SWI swissinfo.ch emerged from the
Swiss Radio International (SRI), a business unit of
SRG SSR for foreign countries. It was founded in 1935 and had the task of informing the Swiss abroad about what is happening in Switzerland and promoting Switzerland's presence abroad. Originally, radio programs were broadcast via short wave and later via satellites. In the mid-1990s, economic circumstances forced swissinfo.ch to take a new strategic direction. The internet was advancing fast, heralding a new era for the producing journalists and the Swiss Radio International (SRI) audience alike. The German, French, English and Portuguese sites went online in 1999. The Italian, Japanese and Spanish sites followed in 2000, with Arabic going live on 1 February 2001 and Chinese in September of the same year. Within just two years, the internet platform for expatriate Swiss was already better known than SRI's short-wave radio services. In 2014 swissinfo rebranded to "
SWI swissinfo.ch". On 21 March 2005, the Board of Directors of
SRG SSR decided to reduce the service of swissinfo.ch significantly. At the time, the decision was not final and still had to be confirmed by the regulatory body – the Federal Office of Communications – and the
Swiss Federal Council. The initial plan of the SRG SSR was to produce a service in English only. This service was to be integrated into
SR DRS, the radio branch of what is today the German-language broadcaster
SRF. Only some specific information for Swiss people living abroad would be published in Switzerland's national languages (German, French and Italian). The plan is also to employ one journalist for each national language and the service would be produced by one of the existing SRG SSR enterprise units. SRG SSR's intention to cut back on swissinfo.ch to a minimum met enormous dismay from users and readers. Eventually, the public had their way, preventing the reduction in services. In the summer of 2007, the Federal Council issued SWI swissinfo.ch with a new charter to provide specific and clearly defined internet-focused news, information, and entertainment services. In 2013, swissinfo.ch welcomed Russian as 10th language of the information platform. In 2023 more than 100 persons of 14 nationalities are working for SWI swissinfo.ch. Christoph Heri, the editor-in-chief of swissinfo.ch, retired on 31 March 2008 after a 30-year media career, the last six years of which were spent with the SWI swissinfo.ch editorial team. Peter Schibli became the new editor-in-chief of swissinfo.ch on 1 January 2008. Schibli, who holds a doctorate in law. He was charged with fulfilling the content aspects of the Federal Council charter and with positioning SWI swissinfo.ch as a multilingual news and information platform for both expatriate Swiss and an international audience with an interest in Switzerland. In November 2008, Schibli became the director of swissinfo.ch. From November 2008 to February 2015 Christophe Giovannini served as swissinfo.ch editor-in-chief. In January 2016, Larissa M. Bieler started as the editor-in-chief. Born in Chur, she studied German literature, economics, and political science. She worked as a freelance journalist, and from 2013 served as editor-in-chief of the . In October 2018 she was appointed Director of SWI swissinfo.ch and led the business unit in a dual role until summer 2022, Larissa M. Bieler became a member of the SRG Executive Board since July 2022. In 2022, Mark Livingston became the SWI swissinfo.ch editor-in-chief. SWI swissinfo.ch is a member of the
Journalism Trust Initiative. In 2023, SWI swissinfo.ch has won a prize in the “science and environment” category of an annual award organised by Swiss magazine
Private. In 2023, SWI swissinfo.ch won the Social Impact Award for Diversity and Inclusion at the
IBC - International Broadcasting Convention. == Special features ==