swissinfo.ch, an online multimedia news service, is also my former employer.

The decision is wrongheaded. swissinfo.ch is currently supported 50 percent by the SBC and 50 percent by the government. No international service? For a country that punches far above its own weight – home to the United Nations, some of the world’s biggest banks and pharmaceutical companies – it seems like a very shortsighted proposition.

Over the past decade, funding for the SBC’s international service has already been dramatically cut- from around CHF50 million to CHF26 million currently. The Swiss abroad, English-speakers in Switzerland and anybody with an interest in comprehensive coverage of Switzerland deserve better.

I’d encourage you to add your name to the petition to save swissinfo.ch.

Below is a letter I wrote in support:

It was with great dismay that I read of plans by Switzerland’s cabinet and parliament to cut funding for swissinfo, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, from 2012 on.

swissinfo and its predecessor organization, Swiss Radio International, have for decades played a formative and decisive role in projecting Switzerland’s image abroad. In a world in which the availability of information is proliferating rapidly, but in which the reliability and comprehensiveness of privately-owned news services becomes increasingly in jeopardy, the elimination of a robust international service for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is nothing short of wrongheaded.

I speak from a unique perspective. As a Swiss abroad, I have a strong interest in keeping up-to-date with news from my homeland. Major international news services report on Switzerland occasionally- perhaps on a hot button issue like bank scandals or the recent referendum to ban minarets. If that’s all that happened in our great country, there wouldn’t be a problem.

Fortunately, it’s not. I had the privilege of having been employed as a journalist in swissinfo’s English section between 2008 and 2010. Only swissinfo reported in nine languages, explaining clearly and coherently news and political events, sport and our country’s diverse culture. Only swissinfo reported on what the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is doing to restore infrastructure in war-torn West Africa and to rebuild livelihoods in Bangladesh. Only swissinfo carried an exclusive interview with UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld and only notwithstanding Switzerland’s domestic media, which does not carry reports in English, Chinese, Arabic or Japanese, only swissinfo comprehensively explained the political and legal nuances surrounding banking secrecy.

The media landscape around the world is changing rapidly and at the same time, governments face enormous fiscal challenges. I am not unaware of this, nor are my former colleagues in Bern, Geneva, Lugano and Zurich. Governments are naturally seeking to save money. But this is the wrong place. Both public and private broadcasters are increasingly expanding their online operations. It’s the medium of the future.

What sense does it make to cut this service? Who benefits? Who loses?

Switzerland is a small country but it punches far above its own weight. It is an international centre of finance and business, attracting thousands of high-calibre foreign employees. We are home to some of the world’s biggest banks, pharmaceutical companies, particle accelerators and tennis players. Three of our cities are ranked among the top ten in the world to live. The beauty of our landscape is as renowned as our neutrality and our humanitarian traditions.

Rather than cutting swissinfo, Switzerland’s politicians ought to be making plans to expand the service- in particular the departments telling Switzerland’s stories in the world’s major languages. Imagine no BBC World, no Voice of America or no Deutsche Welle. What league should Switzerland be in?

I implore you to stand strongly with swissinfo, the Swiss abroad and anybody with an interest in our country, and to oppose the shortsighted decision to cut funding to the international service of Switzerland’s public broadcaster.

Birkenfeld is serving a sentence in the United States for his part in helping wealthy clients evade US taxes. He’s also responsible for exposing business practices that cost UBS dearly and as many would argue, increased momentum on the crackdown against foreign financial institutions helping clients evade taxes.

Birkenfeld isn’t happy. “It’s an injustice. I’m handling it as best as could be expected, considering that I’m the most famous whistleblower in the United States who’s uncovered the biggest tax fraud in the history of the country,” he told swissinfo.ch in an exclusive interview.

So far he’s been the only UBS employee punished for the bank’s activities although Swiss-based advisors at UBS and other banks have recently been warned against foreign travel.

Perhaps it’s too late for Birkenfeld, serving a 40-month-sentence, but the New York Time’s DealBook reports hedge funds are exploring a way to profit off of whistleblowing.

The Birkenfeld interview is here. The DealBook blog entry is here.

I naturally gave up hope of flying out Monday, the day of the original flight and had re-booked for Friday, via Heathrow.

Friday I said a tearful (oops) goodbye to my colleagues at swissinfo, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. I spent more than two wonderful years in Bern (and Zurich, Geneva, Bangladesh, Washington, Sierra Leone and Liberia). I cleared my cubby hole, desk and hard drive.

Monday I was back at work, at the Zurich airport, interviewing stranded passengers.  It at least gave me something to do.

I showed up again on Tuesday, hoping for something. The line was long, like the stand-by list. Zurich airport’s check-in desks are staffed by people who work for a company called Swissport. That meant they don’t do things like rebookings, even at the airline counters – at least not for Air Canada.

I’d given up hope I would get home before Friday (and there were murmurs British airspace would be shut again) when I got a telephone call from my mother saying she had gotten me a seat on the flight. Mothers are great for these kinds of things.

My baggage was rushed to the airport. I found out several minutes later Air Canada wanted 275 francs to ship my stage piano home. It’s still in Switzerland.

I am not. AC879 departed on time and some 18 hours after I got up, I found myself in an airport van.

From air traffic to 401 traffic. The latter is slower and more congested.

Home now, sorting and unpacking, trying to match socks.

More to come.

It seems we’ve settled on 96… or is that 97? Even Yahoo wasn’t sure this afternoon.

So far the Swiss have apologised, made overtures about compensation and dropped a pan-European travel ban on top Libyan officials. It’s been fruitless.

Experts I spoke with today say there’s not much leverage. Göldi’s prison term is up in 12 weeks.

The whole story is here.

Really quickly… Gawker has awesome pictures of a bug approaching one metre long.

The Sun isn’t my favourite British tabloid. That honour of course goes to the Daily Mail. But the Sun does have this excellent scoop on a Chinese farmer with a terrible problem.

And the Large Hadron Collider, that Geneva particle accelerator some people think will create an earth gobbling black hole, has reached full power. It’s a story I’ve covered several times. The big day was today.

Next post? A story on Switzerland, the EU and Libya.

Baino, Lebanon – The Middle East may be famous for its black gold but on its western boundary not far from the Mediterranean Sea, the oil is flavourful and goes well with crispy bread.

Just beyond the Chuoar Valley waves of stone and scrub meander all the way to the horizon and the afternoon sun glistens through the olive groves of Youssef Fares and his family.

Lebanon, a small strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and Syria, was once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East. Since it signed a free trade agreement with Lebanon several years ago, Switzerland is now helping farmers like Fares put the organic label on their bottles.

Back in November I took a spur of the moment trip to Lebanon. I arrived on a Saturday and it was cold and rainy: an inauspicious start to what would become one of my most memorable trips.

I ended up travelling solo up the coast and into the Bekaa Valley, visiting ruins and castles before jumping for a day to Damascus.

One of the highlights was a trip north with Youssef, flatmate of Charbel, my Couch Surfing host. Youssef is a fifth-generation olive grower and produces the most delicious organic olive oil.

I ended up with three litres but better yet, a story. It’s here.

Pigs with wigs? Last week I appeared on WakeUp Sydney, which to state the obvious, is a morning show down under. The assignment: help explain why Swiss voters defeated a national referendum that would have appointed animal lawyers in each of the country’s 26 cantons.

To be clear: it would have been lawyers for animals… as opposed to, you know.

In any case, it the idea was rejected by about 70 per cent of the population. That doesn’t mean we’re not animal lovers. People take their dogs everywhere. They’re allowed everywhere. The Swiss also have quite strict rules for the keeping of fish and rodents.

Getting back to the story, I had arrived on Wednesday morning fresh off an overnight from Toronto. I appeared in the office a few hours later and was asked do the interview. I spent a couple of hours brushing up on comparative animal rights around the world.

We ended up talking about kangaroos, tuna and kayaks, elephants and hamsters for rent. Have a listen.

animal lawyers

This has all to do with the case of two Swiss businessmen who were picked up in Libya in July 2008 after Geneva police arrested a son of the colonel for beating hotel workers. That touched off a diplomatic storm between the two countries, basically because you don’t mess with Moammar.

It also gave journalists in these parts a break from writing about cheese, chocolate and banks.

Curious, I clicked the link. Unsurprisingly, the top of the article read pro-Libya. I continued.

About ten paragraphs in, came this line:

There is a possibility that the negotiations to solve the dispute that entangled the rest of Europe will continue in Berlin on Friday.

Odd, I thought. I had used the “entangled” just a few days ago in one of my own pieces. And those negotiations were last Friday, not two days from today.

The further I read, the more I felt a sense of déjà vu. Hmmm, I mused. This writer is really improving in the bottom half of his piece. Really. Amazing. Prose. Strong finish, mate.

And then this:

A move by Switzerland to impose Europe-wide visa restrictions against nearly 200 prominent Libyans may have backfired, a Geneva-based expert tells swissinfo.ch.

Followed by:

The Swiss decision, made last autumn, was one of many salvos in a two-year bilateral dispute and sparked Tripoli to bar citizens of Schengen zone nations from entering the country.

Marcelo Kohen, a professor of international law at Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, said that Bern chose the wrong strategy.

In late 2008, the Swiss ban would have produced few ramifications outside its own borders.

But since entering the 25-country Schengen Area, Switzerland and its neighbours have been able to restrict the ability of people from outside the area to move freely within it.

That’s exactly what Switzerland did. The Libyans alleged to be on the Swiss list are still permitted to enter other Schengen countries but must apply for individual visas.

That of course, was lifted directly from a Q&A I did last week with a Geneva-based professor.

The original article is here. A follow-up, describing the reaction of the Swiss media is here.