Swiss commentary on Israeli Olympic bobsleigh team termed ‘discriminatory’

Switzerland’s broadcasting complaints authority has announced that a local journalist’s TV commentary questioning the participation of a “Zionist” Israeli bobsledder at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics breached discrimination rules during the Games’ broadcast in February. A nine-member independent panel voted 5-4 to uphold four public complaints about the broadcast on February 16 by French-language network Radio Television Suisse (RTS), the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (ICA or AIEP) said in its ruling on Friday. Sports commentator Stefan Reina had called the Israeli team’s pilot Adam Jeremy Edelman “a Zionist to the core” as the team appeared on the screen during their run in the bobsleigh event.