On Friday, the 25th of April (liberation day), an estimated two million people gathered in over 40 cities in Italy to protest about the state of journalism (print and television) in Italy.
Over 500,000 people in one day queued up to sign a petition calling for three specific referenda to change the way information is controlled in Italy.
A brief outline of the referenda:
1) The abolition of the order of journalists – a professional body with strict entry requirements, and direct successor to the body set up by Mussolini in 1925 in order to regulate and control who is permitted to work in journalism.
2) The abolition of state subsidies to the print-press. Under current legislation a horde of Italy’s daily newspapers recieve taxpayers money, supposedly to support plurality of information. In the worst case scenario this leads to party newspapers spewing official lines. At best it subsidises commercial concerns.
3) The abolition of the controversial Gasparri law regulating television communication, which amongst other things allowed for the legal broadcasting of Rete 4, Berlusconi’s third channel and home to some of the strangest propoganda seen since Ceaucescu’s Romania.
And the lead stories on RAI 1, the national state broadcaster for the evening of the 25th? Their first headline was that the world is facing global food shortages – a story that has been in the press for over a week at this stage. The second, the celebration of liberation day, including various declarations from politicians left, right and centre (or should that read right, right and centre-right) – an important part of the day’s news admittedly, though strange that no mention was made of the fact that Berlusconi chose precisely liberation day to meet up with one of his party’s self-professed fascists Ciarrapico. On and on the news went, but no mention that over a half a million Italians are sick to the teeth of piss-poor politically controlled journalism.
One would scarcely have expected TG editor Gianni Riotta to take a favourable line towards the second Vaffa day organised by Beppe Grillo, this time with journalists not politicians in its sight. That he, and the various other gatekeepers of tv journalism, chose to simply ignore the event is, though, absurd. As if word of the event and the issues involved can be neatly swept under the rug.
And the same RAI will be looking for support, proudly proclaiming its dubious public broadcasting value when it comes under attack, as it surely will, from Berlusconi’s mob during the lifetime of the next parliament. This monkey, for one, will not be taking to the streets to defend it – given that all it offers in the way of public broadcasting is a different brand of reality show. Berlusconi offers Big Brother on his Canal Cinque channel, while RAI run X-factor on their frequencies.
The newspapers are scarcely much better. The Corriere della Sera had a snide piece, focussing mainly on the main demonstration in Torino, where 50,000 people gathered to hear Grillo (50,000 is scarcely a trifle, but sounds pleasingly more marginal than two million). No analysis of the proposals calling for reform, and significantly no mention of the estimated 13 million euros of taxpayers money that goes annually to its publishers the RCS group.
Yet another shameful moment for Italian journalism – and not one that can be blamed on Berluska.