Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's population of 9 million are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts the largest cities and economic centres, including Zürich, Geneva and Basel.
The government of Switzerland is a federal state with direct democracy.
The economy of Switzerland is one of the world's most advanced and a highly-developed free market economy. The economy of Switzerland has ranked first in the world since 2015 on the Global Innovation Index and third in the 2020 Global Competitiveness Report. According to United Nations data for 2016, Switzerland is the third richest landlocked country in the world after Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Together with the latter and Norway, they are the only three countries in the world with a GDP per capita (nominal) above US$90,000 that are neither island nations nor ministates.
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely. Such freedom implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state; its preservation may be sought through the constitution or other legal protection and security. It is in opposition to paid press, where communities, police organizations, and governments are paid for their copyrights.
Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland's merchant trade and has, over the centuries, grown into a complex, regulated, and international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland. The country has a long history of banking secrecy and client confidentiality reaching back to the early 1700s. Starting as a way to protect wealthy European banking interests, Swiss banking secrecy was codified in 1934 with the passage of a landmark federal law, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. These laws, which were used to protect assets of persons being persecuted by Nazi authorities, have also been used by people and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes, hide assets, or generally commit financial crime.
Christoph Wolfram Blocher is a Swiss industrialist and politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2004 to 2007. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police. As an industrialist, he became wealthy as CEO and majority shareholder in the EMS-Chemie corporation, now run by his daughter, Magdalena Martullo-Blocher.
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is the Swiss public broadcasting association, founded in 1931, the holding company of 24 radio and television channels. Headquartered in Bern, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is a non-profit organisation, funded mainly through radio and television licence fees (79%) and making the remaining income from advertising and sponsorship.
Crime in Switzerland is combated mainly by cantonal police. The Federal Office of Police investigates organised crime, money laundering and terrorism.
Swiss neutrality is one of the main principles of Switzerland's foreign policy which dictates that Switzerland is not to be involved in armed conflicts between other states. This policy is self-imposed and designed to ensure external security and promote peace.
The mass media in Ukraine refers to mass media outlets based in Ukraine. Television, magazines, and newspapers are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees freedom of speech. As a country in transition, Ukraine's media system is under transformation.
Russia–Switzerland relations are foreign relations between Russia and Switzerland. Switzerland opened a consulate in Saint Petersburg in 1816, upgrading it to a legation 90 years later. The two countries broke off diplomatic relations in 1923, when Russia was going through a period of revolutionary turmoil – and they were not resumed until 1946. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations became tense after Switzerland imposed sanctions against Russia. Russia placed Switzerland on a list of "unfriendly countries".
Foreign relations exist between Armenia and Switzerland. Switzerland recognized Armenia as an independent state on 23 December 1991. The two countries have maintained diplomatic relations ever since. The Armenian ambassador to Switzerland and the Swiss ambassador to Armenia were both accredited in 2002. In 2011 the first resident Ambassador of Switzerland started his mission in Yerevan. The Armenian ambassador to Switzerland is based in Geneva, in the Armenian representation to the United Nations. The Geneva Parliament recognized the Armenian genocide in 2001 and the Swiss Federal Parliament recognized the genocide in 2003. While Swiss law made it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide, punishable by a monetary penalty, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2015 that a Turkish politician's conviction of the law violated his right to freedom of speech.
SWI swissinfo.ch is a multilingual international news and information company based in Bern Switzerland. It is a part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. Its content is Swiss-centred, with top priority given to in-depth information on politics, the economy, the arts, science, education, and direct democracy. Switzerland's international political, economic and cultural relations are other key points of focus. The website is available in ten languages.
Diplomatic relations between Italy and Switzerland have traditionally been close and are currently governed by a complex set of treaties.
The Swiss Space Office (SSO) is the federal government's competence centre for national and international space matters. In its role it cooperates closely with other federal offices and is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the policy and strategic orientations of the space domain in Switzerland. The SSO is part of the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation. The Head of the SSO is Dr. Renato Krpoun.
The Swiss Banking Act or Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks is a Swiss federal law and act-of-parliament that operates as the supreme law governing banking in Switzerland. Although the federal law has only been amended seven times, it has been revised multiple times to limit and expand its banking secrecy provisions since its ratification. The banking secrecy provisions in the Federal Act are additionally enforced through multiple civil codes in the federal Swiss Civil Code and locally through cantonal law. In December 2017, the Swiss parliament launched a standing initiative and expressed an interest in formally embedding banking secrecy within the Swiss Federal Constitution rendering it a federally-protected constitutional right.
Elena Servettaz is a Russian French journalist and a news anchor at Radio France Internationale, where she covers international relations and French and Russian politics, with an emphasis on the Russian opposition movement and high-profile political cases, including those of Sergei Magnitsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexei Navalny and Pussy Riot. She is also the Paris correspondent for the Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy.
The mass media in the Czech Republic refers to mass communication methods through broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet and their influence on population.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Switzerland on 25 February 2020 when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed following a COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. A 70-year-old man in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino which borders Italy, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The man had previously visited Milan. Afterwards, multiple cases related to the Italy clusters were discovered in multiple cantons, including Basel-City, Zürich, and Graubünden. Multiple isolated cases not related to the Italy clusters were also subsequently confirmed.
Suisse Secrets was a February 2022 leak of details of more than CHF 100 billion held in nominee accounts linked to over 30,000 clients of Credit Suisse, the largest ever leak from a major Swiss bank. It revealed that autocrats, oligarchs, war criminals, human traffickers and drug dealers had accounts with Credit Suisse, a failure of the bank to apply due diligence. Swiss media was disallowed from publishing any investigatory work due to strict banking secrecy laws, which brought up their collective concern that such laws run contrary to freedom of the press.
