Guy Mettan (born 19 November 1956 in Evionnaz) is a Swiss journalist and politician. He was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland before becoming a member of the Swiss People's Party.[1]
As a journalist Mettan started with Tribune de Genève as an intern[2] and was its director and editor-in-chief from 1992 to 1998. 1997 he co-founded the and was executive director until 2019.
In 2001 he was appointed Vice-President of the Swiss-West African Chamber of Commerce. Mettan has been president of the Swiss-Russian Chamber of Commerce since its inception in 2005.[3] From 2006 to 2014 he was President of the Geneva Section of the Red Cross Switzerland.[4] He also served as President of the Grand Council of Geneva[5] and sat for the center there until 2019.
Mettan was awarded the Russian medal of the Order of Friendship in February 2017[3] by President Vladimir Putin.[6] While parliamentary regulations prohibit elected officials from receiving decorations from foreign governments, the Grand Council of Geneva authorised him to receive the medal on a 36-35 vote.[7]
Mettan's journalistic credibility has been questioned on several occasions. In 2017, Reporters Without Borders criticised Mettan for his pro-Russian militancy and for serving as a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda.[6] Florian Irminger, Secretary General of the Swiss Green Party, also called Mettan an apologist for Putin's government.[6] Following Mettan's support for the Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory in a Die Weltwoche essay in 2022, Swiss magazine Republik referred to the article as a "breathtaking compendium" of Russian propaganda.[8]
Mettan is married. In 1994, the family adopted a 3-year-old Russian girl, Oxana, from an orphanage in Suzdal. Later, Russian citizenship was granted to Mettan as a result of the adoption due to a decree by the Yeltsin administration.