BBG Watch Commentary
Voice of America (VOA) is not reporting that in a referendum on Sunday Swiss voters have narrowly backed a proposal to bring back strict quotas for immigration from European Union countries. VOA also had no reports on the referendum leading up to the vote.
This is now top news on the BBC website, as well as on Deutsche Welle. It is also reported as one of the top stories by Al Jazeera and Russia’s RT.
VOA posted recently six reports on Justin Bieber, a Canadian pop star charged with drunk driving in the U.S and reported on his immigration problems. VOA journalists are protesting against management’s programming policies but so far without any success.
Swiss immigration: 50.3% back quotas, final results show, BBC, February 9, 2014.
Also see: Swiss agree to curb immigration and rethink EU deal, SWI – SBC, February 9, 2014.
World Media Watch has also noted VOA’s failure to report on the Swiss vote. World Media Watch provided a link to an excellent interview by Deutsche Welle about the economic aspects of immigration in Switzerland.
This update from World Media Watch:
UPDATE: At about 18:00 UTC or 13:00 EST, VOA posted a story many hours behind other international media: Swiss Vote to Back Immigration Limits Sun, Feb 09, 2014 Source: VOA News (USA)
There is an interesting pattern to Voice of America news reporting. While this immigration news story received no advance attention from VOA, there were six reports recently on the VOA website about Canadian pop star Justin Bieber legal and immigration problems in the US and Canada.