Meloni far-right gov under fire over interference in state broadcaster

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
23 May 2023 10:58

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightwing government is accused of influencing state broadcaster, Rai.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a news conference at Palazzo Chigi, in Rome, Italy, April 5, 2023 (Reuters)

According to Rai sources, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightwing administration is attempting to pull the Italian state broadcaster to its agenda and "cancel Italy's antifascism footprints" following a string of high-profile departures, The Guardian reported, citing sources at the organization.

The Guardian mentioned that in the past few weeks, Carlo Fuortes resigned as CEO, citing government pressure.

It added that left-leaning talkshow host Fabio Fazio and his co-presenter Luciana Littizzetto, a comedian known for her monologues tackling conservatives, left after their contracts for the popular Che Tempo Che Fa program were not renewed.

More departures are anticipated in the following months.

"With every change of government, there’s a change in governance at Rai," a source at the broadcaster pointed out, as cited by The Guardian.

"The only difference now is that it is more ruthless, whereas before it was perhaps a little bit more, shall we say, gentlemanly."

Fuortes, who left the state broadcaster a year before his term expired, was quickly replaced by the government-nominated Roberto Sergio, a Rai manager whose political opinion "changes with the wind" depending on who is in charge, according to a source.

Giampaolo Rossi, a former Rai board member endorsed by Meloni's Brothers of Italy neofascist party, has been appointed as director general.

In a 2019 interview for Primato Nazionale, a newspaper published by a member of the extreme-right party CasaPound, Rossi considered that "antifascism is a caricature of the past."

"Rai has always been influenced by governments, but with the current one there has been a quantum leap," The Guardian cited a source informed with the matter as saying

"They want to take control of Rai and change the narrative to their way of thinking, and to cancel the antifascism footprints of our country. This will mean weakening Rai and the public service," the source warned.

According to The Guardian, intimidation against Fuortes started a few days before Italy's general election last September 2022.

Fuortes, who was selected by the administration of former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, stated in his resignation letter to the Economy Ministry that he refused to accept amendments to Rai's editorial line and programming.

"Since the beginning of 2023, there has been a political conflict concerning me and my position, which is weakening Rai and the public service," he indicated back then in the letter.

"The behaviour towards Fuortes has been shameful," a former member of Rai’s parliamentary supervisory committee considered, as quoted by The Guardian.

"Rossi’s appointment as director general seemed to already be a given – he’s considered a ‘strongman’ who will probably be CEO in a year," the former supervisory committee member pointed out, adding that "they’ll be working on getting their own people into network director positions."

"We’ll probably start to see more influence in programming further down the line. They’ll try to minimise leftwing narrative and influence popular programmes."

In the same context, Fazio, who had been with Rai for 40 years, said Meloni's administration felt legitimized by its general election win "to behave like the owner of the public sphere with little regard for the public and with a boundless greed."

"There has always been political influence, but there is a line that the government should be absolutely keen not to cross: Rai should not be homogenous; we need a public service that gives a range of opinions," stressed Gianni Riotta, the director of the school of journalism at Rome’s Luiss University, as quoted by The Guardian.