Federal Council Martin Pfister addressed the “esteemed media professionals” at the Epiphany Conference in his welcome on Thursday in Zurich’s Aura.
Of the 240 guests, only about two dozen journalists were on site; the rest were officials, association people and politicians.
The Defense Minister first expressed his condolences to the victims of Crans-Montana, their relatives and their families. “This event shocked us all,” said the centrist politician on stage. The entire country was deeply affected and showed great solidarity.
When such events occur, the population’s need for information and classification is great, says Pfister. “Knowing what happened is central to the collective processing of a disaster and to the grief of all of us as a society.”
The head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) spoke on the topic “Switzerland’s security and the role of the media”. Pfister, who has been a Federal Councilor since April 2025, has already had to deal intensively with information and cyber security.
“In these moments of the incomprehensible and unimaginable, you as media professionals and publishers are particularly challenged,” he said. “Your reporting significantly shapes the public perception of the events. They inform, classify, criticize; objective, factual and according to journalistic standards. Thank you for your responsible reporting.”
Among other things, regarding this and other statements by the Federal Council, a long-time successful TV manager told the Klein Report that this was a politician at the Epiphany Conference for a long time who appreciated the value of the media.
For the Klein Report, the fire disaster in Crans-Montana represents a turning point for Switzerland. From the very first moment on January 1, 2026, the international media demonstrated the professionalism that is so important for democracy.
As always, the SRG came to the topic with a delay. 20 Minutes, which has only reported online since the beginning of the year, was close to the action live on the ticker a few hours after the fire inferno and was an editor Carolin Teufelberger later gave information about the horror scenes on CNN in a live broadcast in English.
Pfister mentioned in his speech that the strength of a society in challenging times is also a question of the quality of public discourse. Politicians have a responsibility for this, but so does the media in a special way.
When we talk about security, it is not primarily about life or death, about dominating territories or shifting borders, about power and domination. “This is how those who announce wars argue, and this is how representatives of authoritarian regimes justify themselves,” said Federal Councilor Martin Pfister.
«Of course, with our efforts we also protect the sovereignty of our country and the integrity of its population. But when we talk about security and defense in a democratic state, we always mean first and foremost the protection of our democratic rights and freedoms, self-determination, personal integrity and our prosperity, which is the basis of many freedoms.
From this perspective, media is probably the best indicator of the level of democratic security in a country. “One could put it bluntly: if the media in a country is doing well, then the democracy and security of a country are also doing well.”
Pfister addressed the security situation in Europe and around Switzerland, which has become more unstable, confusing and unpredictable.
“As the US military commando operation in Venezuela shows, the international legal order is also disintegrating, for which Switzerland feels particularly responsible,” he said. This is a problem for Switzerland, but also for Europe, because Switzerland benefited extensively from it in the long post-war period.
This is not just a military question and therefore not an exclusively security policy discussion. A strong Europe with a solidarity-based Switzerland is therefore also a security policy imperative.
In his role as Defense Minister, he then spoke about security policy and information warfare. With Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, the war is back in Europe. “This war, which has now lasted almost four years, has permanently shaken the security order on the continent.”
NATO will remain indispensable in Europe in the future, but the USA has long made it clear that European security and defense policy must be borne by the European countries in the future.
Europe not only has a lot of military catching up to do. Many societies are highly polarized politically, which weakens determination. A weak, politically divided Europe can be a war goal in itself, said the minister.
The way conflicts were resolved changed. Although tanks and artillery remain, as seen in Ukraine, there is also 21st century technology such as drones and robots.
“Hybrid conflict management such as cyber attacks, influence activities, disinformation, espionage, or economic pressure effectively accompany classic warfare or prepare for further military actions,” says Pfister about modern warfare.
The information space plays an important role in these hybrid forms of conflict. “Anyone who destabilizes a country’s information space weakens security,” said Pfister.
Switzerland, as part of the Western community of values, is indirectly the target of influencing activities that are generally aimed at Western countries, but also increasingly directly at Switzerland.
The perpetrators of influence activities wanted to manipulate the perception, thinking and actions of individuals and societies.
This included disinformation, propaganda and cross-border repression aimed at portraying Swiss institutions as dysfunctional.
Since 2022, Russia has increasingly been attacking Switzerland in the information space. “The two best-known Russian platforms Russia Today and Pravda distribute between 800 to 900 articles per month in Switzerland, which often have to be described as disinformation,” explained Martin Pfister.
But there are also more subtle forms, such as networks of social media accounts on platforms such as Telegram and X, which have no apparent connection to Russia.
He gave an example from May last year. Pro-Russian actors coordinatedly distributed a video from Geneva that was taken out of context on seven social media platforms and in all official languages and in English. This showed that Switzerland was supposedly sinking into chaos and was no longer neutral. These posts were viewed over 2 million times within a short period of time.
It is crucial that attempts to exert influence and disinformation are uncovered and made transparent. Cybersecurity has therefore become a task for the public sector.
