François Gross

François Gross (born March 18, 1931 in Lausanne ; † December 27, 2015 ) was a Swiss journalist from the canton of Friborg .

Life

Gross studied political science at the University of Lausanne . He then worked as an editor and France correspondent for the Gazette de Lausanne . From 1964 to 1970 he was editor-in-chief of the Téléjournal of the Télévision Suisse Romande . In 1970 he took over the editor-in-chief of the Freiburg daily La Liberté , which he converted from a house newspaper of political Catholicism into a denominational and politically independent forum newspaper . His biting editorials were quickly feared in the canton of Friborg, which is used to consensus. Gross also taught at the Institute for Journalism at the University of Freiburg .

After resigning from the editor-in-chief of Liberté in 1990, Gross worked as a correspondent and columnist for various media in French-speaking Switzerland and at times as editor-in-chief of Schweizer Radio International . He was a founding member and president of Reporters Without Borders and a co-founder of the Fondation Hirondelle , which supports independent media in crisis areas.

In 1997, Gross received the French Ordre national du Mérite and in 2014 the " Reinhardt von Graffenried Lifetime Achievement Award" as part of the Swiss media prizes for local journalism.

Friborg , éditions Avanti 1977
Le projet de Constitution fédérale , Payot 1977
La Suisse ou le piège des certitudes , Payot 1978 (co-author)
with Philippe de Weck : A banker answers questions: François Gross in dialogue with a Swiss banker (original title: Un bancier suisse parle , translated by Rita Peterli), Panorama, Altstätten 1984, DNB 861219503 .
with Dieter Krumbach (editor): The airplane, 1000 photos (original title: Les avions en 1000 photos , translated by Jürgen Brust). K. Müller, Erlangen 1994, ISBN 3-86070-287-4 .
Quoi de neuf? , L'Aire, 2003.

Christophe Büchi : The editor-in-chief who brightened up black Freiburg , Neue Zürcher Zeitung of April 26, 2014, p. 10.