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ROME (AP) — Some journalists from Italian state broadcaster RAI went on strike Monday to protest budget cuts and what they say is Italy’s increasingly repressive atmosphere for the media under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.
The 24-hour RAI strike is the latest protest by Italian journalists against alleged threats to press freedom and freedom of expression in Italy, including criminal investigations against journalists and alleged censorship incidents. Not all journalists took part and RAI news programs continued to be broadcast, albeit in a somewhat reduced form.
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RAI, which controls Italy’s three main public television channels, has said it is working to transform itself into a modern digital media company and will not be able to hire new staff. In a statement responding to the strike, RAI said it was not endangering the rights or jobs of current employees and was “increasingly committed to upholding the values of pluralism and freedom of expression.”
The strike came just days after media monitoring group Reporters Without Borders downgraded Italy by five notches in its annual press freedom index. At number 46 out of 180, Italy belongs to the “problematic” country category alongside the other EU member states Poland and Hungary.
RSF cited, among other things, reports about a planned takeover of the Italian news agency AGI by a lawmaker from the Lega party, a coalition partner in Meloni’s right-wing government. Lawmakers already control three conservative daily newspapers. Last month, AGI journalists went on strike to protest the planned sale of state-controlled ENI.
RAI television journalists and two weeks ago RAI radio journalists are protesting against the company’s budget austerity measures, including hiring freezes, job cuts through turnover and staff restructuring. They say the streamlining has the ultimate goal of “making RAI the government’s megaphone.”
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“I am very concerned about what is happening in Italy,” said Daniele Macheda, secretary of the USIGRAI union. At a press conference on Monday at the Foreign Press Association, Macheda called the AGI case in particular “a symptom of a system that is not working and risks putting a good of democracy, namely free and independent information, in trouble.”
RAI recently hit the headlines over alleged censorship when the company abruptly canceled a planned monologue by an anti-fascist writer that was scheduled to be broadcast on April 25, as Italy commemorated its liberation from fascist rule. The text was extremely critical of Meloni, whose party has its origins in Italy’s neo-fascist movement.
RAI said the contract was terminated for financial reasons. Meloni herself published the text on her Facebook account, but also criticized the RAI’s investigative reporting. Most recently, she publicly attacked RAI over an investigation program into the migration agreement it concluded with Albania to set up two migrant processing centers there. The deal was criticized by left-wing opposition parties and human rights groups.
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“Help me convey our solidarity to (Prime Minister) Edi Rama and the Albanian people for being lynched for merely helping our country,” Meloni told her Brothers of Italy party at a campaign rally on April 28 .
Journalists in Italy, including at RAI, have long complained about the use of threatened or real libel suits or criminal charges by politicians, businessmen and others who are the subjects of investigative reporting.
In recent weeks, Domani newspaper editor Emilio Fittipaldi was summoned to answer questions from members of Italy’s anti-mafia parliamentary commission about a criminal investigation into the source of media leaks about top politicians. Three Domani journalists are currently under criminal investigation by prosecutors in Perugia over their reporting on Meloni’s defense minister and face prison sentences if convicted.
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