ZURICH (Reuters) -Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday criticized a raid this month against a prominent Swiss banking blog, saying it set a dangerous precedent for critical journalism in Switzerland.
Zurich-based blog Inside Paradeplatz this week said police searched its offices and the home of its founder, confiscating a laptop, a mobile phone and documents in a raid over articles in 2016 about an ex-boss of bank Raiffeisen Switzerland.
Prosecutors for the canton of Zurich said the evidence was linked to criminal proceedings into whether the blog violated a provision in banking secrecy laws which the government previously said had never been used to charge journalists.
“The banking act has now been used against the media for the first time,” Reporters Without Borders Switzerland told Reuters via email. “We see this as a dangerous precedent that further reinforces the already existing chilling effect of the law.”
The Zurich prosecutors’ office said it had acted in accordance with the law and that the legislation’s impact on press freedoms was a matter for politicians.
An amendment to the Swiss banking act that has been in force since 2015 criminalises disclosure of confidential information passed on by bank employees or other insiders.
“Swiss media have to think very carefully about whether and how they report on stories based on leaked bank data – even if, as in this case, there is a clear public interest in publishing,” Reporters Without Borders said, noting that journalists risked prison sentences of up to three years.
Former Raiffeisen CEO Pierin Vincenz was convicted of fraud in 2022 before a court overturned the ruling last year and referred the case back to prosecutors.
(Reporting by Ariane LuthiEditing by Dave Graham)
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