Rai journalists strike over ‘suffocating control’ by Meloni’s government
GuardianMay 04
Italy: Journalists Strike Against Alleged Govt. Censorship
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The Facts
Journalists from RAI, Italy's public broadcaster, went on a 24-hour strike on Monday to protest budget cuts and alleged repression by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government.
Usigrai, the union representing 1.6K of RAI's 2K journalists, defended the strike, calling the situation "unprecedented" and accusing Meloni's right-wing government of stifling free speech.
The Spin
Left narrative
Meloni's government has been censoring speech since it took power in 2022, and RAI journalists are striking to sound the alarm on Italy's eroding press freedom. Meloni has done little to distance herself from her party's fascist roots, and has even demonstrated her own fascistic tendencies by shutting down a monologue by an antifascist author. The Italian right seeks to seize media control, and journalists are standing up to this overreach.
Right narrative
Left-wing activists at RAI are engaging in a political protest against Italy's democratically elected government, showing how little they know about threats to press freedom. For decades, RAI was run by officials hand-picked by liberal governments, and ignored right-of-center Italians. Now, liberal journalists are protesting the fact that there's conservative representation. There's no media suppression at RAI — it's just a movement towards an even distribution of opinions.