Local authorities approve speed-camera reform 

Italy’s State-Cities and Local Autonomies Conference on Thursday approved a reform of current Highway Code rules on the positioning of speed cameras as well as speeding offences, Ansa reported.

Transport Minister and co-Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini expressed “great satisfaction” at the approval, claiming his reforms would put an end to speed cameras being “installed everywhere, not for safety reasons but to make money”.

Speed cameras have been at the centre of nationwide debate in Italy following the destruction of dozens of devices across northern regions by a controversial vigilante commonly known as ‘Fleximan’.

Italy is the European country with the highest number of speed cameras (11,130), with the UK being a far second (7,700). Italy’s 20 largest cities collected a total of nearly 76 million euros from speeding fines alone in 2022, up by 61,7 percent compared to the previous year. 

Italian city told to provide places of worship for Muslims after mosque closure

The northeastern port town of Monfalcone, where 33 percent of residents are of Muslim faith, must ensure that believers have adequate places of worship, Italy’s highest administrative court said on Thursday, according to a report from Ansa.

The Italian Council of State (Consiglio di Stato) upheld appeals filed by Monfalcone’s Islamic cultural associations Darus Salaam and Baitus Salat following the closure in mid-November of two local mosques deemed “illegal” by League party Mayor Anna Maria Cisint. 

The court reportedly stated on Thursday that “the administration is required to identify, in consultation with the interested parties […], alternative sites that are accessible and dignified to allow believers to pray”.

Cisint sparked nationwide outrage last July by saying that Muslim beachgoers bathing “with their clothes on” was against “decorum and hygiene”.

News agency reporters strike over right-wing takeover fears

Journalists at Italy’s AGI news agency on Thursday started a two-day strike in protest against a rumoured takeover by a publishing group led by an MP from the far-right League party, AFP reported.

The journalists’ general assembly said in a statement that “the independence and autonomy of journalists” guaranteed by current owner Eni would “be strongly at risk in the proposed scenario of a sale to the Angelucci publishing group”.

Antonio Angelucci, an MP with Matteo Salvini’s populist League party, is a private healthcare entrepreneur and the current owner of three right-wing newspapers: Il Giornale, Libero and Il Tempo.

Italy, which has a total of nine news agencies, all privately owned except for Ansa, ranked 41st worldwide in the 2023 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, up from 58th in 2022.

Minister plays down concern at anti-Israel protests at universities

The government was “not worried” about recent episodes of alleged intolerance and censorship at Italian universities amid protests over the number of civilian deaths in Gaza, Italian Universities Minister Anna Maria Bernini on Thursday said

Bernini said her ministry was looking at “appropriate solutions” to “protect freedom of thought” while also making sure that “recent episodes are not repeated”.

Her words came after La Repubblica editor Maurizio Molinari last Friday was prevented from speaking at a debate at Naples’ Federico II University due to his alleged pro-Israeli stance.

On Wednesday, Turin University reportedly pulled out of a scientific tender with Israeli universities in protest against the civilian death toll in Gaza – a decision which Bernini said was “wrong and alien to the tradition and culture of our universities”.