“The post-fascist ruling group, after winning the October 2022 elections, had two paths ahead of it: to deny its neo-fascist past or to try to rewrite history. Without a doubt, it has chosen the second path. This is one of the passages of the monologue that the Italian writer Antonio Scurati – author of the best-seller “M, the son of the century”, on the life and rise to power of Mussolini, translated in 46 countries – must have recited last Saturday in a broadcast on RAI3, the third channel of Italian public television. The occasion was scheduled to coincide with the upcoming anniversary of April 25, when Italy remembers its liberation from Nazi fascism. But a few hours before the broadcast, Scurati’s participation was canceled in the latest in a series of episodes that have sounded the alarm in Italy about the colonization of the media space by the government of Giorgia Meloni, starting with Rai.
The main union of journalists of the public channel Usigrai denounced “the stifling control of the parties over RAI”, in a statement read on Saturday in the evening editions of the television news. It was the second time in a few days that the journalists – who declared a state of unrest, with the forecast of five days of strike – read live a note to denounce, also in view of the coverage of the next European elections, the desire of the parties that support Meloni’s executive to transform television into a “government megaphone”, highlighting the decisions of the new leaders, starting with the general director, Giampaolo Rossi, who in 2019 spoke of “anti-fascism” as “a paradox”. caricature and attempt to stop the meaning of the history of a country” and whose name is now ringing out for the position of CEO.
The “Scurati case” has once again stirred up the debate on freedom of the press in Italy, fuelled in recent weeks by two other cases. On the one hand, the possible acquisition of the AGI agency, the second largest agency in the country – currently owned by the energy company ENI, 35% controlled by the State – by Antonio Angelucci, a member of parliament from the League but very close to Meloni and already the owner of three newspapers linked to the government, The Giornale, I release And The Tempo.
On the other hand, the decision of the Perugia prosecutor’s office to include three journalists from the newspaper Domani on the list of people questioned in a case of access to confidential information on politicians and celebrities, in which the two main accused are a lieutenant of the Financial Guard, of the Italian tax police and a magistrate. The fact is that the investigation was born from a complaint filed with the prosecutor’s office by the current Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, after Domani published an article on possible conflicts of interest of Crosetto for certain consultancies with companies in the arms sector.
Crosetto did not file a complaint against Domani for defamation, he did not deny the information either, but filed a complaint to investigate how they had accessed this information, that is, an investigation into the journalists’ source. Today, the three journalists – Stefano Vergine, Giovanni Tizian and Nello Trocchia, the last two co-authors of the investigation into Meloni’s father, published last May by this newspaper – are under investigation for abusive access and revelation of secrets, despite the fact that the Italian Constitution and laws protect journalists when they publish any information of public interest in the exercise of the right to information. The charge brought against the three columnists – Tizian lived under escort for nine years for his investigations into the mafias of northern Italy – carries a sentence of up to nine years in prison.
A call to support independent media
“When they publish information, journalists never commit a crime. If this news is the result of the crimes of others, it is not up to journalists to verify it. “Journalists have the sole purpose of their profession to research and verify facts and publish true information,” commented Alessandra Costante, secretary general of the National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI, for its acronym in Italian), upon hearing the news of the investigation into the journalists, guilty, according to the director of DomaniEmiliano Fittipaldi, “for doing his job well. It’s about finding good sources, getting secret information about the powerful in the public interest, verifying it and finally publishing it.”
Fittipaldi himself, in an unprecedented episode, was summoned this Monday by the Anti-Mafia Commission of Parliament, as part of a series of appearances on the case. For all this, the newspaper Domani has called on the Italian judicial and political authorities “to respect the right to information, freedom of information and the right of citizens to have independent media”, as read in a statement signed by 39 European freedom of expression organisations and journalists’ unions and 33 media outlets from different European countries, including elDiario.es.
“Following the adoption by the European institutions of the European law on freedom of the media, the European Union intends to strengthen the protection of journalistic sources, strictly regulating, for all Member States, the possibility of judicial investigations into media sources, and providing that this can only happen in limited cases,” the statement said. “On the contrary, the decision of the Perugia prosecutor’s office to seek out the sources of our journalists risks transforming investigative journalism itself into a crime. It is no coincidence that the episode has already been stigmatized by the main Italian and European unions and organizations, such as Fnsi, Media Freedom Rapid Response, the European Center for Press and Media Freedom, the European Federation of Journalists, Free Press. Unlimited, International Press Institute, ARTICLE 19 Europe and OBC Transeuropa. Without the possibility of verifying information and without whistleblowers disclosing confidential information, investigative journalism would have enormous limits. Freedom of the press would also be limited, to the detriment of the right of citizens to know the information of public interest that political and economic power wants to hide.”
The writer Roberto Saviano, who also expressed his solidarity with the journalists of Domani and who saw how the broadcast of the program he had already recorded for Rai was canceled a few months ago, commented on the “Scurati case”: “When they called me and told me about Antonio Scurati, I replied: only now do you give “Do you realize what is happening? On Saturday afternoon, Meloni responded to criticism on his social networks by publishing the full text of Scurati’s monologue, with a premise in which he said that “in an Italy full of problems, the left is building a case”, echoing Rai’s explanation. which attributed the cancellation of Scurati’s intervention to an economic issue, which is denied by a document published by the newspaper The Republic in which the decision is justified by “editorial reasons”.
