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Italy’s public TV journalists to strike over political influence

Journalists at Italy's RAI public broadcaster on Thursday announced a 24-hour walkout next month, citing concerns over politicisation under Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:06 CEST
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a video conference with G7 leaders at Chigi Palace in Rome - Photo by Filippo ATTILI / Palazzo Chigi press office / AFP.

The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

READ ALSO: Italy marks liberation from Fascism amid TV censorship row

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.

Member comments

  1. Regardless of the actual facts that are surely buried somewhere in the underlying controversy, I find interesting the language used by AFP to describe the comments of the two premiers… Melini’s claim is rather negatively characterized as a denial, while Rama’s is simply accepted as confirmation. Maybe it’s me…

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Charity warns Italy’s ban on migrant rescue planes risks lives

A migrant rescue charity warned on Thursday that a new Italian ban on using surveillance planes to spot migrant boats in distress in the Mediterranean could endanger lives.

Published: 9 May 2024 15:14 CEST
Charity warns Italy's ban on migrant rescue planes risks lives

Italy’s civil aviation authority Enac issued orders in the past week saying charities will have their planes seized if they carry out “search and rescue” activities from airports in Sicily.

The move follows restrictions placed by far-right premier Giorgia Meloni’s government on charity rescue ships as it attempts to fulfil its election pledges to curb arrivals, which soared to around 158,000 last year.

Nearly 2,500 people are known to have died in 2023 trying to cross the central Mediterranean, a 75 percent increase on the previous year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

READ ALSO: What’s behind Italy’s soaring number of migrant arrivals?

“This is definitely another attempt to criminalise search and rescue,” Giulia Messmer, spokesperson for the German charity Sea Watch, told AFP.

Sea Watch has two planes, the Seabird 1 and 2, but if they “are not able to fly anymore”, the planes “cannot communicate spotted distress cases” to authorities and ships able to carry out rescues, she said.

Enac says it is up to the coastguard, not charities, to perform search and rescue operations. The ban applies to the airports of Palermo and Trapani in Sicily, as well as the islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria.

IN NUMBERS: Five graphs to understand migration to Italy

The IOM told AFP that while it was “waiting to understand its actual implementation, we are concerned that this decision may hinder life-saving efforts”.

Sea Watch warned the planes do not only play a vital role in spotting boats at risk of sinking, they also document the behaviour of the Libyan coastguard, often accused of violence towards migrants.

‘Political propaganda’

Immigration lawyer Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo told AFP the order issued by Enac was based on “a partial and contradictory reconstruction of national and international laws governing search and rescues”.

It was a political move, “a warning, during the election campaign” for the European Elections, he said.

Sea Watch on Twitter also called the move “an act of cowardice and cynicism… for political propaganda”.

Enac answers to Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League party.

READ ALSO: ‘More will drown’: Italy accused of breaking international law on migrant rescues

Messmer, 28, said the Seabird 2 flew on Wednesday from Lampedusa despite the ban and the charity “plans to continue flying in the coming days”.

There were no issues getting the necessary authorisation from the airport to take off and land, she said.

Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, was elected to office in 2022 promising to stop migrant boats arriving from North Africa.

Her government has brought in a law obliging charity ships to stage only one rescue at a time and they are often assigned ports in Italy’s distant north, making missions longer and more expensive.

Rome has also signed a controversial deal with Albania by which migrants from countries considered to be safe will be intercepted at sea and taken straight to Italian-run centres in Albania.

Critics say the deal is expensive and will prove ineffective because the two centres will only be able to hold a maximum of 3,000 people at a time and asylum applications are notorious slow.

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