Radio Drama · 2026-09-02

Swiss children's audio drama with a trans character — and it turned into a case

children/youthsocialindustry

In Switzerland a private individual complained that the children's audio drama „Ich bin Alex”, whose protagonist is a transgender girl, breached the protection of minors. The ombudsman's office of SRG Deutschschweiz rejected the complaint in a ruling made public on 2 September.

„Ich bin Alex” was broadcast on 13 May 2026 by SRF, the German-language Swiss public broadcaster, in its Kids Hörspiele series, recommended for listeners aged ten and over. Alex moves from the United States to Switzerland with her family, and her first day at the new school matters more to her than anything. She becomes friends with Zoe and the two write a song about their friendship — but after Alex confides her secret, Zoe betrays her out of jealousy and the friendship collapses. What is at stake is whether there is a way back, and whether the two will perform together at the school festival after all.

The source is a picture book by the French animation director Jean-Loup Felicioli, „Je suis Camille”. According to ActuaLitté, the book won the 2021 UNICEF France children's literature prize in the 9-12 age category; that year the prize was built around emotions and mental health. It appeared in German from the publisher Jacoby & Stuart under the title „Ich bin Alex” — the version SRF worked from.

The complaint was filed by a father. According to SRG Deutschschweiz, he argued that the play amounts to „gender transition propaganda”, conveying a contested political position to children without warning parents; he also objected that the programme description gave no indication of how central gender identity is to the story. In his view the public broadcaster thereby breached its duties of transparency and protection of minors.

The ombudsman's office rejected the complaint. Its reasoning: the play makes no demand and issues no instruction, and propagates no worldview; it approaches a genuinely existing social reality „in a very circumspect manner”, and thematising social realities is precisely what a public broadcaster is mandated to do. Neither the protection of minors nor the accuracy requirement (Sachgerechtigkeitsgebot) was breached.

A ruling by the ombudsman's office binds no one: it mediates between the parties and then delivers a final report.

The title role is played by 13-year-old child actor Frida Dillier, who is also a children's reporter for SRF Kids: in June the channel devoted a separate programme to her, in which she talked about what went on behind the scenes during recording.

🎧 SRF Kids Hörspiele — „Ich bin Alex”

AI involvement — Research: partly · Writing: partly · Verification: partly. The article is based on machine translation of original texts in German, French.

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