Olympic Games 2024: Lawsuit Over Cyberbullying. A Comparison with Switzerland.

At the 2024 Olympic Games in France, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became a target of cyberbullying, being derogatorily called a man. She filed a lawsuit for cyberbullying at the Paris Criminal Court. A comparison to Switzerland.

Filing a lawsuit for cyberbullying seems only logical and consistent here. At the same time, it tragically reminds us of the related legal situation in Switzerland: in Switzerland, it is unimaginable that a woman disparaged as a man could successfully sue for (cyber)bullying or discrimination (or for insult).
The Swiss justice system struggles immensely with combating cyberbullying. It already has difficulty addressing traditional workplace bullying, not to mention discrimination. If a lawsuit in Switzerland interpreted calling a woman a man as an insult, Swiss courts would most likely mock the plaintiff, as none of this is provable within the Swiss justice system.

Switzerland Lacks Laws Against (Cyber)Bullying and Discrimination

Switzerland lacks a specialized anti-bullying law as much as it does a specialized anti-discrimination law. Swiss politicians and lawyers often refer to the Swiss Penal Code as sufficient to prosecute cyberbullying, bullying, and discrimination criminally. That’s the theory.

However, how insufficient Swiss laws are in practice is something the public never learns. This is because there is virtually no court reporting left in Switzerland. Even if it existed, cases where no charges are filed (complaints about bullying, cyberbullying, and discrimination often end in non-prosecutions or dismissals of proceedings) would not be reported.
Should a bullying or discrimination case in Switzerland actually reach prosecution, it is highly unlikely that the victims would receive compensation for their suffering. The Swiss legal system generally does not recognize economic and health damages that are not as evident as physical injuries could be as a consequence of a crime. Thus, Swiss Federal Court decisions that deny recognition of health damages (and, devoid of any empathy, sometimes outright mock the victims) are numerous.
The calculus that usually underlies the federal court’s denial of health damages also blocks the criminal prosecution of (cyber)bullying and discrimination in Switzerland. This includes the often cynical requirements for proving harm.

Discrimination: Swiss Justice More Part of the Problem Than Solution

A problem with (cyber)bullying and discrimination lawsuits is the current arbitrariness in Swiss criminal law.* In other words, in a case involving an Olympian like Khelif and corresponding international interest, the Swiss justice might try to maintain an appearance of professionalism. But in ordinary cases, victims are generally at risk of having their lawsuits dismissed or not pursued. Not least, the Swiss judiciary, concerning discrimination against certain social minorities, is more part of the problem than part of the solution.

Translated by GPT-4

*Note: Arbitrariness in police and judiciary is a focus of this blog (as is the arbitrariness of mainstream media).

Insights Soon on this Blog:

The Internet and the Mobification of Society
Understanding Switzerland: "Sauhäfeli, Saudeckeli"
Why the Swiss Legal System is Biased
Why Switzerland is Overrated
Caged by Bureaucracy

SMALL SWITZERLAND: GAPS IN THE MEDIA COVERAGE

In most of its scandals,

Switzerland proves to be too small,
and its elite too tightly interconnected (due to Switzerland’s small size, everyone is practically on top of each other),

for its media to report independently and objectively. At best, one receives politically tinted reports and reports that blatantly reveal who is good friends with whom. Switzerland is simply too small to be independent in its media reporting.

Swiss Media Landscape: Manageable Political Blocks

The Swiss media landscape is neatly divided into political blocks, with the bourgeois block having the far greatest media reach.

Most media are thoroughly entangled with politics and the economy, and with their particular interests.

This division of the media into political blocks should at least ensure that the different political currents of the country are balanced. One would think that for every scandal, there would be a publication interested in reporting it from the perspective of their political masters. But this is not the case. Switzerland is simply too small: there are too few editorially independent media that would cover everything that is objectively considered a scandal in an independent and neutral manner. Too many Swiss media report selectively and distort reality according to the agenda of their paymasters. And too often, this agenda is a bourgeois one. In these editorial offices, reports about grievances, which at least people with a social value attitude would consider grievances, simply do not fit. Such reports are not of interest. Much more interesting are reports that reflect the vain interests of the bourgeoisie. The same phenomenon occurs, in the opposite direction of course, in the few Swiss media with a left-wing profile.

Coverage of Public Interest through Media Diversity

In a large country with a colorful, diverse media landscape, there would surely be a paper for every politically colored scandal. Right-wing papers are interested in the scandals of the Left and vice versa, the papers of the Left in the scandals of the Rich. Thus, the media landscapes of Western countries once comprehensively covered the public interest with reports from various political viewpoints. In Switzerland, this coverage does not work because the Swiss media landscape is one-sidedly right-leaning and reports in a one-sidedly right-leaning filtered manner. The few remaining editorially independent and left-leaning media lack the capacity to counterbalance the one-sidedness of the Swiss media landscape due to their marginalization. Therefore, reports that would be standard for publication in other countries are often overlooked in Swiss media.

Gaps in the Spectrum

Firstly, Swiss media houses fail to fully cover the political spectrum. Almost all of them revel in the bourgeois, right-wing corner. Secondly, reports on matters that do not clearly align with the agenda of a Swiss media house stand no chance of being published. If neither distinctly bourgeois nor distinctly left-wing media pick up a story, it simply falls through the gaps in the spectrum of Swiss media coverage. And no one is interested. Because no one cares. Why should they?

The Primitive Relationship of Switzerland to the ECHR

Switzerland has signed and ratified the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). So far, so good? However, Switzerland has not signed the Additional Protocol to the ECHR that provides effective protection against discrimination. In this regard, Switzerland is in the “good company” of France and the United Kingdom, which also have not signed this protocol. As a result, the scope of discrimination protection under the ECHR for Switzerland is limited to the articles of the ECHR itself. This means that cases of discrimination related to Swiss federal law, cantonal, or municipal laws—which account for the majority of discrimination cases—cannot be brought before the European Court of Human Rights. What would officially be considered a violation of human rights in the sense of discrimination in any civilized European country, cannot, regrettably, be considered “isolated cases” in Switzerland. Rather, discriminatory denials of rights and abuses of law, to name just two examples from the arsenal of discrimination, are commonplace in Switzerland. If the Swiss can afford outright discrimination hunts on minorities, considered regressive in every civilized culture, then we should not hesitate to call Swiss culture primitive by name.

Switzerland Lacks Laws Against (Cyber)Bullying and Discrimination

Discrimination: Swiss Justice More Part of the Problem Than Solution

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