Bbabo NET

News

Switzerland to continue animal testing and ban tobacco advertising

A nationwide referendum was held in Switzerland, in which citizens voted in favor of a ban on advertising of tobacco products and against the initiative to ban experiments on "our smaller brothers." In addition, they denied state support to local media, and constitutional rights to monkeys.

In the context of the digital revolution and the departure of advertising on the Internet at the disposal of global information giants, the Swiss government has taken the initiative to create a state support fund for the media. According to the European information service Euractiv, it was assumed that the federal center would support Swiss local newspapers, portals, radio stations and TV channels not only through indirect financial measures, as before, but also through direct payments. Such a measure would allow local broadcasters to survive, without which residents of small settlements would not be able to get local news, especially newspapers. It was planned to allocate about 151 million francs a year to local media. But critics of this initiative believed that in this way the authorities were trying to gain control over the local media. And they turned out to be the majority.

In addition, Switzerland missed the chance to become the first country in the world to completely ban animal testing and the importation into Switzerland of products produced through such experiments. 79 percent of citizens were against it. The country has also lost its reputation as the most liberal in Europe in terms of tobacco advertising. 57 percent of Swiss people, 16 out of 26 cantons, voted for a complete ban on such advertising, and now the government has to draft a law to that effect.

Meanwhile

Simultaneously with the federal referendum in Switzerland, voting on local issues also took place last weekend. So the canton of Basel-City decided whether to grant basic constitutional rights to primates. At the same time, primates, in addition to the great apes bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, also include baboons, macaques, ring-tailed lemurs, guenons, marmosets, lorises and lemurs. According to the Swiss portal Swissinfo, 75 percent of voters voted against, thereby confirming that monkeys are not people after all.

Switzerland to continue animal testing and ban tobacco advertising