APES events

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The Foreign Press Association in Switzerland and Liechtenstein (APES) deeply regrets to inform you of the death on Sunday August 6, 23, at the age of 92, of our journalist colleague, dean of our association

Eric Albert REYHL

Former correspondent for German media in Switzerland
Honorary member of the APES
Member of the association since 1954
Member of our Executive Committee on several occasions

We offer our condolences to his family and loved ones.

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APES Presidential Luncheon 2022

© Eric Dubost 2022


Committee members of APES welcome the President of the Swiss Confederation, Ignazio Cassis, at the annual Presidential luncheon and press conference at the Bellevue Palace Hotel in Bern on 14 November 2022.

Guest ambassadors

© Pierre Virot 2022

Among the guests surrounding the Swiss President Ignazio Cassis at the APES Presidential Lunch, on 14.11.22, in Bern (from left to right), the ambassadors: Doris Frick (Liechtenstein /BE), Tatiana Molcean (Moldova UNOG) , Tatiana Valovaya, UNOG Director General, Fuad Isgandarov (Azerbaïdzan), Revaz Lominadze (Georgia), Ignazio Cassis, Peter Kenny, APES President, Artem Rybchenko (Ukraine/BE) and Yevheniia Filipenko, (Ukraine/UNOG), Jürg Lauber (Swiss MIssion/UNOG) and Isabel Saco, Vice-President of APES. 

View photo gallery

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Swiss host foreign journalists annual lunch after COVID break

Peter Düggeli © Photo Peter Kenny 2022

More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic smote the world, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) hosted a lunch in Geneva for foreign correspondents where top officials offered support to journalists carrying out their craft.

Jürg Lauber, who heads the Swiss mission to the United Nations in Geneva, said society needs journalism, and it needs people in the profession who have a critical ability.
He said following Switzerland’s decision to support EU sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the FDFA was working hard to explain that the country could remain neutral after taking its human rights stance.
Foreign Press Association in Switzerland and Liechtenstein (APES) president, Jean Musy, said the association always appreciates the Swiss government’s support of the rights of journalists and access to information.
Musy urged the FDFA to resume its investment and support for the mobility of foreign journalists in Switzerland by reinstating the issuance to APES members of half-tariff vouchers for Swiss Rai

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The APES regrets to inform members of the death on Monday 7 March, 2022 in Cairo, Egypt, of our dear journalist colleague

Ms. Hedayat Abdel-Nabi.

From 1999-2010, she worked as a correspondent for the Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) covering the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva after working as an information officer for UNHCR.

APES is grateful to her for her commitment to the association as an account verifier (2001-2005) and served as a member of our Committee (2005 – 2007). We offer our deepest condolences to Hedaya’s family and loved ones.

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Dear Colleagues,
Dear Friends of APES,
We hope and wish that you are all in good health.
And we hope you have a great holiday season over the Christmas and New Year period.
All our Best Wishes for all of you in 2022 in your work and lives.

Sincerely,
The APES Committee

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Swiss President Guy Parmelin addresses members of APES (Foreign Press Association in Switzerland and Liechtenstein) on relations between his country and the European Union on 14 October in Bern (Photo: © Peter Kenny)

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APES regrets to inform you of the death of our Indian colleague,
Chakravarthi RAGHAVAN (1925– 2021), last September 26th, in Geneva.

He was a distinguished journalist, Honorary member of APES since 2007.
APES offers his family and loves ones our deep condolences.
 
 

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APES regrets to inform you of the death of
Dr. iur. Peter C. Matt
Ambassador of the Liechtenstein Mission UNOG
(5.4.1966 – 8.3.2021)

APES is grateful for the support he gave our association and offers his family and loved ones our deepest condolences.

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Media diversity and access during the COVID-19 era

APES Open Letter to UN Secretary-General ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

UN Secretary-General António Guterres
© UN Photo/ Mark Garten

The APES leadership continued in 2020 to strive for a diverse foreign media with open access to information in Switzerland and at United Nations’ agencies. We continued engaging with Swiss and Geneva authorities to expedite the issuance of permits to APES members, scoring successes.

During 2020, APES President Jean Musy and Vice-President Peter Kenny met the Geneva Director of UN Information Services to express concern about the accreditation system for journalists to work in the Palais des Nations. We believe this favours big State-run media organizations and those affiliated with big business while discriminating against those working for small players.

To follow-up, we wrote to the UN Secretary General. On UN’s 75th anniversary he spoke out on the need for diversity in a speech on World Press Freedom Day, May 3.

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Open letter to WHO from APES

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
© Pierre Virot

COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, causing global havoc. It also impacted press freedom and media access to information. Some institutions manipulated media access. The World Health Organization started blind webinars for its bi-weekly press encounters, and APES launched a letter campaign to get the WHO to open-up. Its press webinars remain blind.

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We regret to announce that our colleague
Mrs Angelica ROGET,
an honorary member of APES, died at home on the evening of Sunday March 8. She was for many years the correspondent for Radio Vatican’s French-language programme. She also served as APES Secretary General from 1999 to 2003.
APES offers her family and loved ones our deepest condolences.
 
 
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JOURNALISM’S FUTURE

The only certainty from this debate is the uncertainty embedded in journalism’s future. It’s a profession considered noble by its practitioners, those who strive for freedom of expression and thought and the right of the public to know what goes on around them.

On its 90th Anniversary, the Foreign Press Association in Switzerland and Liechtenstein (APES) presents a succinct summary of a two-hour debate, condensed into 15 minutes. Each of the six speakers is a professional veteran and their key point is included with cogent arguments about their craft.

The debate was held at the University of Geneva on 28 February 2019 (APES org.), with Christian Campiche (Impressum/Switzerland), Jamil Chade (O Estado de Sao Paulo/Brazil), Daniel Cornu (Tamedia Romandie/Switzerland), Renske Heddema (Netherlands press), Peter Kenny (South African journalist and APES vice-president), Brij Khindaria (Business India/India) — and Moderator : Jean Musy (Radio Zones/France and APES president)

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APES regrets to inform you of the death of Mr Walter Emil BUSER (14.04.1926 – 17.08.2019)
Former Chancellor of the Swiss Confederation (1981 – 1991)
and an Honorary member of APES
APES is grateful for the support he gave our association and offers his family and loved ones our deepest condolences.

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APES Presidential Lunch in Bern 2018 with Alain Berset President of Confederation

The Foreign Press Association in Switzerland and Liechtenstein (APES), founded in 1928, organizes every year since 1948 its traditional Presidential Dinner with the President of the Confederation. The opportunity to allow its journalists members to meet some fifty prestigious guests, spokespersons of the great bodies of the State to the leaders of the economy, the finance, politics, personalities of science, of culture and sport, which have marked the past year. In Bern, November 5, 2018, APES inaugurated with this event the cycle of celebrations of its 90th anniversary.

An APES production by Christian and Patricia Peschken.

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Partnership : APES receives Vietnamese Journalists’ Association

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Radio China International interviews APES President

APES President Jean Musy interviewed on March 19th 2018 by Radio China International about China’s situation following the election of Chinese President Xi Jingping

Listen to the interview in French :

Listen to the interview in Chinese :

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2018 APES trip to Kosovo

Geneva, March 5th 2018 – APES Press Conference at the Swiss Press Club on the trip of 6 journalists members in Kosovo, from 7 to 10 Feb. 2018

Click to view the video conference

Mitrovica, feb. 9th 2018, APES journalists with Agim Bahtiri, Mayor of Mitrovica (center)

On the 10th anniversary of Kosovo’s independence, six APES journalists made a trip to Prishtina, Prizren, Gračanica and Mitrovica, from February 7th to 10th.

Prishtina, Feb. 9 2018. APES journalists received by Eugen Saraçini, director of Radio Television 21, one of the main independent TV stations in Kosovo.

Prishtina, Feb. 9 2018 . Xhavit Haliti, Vice-President of the Kosovo Assembly (Parliament) receives APES journalists


Prishtina, Feb. 7 2018. Jean Musy, President of APES, interviewed by Arbresh.info

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2017 APES Travel in Vietnam

Geneva, Dec. 18th 2017 – APES Press Conference at the Swiss Press Club in Geneva, on the trip of 7 journalists members in Vietnam, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4th 2017

Cliquer pour voir la vidéoconférence

Ha Noi, Nov. 27th 2017 — Signature of a partnership agreement between APES President Jean Musy (left) and Vietnamese Journalists Association President Thuan Huu (right) Photo & © Pierre Virot (2017)

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Doris Leuthard says to APES journalists : “Switzerland is ready to mediate in North Korea crisis”

Swiss President Doris Leuthard answers questions from journalists of APES

Bern, Sept. 4 — Swiss President Doris Leuthard has said Switzerland is ready to act a mediator and use the special role it has carved out in international diplomacy to host talks to help solve the current crisis over North Korea.
Leuthard was speaking at a press conference in the Swiss capital hosted by APES on September 5 and she asked if more sanctions are the answer to a missile crisis involving North Korea after its latest nuclear missile test.
“We live now for many years with sanctions. It did not change many things. The population suffers for all these sanctions, but they stay with their government, with their president. So, I think, it is really time for dialogue.
“We are ready to offer our good services now as a mediator,” she said noting that Switzerland has hosted peace talks on Syria and other conflicts.
Leuthard said that in the upcoming weeks a lot would depend on how the United States and China can influence the crisis while she cautioned that it would be dangerous to have overactions.
“It is really time now to sit at a table. The big powers have a reputation and a responsibility. Switzerland and Sweden can have a role behind the curtain” she observed saying they have done so before.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had spent some time as a high school student in Bern, but Leuthard could not say how this might influence any talks.

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2017 APES Presidential Luncheon with Swiss President Doris Leuthard

Swiss President Doris Leuthard with APES Committee in Schweizerhof Hotel (Bern 09.04.2017). From left to right : Emilia Nazarenko, Elizaveta Isakova, Peter Kenny, Rui Martins, Jean Musy, Doris Leuthard, Fatih Erel, Jennifer Freedman, He Nong, Luis Vasquez, Gunilla Von Hall

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APES in the Chinese Media about President Xi Jinping’s visit to Switzerland

January 11th : APES President Jean Musy on CCTV

January 20th : APES President interviewed by The Voice of China on Zheijang TV

January 21th : APES Vice-President Peter Kenny on CCTV

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Chinese and Swiss Media Round Table in Geneva : APES calls for more cultural exchanges

Jean Musy and Peter Kenny (left) responsible for APES (left) with Minister Jiang Jianguo (right), Director of the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.

During the First Chinese and Swiss Media Roundtable, launched in Geneva on January 10th, during the state visit of President Xi Jinping to Switzerland, the President of the APES, Jean Musy, underlined before the Chinese Minister Jiang Jianguo, the need for journalists to “build bridges” between cultures. He said communication services are not convincing. “The public wants to know more and above all the truth .  For our credibility, we must go, see and know,” he added.

He recalled the major role of the renowned Swiss reporter Fernand Gigon, the first to communicate about Communist China to the world. That was when Switzerland had just recognized the Mao regime, the first among Western nations, January 17 1950. Sixty seven years later, Musy said there is still too much misunderstanding. Only a good flow of independent information from the field can improve this, he said.

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Swiss Banking Association meets with APES

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Claude-Alain Margelisch, SBA CEO during his annual meeting with the APES in Geneva

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December, 1st : According to the SBA, Switzerland had 266 banks in 2015, half of them foreign. Switzerland is the world leader in cross-border asset management, with a 25 percent market share. “In total,” notes Claude Margelisch, “assets under management in banks in Switzerland at the end of 2015 amounted to 6,567.6 billion Swiss francs. Half of this amount comes from foreign customers”. However, “market access, training and digital” remain “the major challenges for the future” for the Swiss banking sector, said the SBA CEO. Photos : © J.Musy and P.Kenny (2016)

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Yearly APES Presidential Lunch with the President of the Confederation

President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann with members of the APES Committee during the annual press conference and luncheon at the Schweizerhof in Bern on 27 October.

October, 27th – President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann with members of the APES Committee during the annual press conference and luncheon at the Schweizerhof in Bern.

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Solar Impulse : Technology for the environment

Meeting with the Press on 10 October with the two pilots of Solar Impulse, Dr. Bertrand Piccard (centre left) and M. André Borschberg with APES President Jean Musy (far left) and its Vice President Peter Kenny (far right). The two pilots talked about their recent round-the-world tour and new projects.

October, 10th – The two pilots of Solar Impulse, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, on their return from their recent round of the world, recounted their feat, highlighting the technological challenges faced by APES journalists at Château de Penthes / GE. They also explained the implications of this project for the future. Left, President of APES Jean Musy  and right, Vice-President Peter Kenny.