Italian public television and radio journalists on strike against ‘censorship attempts’

The journalists of Italian public television and radio, RAIthey enforce this Monday a 24 hour strike to “defend their autonomy and independence” against “political control” and “attempts at censorship.”

The 24-hour strike comes after weeks of protests by workers over what they describe as a strike “suffocating control” so that the information serves as a ‘megaphone’ for the executive of the far-right Giorgia Meloni, a complaint joined by the political opposition, accusing the management of turning the RAI into ‘Telemeloni’. Meanwhile, management accuses convening union Usagrai of spreading ‘fake news’.

A statement read on the network this morning notes that “on April 25, RAI tried to censor a monologue, and then, with obvious difficulties, tried to turn it into an economic issue,” referring to the writer’s veto. Antonio Scurati.

‘We prefer to lose one or more days of salary than to lose our freedom, convinced that the freedom and autonomy of public services It is a value for everyone. And the RAI belongs to everyone,” the workers add. However, the company responds that “the decision to strike for reasons unrelated to workers’ rights is within ideology and policy.”

The Italian National Press Federation (FNSI) considers the accusation of spreading “false news” to discredit “hundreds of colleagues” “very serious” and in fact considers it “a huge diversionary operation to hide what is really happening in the public service.”

Scurati’s case is the latest of several cases in which Meloni has been accused of censorship or of using public media to her advantage, such as the departure of journalist Fabio Fazio from RAI after four successful decades at the public broadcaster, or the change of the regulations for interventions in election campaigns, which puts an end to the time limit for television interventions by politicians with institutional positions.