The venue of the yearly conference held by the Swiss Media Forum has been moved for security reasons, Reuters reports.
Featuring guest speakers such as Egypt's comedian and satirist Bassem Youssef as well as the controversial Danish editor of Jyllands-Posten, the conference was scheduled to take place in a congress hall in central Lucerne, a tourist destination 50 kms from Zurich.
Bassem highly successful show "El Barnameg" ("The Program"), in which he mocked former President Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Morsi, and current President Sisi, gained him an average of 40 million viewers every week, making it the highest watched show in Egyptian history.
But it also drew unwanted attention from other quarters. "I'm tired of struggling and worrying about my safety and that of my family," he told CNN. The show was pulled off the air prior to last year's elections but never returned. Bassem is now in the US, where he is a Fellow at Harvard University, and will be hosting the Emmy Awards in November.
Fellow guest speaker Jorn Mikkelsen, Danish editor of Jyllands-Posten is high up on islamic militants' hit list after his newspaper's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), ignited protests worldwide, and there have been numerous retaliatory plots against the newspaper and its staff since 2006.
According to Reuters, Swiss police confirmed that they had 'established there was a heightened risk', without disclosing details. As a result, the conference has been moved to a boat on Lake Lucerne.
We hope they can sail through the controversy!
