Freedom of the press in Italy
How the Meloni government is besieging the RAI broadcaster
By Andrea Affaticati, Milan
April 25, 2024, 9:39 p.m
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RAI is one of Italy’s most important TV channels. The head of the public broadcaster’s journalists’ union explains why editors feel more and more controlled.
Daniele Macheda has worked for Italy’s public broadcaster RAI for 37 years. He started at the age of 25 and is now 62 years old. He has also been chairman of the RAI Usigrai union since 2021 and has his hands full in this role, especially recently. This has to do with Giorgia Meloni’s government, which is moving to the right – and further and further away from the center. She repeatedly tries to restrict the state broadcaster’s freedom of information. The most recent case is that of the writer Antonio Scurati, who was supposed to read a monologue on one of the RAI channels on April 25, the day of Italy’s liberation from Nazi fascism. Instead, he was unceremoniously disinvited – one of many interventions.
The fact that the government is influencing the broadcaster is not new. At RAI, directors, administrative bodies and chief positions were always distributed proportionally to the election results. “This proportional distribution is ugly and should finally be abolished,” says Macheda in an interview with ntv.de. “At least it gave every party, every camp a piece of the cake. But now there is a siege, which is why we speak of suffocating control.”
Objections are deleted
Macheda explains how this control is exercised based on a few incidents at RaiNews, the news channel for which he also works. “When the government passed the regulation that prosecutors and judges will have to undergo a psychological test from 2026, prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, one of the most important and well-known mafia hunters, spoke out. He said he agreed to the test, provided that “All officers would undergo an alcohol and drug test. RaiNews ignored Gratteri’s statement and did not report it.” Maybe his comment was too provocative. The psychological test had been heavily criticized in advance by the opposition and many public prosecutors.
The reporting on January 26th, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was embarrassing. Italy’s head of state Sergio Mattarella gave a powerful speech, but then appeared only slightly prominently on RAI1’s daily news program. Instead, the editorial team chose an interview with Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, Prime Minister Meloni’s brother-in-law, as the lead. His message: Astronauts on the ISS space station eat Italian pasta.
On the same evening and on the same program in which Scurati was supposed to deliver his monologue, the editor-in-chief of the RAI1 newsroom instead expressed her opinion on the issue of abortion. Abortion is not a right, but a crime, she said. “Isn’t that absurd?” Macheda asks. “It is not up to us journalists but rather the judiciary to say what is a crime and what is not.”
Don’t be a megaphone for the government
The attempts to tame public broadcasting are sometimes covert, other times bold and downright brazen, as in the case of the par condition law. This is intended to ensure that parties have equal opportunities to appear on television and radio during election campaigns. Here too the government tried to cheat. She stipulated that talk show appearances by government members should no longer be counted. RaiNews should also broadcast campaign speeches from all parties live and without journalistic commentary.
Both projects were blocked. RAI journalists issued a statement on live broadcasts of the election campaign appearances: “The government majority has decided to turn RAI into their megaphone (…) But that does not correspond to our idea of public service and of journalistic work, which requires questions (including unpleasant ones) , checking the facts and pointing out contradictions.”
Like Berlusconi – but different
It’s not just journalists who complain that the climate in RAI is becoming more and more stuffy. Since the new government came into office, numerous presenters of entertainment programs have left RAI for private broadcasters. And not (just) because of the pay. Politicians are said to have even attempted to intervene at the annual Sanremo TV hit festival. That’s why moderator and leader Amadeus packed his bags. He had previously achieved record ratings.
There would be no point in gloating about this, says Macheda. “RAI offers around 10,000 jobs. If something were to shake, it would be a big problem. But I’m also concerned with what RAI represented to me as a citizen. Let’s take the pandemic as an example. RAI was for the Italians the most important source of information.” At the very beginning, in the 1950s, when illiteracy was still widespread in Italy, RAI even taught many Italians to read and write using a program.
When asked what is actually different from the time of Silvio Berlusconi, who had several TV channels himself and still sent home numerous RAI journalists who were not favorable to him, Macheda answers: “I was and remain an absolute Berlusconi opponent. And it was really dangerous how he took power in RAI. Despite everything, Berlusconi was a liberal.”
RAI journalists are now planning a five-day strike. A few days ago, the writer Maurizio Maggiani called for a demonstration in the name of freedom of the press. But no one seems to have followed the appeal. Probably also because the public has given up. It is said that every government did what it wanted with RAI. And the current one does the same.