Swiss Big Brother Awards!

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The winners of the fifth Swiss Big Brother Awards were announced on
Saturday 16 October, during the awards ceremony in the impressive old
Steeltec industrial hall in Emmenbrücke (Lucerne). Half of the 52 public
nominations were sent in for the 'State' category. The master of ceremony,
the actor Ernst Jenni, said he was pleased to see that government was
finally learning from corporate marketing practices, and were starting to
take their customers more serious. The winner was the commander in chief
of the Swiss Air Force, corps commander Hansruedi Fehrlin, for deploying
unmanned surveillance drones of the type 'ADS 95 Range', to closely
monitor cars, buildings and citizens from an invisible and inaudible
height of 1.500 meters. This secret surveillance measure became public
when the Luzern police arrested 2 men who had driven into a forest near
Emmen to smoke a joint. It turned out their behaviour was registered by
the highly sensitive thermal camera's on board of the drone, and the
incident reported by the military observers to the Luzern police.

2 more trophies were presented to the biggest snoopers in the categories
'Business' and 'Workspace'. In the business category, the price could
hardly escape Santesuisse, the alliance of Swiss health insurers, for its
successful implementation of the new tariff system 'Tarmed'. According to
this regulation, general practitioners have to include a detailed code on
all bills since 1 January 2004. Health insurers thereby gain access to
particularly sensitive patient information. When the Master of Ceremony
explained some of these codes to mean for example 'amputation of the penis
- completely', the public became painfully aware of the implications of
the codes. In the category 'Workspace' the Zurich municipal police
out-performed the other seven competitors. Their management had secretly
monitored the e-mail communication of several employees. Jury member
Jacqueline Chopard, an attorney from Luzern, said the police especially
deserved the price for not telling why they were secretly monitoring some
of their staff. This was especially incredible given the 'mission
statement' of the Zurich police: "We operate tactfully, with
understanding, and ready to help, and we act appropriately and
consequently, with consideration.

Additionally, a lifetime award was awarded for particularly insistent,
life-long snitching to to the Lucerne-based farmer and national councillor
(CVP) Josef Leu. As an MP he has been advocating a strengthening of the
armed forces and the police since 1991. Apart from these four negative
prizes, the positive Winkelried Award was granted to the Bern lawyer and
city-council member Daniele Jenni, who regularly defends marginalized
individuals, which are frequently expelled from the Bern inner City by
municipal police.

Swiss Big Brother Awards - English press release (16.10.2004)
http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2004/presse/pressemitteilungen/bba.pressemitteilung.20041016.5e.txt

Extensive information on all the nominations (in German)
http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2004/presse/

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