Stapo no longer names nationality
In the future, the Zurich City Police will no longer automatically name the nationality of a suspected perpetrator, but only upon request. This was ordered today by city councilor Richard Wolff, head of the security department.
Two years ago, the Zurich City Council passed a postulate by Min Li Marti (SP) and Samuel Dubno (GLP) calling on the city council to examine whether the police could refrain from naming the nationality of suspects in their media releases. The postulants took the position that the nationality of a perpetrator is just as irrelevant for the assessment of the crime as religion or sexual orientation. Councilman Wolff clarified two things in considering the postulate. First, the importance of knowing the offender's national origin in understanding a crime. Second, whether naming nationality has undesirable effects.
Actual causes are hidden
Today, individual media emphasize that it is important to know the nationality of the perpetrators. Nationality is a fact that should not be concealed. Not mentioning it is an act of intransparency and cover-up. However, this ignores the fact that the naming of the nationality only supposedly serves transparency, as it says in the media release of the security department. By naming the nationality, it is suggested that the crime can be explained to some extent. However, this only conceals the actual causes of criminal acts: Poverty, low level of education, stigmatization in Switzerland, tests of courage, lack of social control, war traumas, drug use and others. Thus, the mention of nationality is a sham transparency that hides the causes of criminality, as emphasized in the media release.
Naming of the origin on request
The effect of crime reporting on the world view of media consumers has been well studied scientifically. Those who read about criminal foreigners in the media estimate the proportion of foreigners among criminals to be higher on average than it actually is, it is further stated. In this respect, there is a prejudice against people of certain origins. For Councillor Richard Wolff, this is an undesirable effect.
In dealing with the postulate, the security department had interviewed the president of the Swiss Press Council as well as media ethics lecturers from the ZHAW and the MAZ media training center in Lucerne. In addition, the security department interviewed six editors-in-chief: those of NZZ and Tages-Anzeiger, SRF, 20Minuten, watson and the Blick Group. The two media ethicists and the President of the Press Council would consider the current practice, i.e. the regular and unseen mention of nationality in crime reporting, to be unobjective and tending to be discriminatory. Three editors-in-chief agree with this statement in principle, while three disagree, according to the Security Department.
In Switzerland, a change had taken place in the last twenty years from crime reporting that did not mention the origin of the perpetrators to reporting that did mention the nationality of the perpetrators. City Councilor Richard Wolff now ordered the city police to no longer automatically name the origin of perpetrators in their media releases. Exceptions are media releases with a call for wanted persons. Upon request, however, the city police will disclose the nationality. This is a return to an earlier, proven practice.
The Zurich City Police will implement the security chief's directive with immediate effect, he said.
