5 GROPPERA RADIO AG AND OTHERS v. SWITZERLAND JUDGMENT company as a journalist and lives at Cernobbio in Italy but also has a home in Lucerne. A. The background to the case 1. The Pizzo Groppera radio station 11. In 1979 an Italian private limited company, Belton s.r.l., built a radio station on the Pizzo Groppera - a 2,948 m peak in Italy, near Campodolcino, six kilometres from the Swiss border - for Groppera Radio’s predecessor, Radio 24 AG (see paragraphs 14-15 below). The station used a 50 kW transmitter and a directional aerial with a gain of about 100 kW, such that the apparent power radiated was of the order of 5,000 kW. Using this transmitter, the most powerful in Europe, the station broadcast to Switzerland over a distance of 200 km to the north-west and thus reached nearly a third of the country’s population, mainly in the Zürich area. 2. The situation from 13 November 1979 to 30 September 1983 12. From 13 November 1979 to 30 September 1983 the Pizzo Groppera station was managed by Belton s.r.l. but operated by its owner, Radio 24 AG, a company that Mr Roger Schawinski had set up in order to evade the State broadcasting monopoly in Switzerland. The programmes, which were broadcast on VHF and were wholly financed by Swiss advertisers, were intended for listeners between the ages of 15 and 40. 13. On 7 June 1982 the Federal Council adopted an Ordinance on local radio trials, thereby ending the monopoly of the Swiss Radio Broadcasting Company. Nearly three hundred applications were made for trials of this kind, including one by Radio 24 AG, which wanted to serve the Zürich area. 14. On 20 June 1983 the Federal Council issued thirty-six licences. One of these went to Radio 24 AG, but it was issued on condition that the broadcasts from the Pizzo Groppera should cease after 30 September 1983. Mr Schawinski agreed to this but sold the station on the Pizzo Groppera to Mr Marquard. 3. The situation from 1 October to 31 December 1983 15. From 1 October 1983 Groppera Radio AG used the Pizzo Groppera station to broadcast, under the name of Sound Radio, a slightly altered schedule to the Zürich area, on the frequency that had been used by Radio 24. These programmes could be received not only by the owners of car radios and other personal sets but also by cable-network companies, which retransmitted them. They consisted of light music, information bulletins, commercials and programmes in which the programme-makers and listeners