PRESS FREEDON IN ITALY (III)

As Berlusconi said, Italy is the country where there is the largest Press Freedom is the world. He also said that the articles in the international press about Italy were the results of a plot. By attacking the editor of an opposition press group and using his old leitmotiv in a sense he accused the Jews and the communists for organizing such a plot…sounds familiar ?).

On 22 October, though, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government

“presented a citation to editor Ezio Mauro for his courage in leading La Repubblica so honorably and bravely in these perilous times. It was awarded in hope and belief that the fight for press freedom in Italy will prevail.
At a time of grave jeopardy for freedom of the press in Italy, La Repubblica under Mauro's editorial guidance has courageously insisted in its pages that government must be accountable to the citizens and that the role of the press is to demand that accountability.
Despite threats, economic pressure and lawsuits seeking millions in damages, La Repubblica has continued to lead the fight for making power accountable and has inspired hundreds of thousands of Italians to join the fight for genuine press freedom.” (Harvard Kennedy School Press release).

Definitely America, after Obama’s election, is becoming a communist party, will think Berlusconi following his old time Republican friends. And Shorenstein and Nieman sound quite Jew names, like that of La Repubblica editor….A Jews and communist international plot, will poor Berlusconi resist ? He really deserves the Peace Nobel Prize ….(see below)

PRESS FREEDOM IN ITALY (II)

Just last week, Mr. Berlusconi stated that Italy did enjoy the highest level of freedom of press in the world. Of course he ignored the fact that in the Spring, Freedom House had placed Italy 71st, the first EU country with a partially free press ! And of course Press freedom for him means : all Press reports to him. Since he is the leader of the Freedom Party, the Press is free. Logical, isn’t it ?

He, and his colleagues, will also ignore the fact that Reporters without border just ranked Italy 49th out of 173 countries in its 2009 Press Freedom index ( http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html ) . After Ghana (27th), Mali (30th), Namibia (35th), Guyana (39th), Surinam (42nd) and Cape Verde (44th) among others !.

It is worth quoting here their assessment of the situation :

“Journalists investigating mafia and gangland activities, particularly in the south, do it at risk of their lives. Around a score of them, including Roberto Saviano, Lirio Abbate, Rosanna Capacchione and others still live under police protection. One phenomenon affecting the world of sport is the rise of threats against journalists specialising in football from groups of violent supporters often expressed by chanting and banners inside the football stadiums.

The Italian press can fall victim to a range of reprisals involving torching of cars and doors of their homes, threatening letters and intimidation of their families, all in the guise of “advice” given to those who persist in exposing what has gone wrong in Italian society. The grip of mafia groups on the media has become so threatening that in 2009 these groups were added to Reporters Without Borders’ list of press freedom predators.

In an anomalous situation within the European Union, prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi still controls the three channels of public RAI television as well as the leading privately owned radio and television group Mediaset, increasing political interference in their editorial lines and fostering self-censorship on the part of a section of the profession. Television which remains the main source of news for 80% of the population also attracts the lion’s share of national advertising revenue. The law promulgated by the Italian communications minister Maurizio Gasparri removed all limits on the distribution of advertising revenue, opening the door to an often massive “reorientation” in favour national television channels, particularly those belonging to the Berlusconi family.

Other recurrent problems remain, such as recruitment to the profession which is still extremely rule-bound. Those wishing to enter journalism have to pass a competitive exam and must become members of a professional body. Defamation remains a crime and the right of access to public or private information is not in practice respected.

The draft law on the publication of legal steps, which is currently under debate, contains serious threats for investigative journalism, proposing among other things a ban on publishing phone-tapping ordered by a prosecutor, until the completion of an investigation. The publication ban also applies to the work of investigative commissions. Once the draft law was adopted, journalists would from then on be unable to inform the public about any arrests, seizures or searches ordered by judges. Publication of steps, conversations or communications - the destruction of which had been ordered by a prosecutor - would still remain banned. A journalist or media violating this secrecy would face a prison sentence or very heavy fines and a three-month ban on exercising their profession.” (©Reporter swithout borders, 2009).

This is not just a ranking, it is the confirmation that Italy is sinking in a sort of dictatorship world politicians decided to ignore.


Image: © Reporters without Borders 2009

APPEAL FOR PRESS FREEDOM IN ITALY

The following appeal by three eminent jurists has been signed by almost 310,000 people, including artists, Nobel prize winners, writers and politicians from many countries. A demonstration for the freedom of press will be held in Romw on 19 September. The link for you to sign can be found at the bottom of this post

The libel action against “Repubblica” is the last in a long list of attacks against this daily which can only be seen as attempts at silencing the free press, at benumbing public opinion, at removing us from the international information scene and ultimately at making our Country the exception to the rule of Democracy.

The questions addressed to our Prime Minister are real questions that have prompted people’s interest not only in Italy but also in the media across the world. If they are considered to be “rhetorical” questions that suggest answers that displease the person to whom they are addressed, then there is only one and very easy way of responding: the reaction should certainly not be that of silencing the people who ask those questions.

The response instead is that of intimidating those who exercise the right and duty of “seeking, receiving and imparting information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, as stated in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved by the Assembly of Nations when memory was still very much alive of the way information degenerated into propaganda under the illiberal and antidemocratic regimes of the 20th century.

What is astonishing and worrying is that not only are these initiatives not unanimously stigmatized, but they are not even reported by the media, and that furthermore there are jurists who are even willing to give them legal form, utterly dismissing the harm this will cause to the very seriousness and credibility of the Law.



http://temi.repubblica.it/repubblicaspeciale-repubblicaspeciale-ten-new-questions-to-silvio-berlusconi/2009/08/28/appeal-by-three-jurists/