “In our quadrilingual country, SSR’s state mission is to contribute to the solidarity of the Swiss Confederation and the shaping of political and social opinion. I accept this responsibility with respect, and I intend to carry it out in a fair, diligent and coherent way”.