The Cdr of the flagship Rai newspaper: “Four minutes of freewheeling, violating the fundamental principles of our profession”.
In the interview given yesterday at 8 p.m. on Tg1, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini once again attacked “a small part” of the judiciary which “uses the court as a social center”. Vigorously defending his position in the trial of the Open Arms affair, in which he is accused of kidnapping and refusal of official documents, but also the agreement with Albania which saw the return yesterday of the first 12 migrants sent in Albania following the controversial decision of the Court of Rome on safe (and unsafe) countries. Even towards these unfortunate people, Egyptians and Bangladeshis, who had just landed in Bari “under the shock” of the affair, the deputy prime minister was very severe: “If one of these 12 committed a crime tomorrow, stole, raped, killed someone, who would pay the price? ” consequences ? The magistrate who brought them back to Italy?” Thus, the river intervention according to the standards of a television news (more than four minutes) is now a coincidence. This morning the Editorial Committee (Cdr) of Tg1 intervened with a very critical note. “We believe that more than four minutes of interview with Minister Salvini undermined one of the principles that underpins our profession: the equidistance between the subjects that we are called to deal with.”
Rai journalists: “The public service becomes the mouthpiece of the parties”
“Public service information must always be impartial and never be perceived as belonging to a single party. We hope that, taking into account the December judgment, the same space will be granted to the civil parties”, continues the press release. The position of the Tg1 Cdr is supported by Usigrai, the historic union of the Rai editorial staff of which are members approximately 70% of the journalists of the national channel. “Once again – we read in the press release published by Usigrai – the public service becomes the mouthpiece of the parties. This live intervention by the minister is not. information, but propaganda It is clear that the government and in particular the party of the Minister of Infrastructure do not reject an authoritarian and independent RAI.
Unirai: “Tg1 is impartial”
The position of Unirai, a minority trade union association – which has around 300 members out of 2 thousand journalists from Rai – born in 2023 and often close to government positions, is different: “The disease is growing in the editorial staff of Tg1 due to the attacks coming from politics which claims to dictate summaries and schedules to the Civil Service.” “The first Italian newspaper, respecting the principles of pluralism and completeness of information, interviewed, on the day of the controversial interview with Salvini, the former prosecutor Caselli, the day before the president of the ANM Santalucia – continues the note -. Anyone who publishes an unbalanced and biased newspaper is quickly contradicted by the figures. Agcom and the Pavia Observatory have demonstrated that for more than a year, Tg1 has stood out for its absolute balance between all parties. And regarding the space reserved for the main opposition party, it is unprecedented in the history of the same newspaper,” we can read in the association’s press release.
Schlein attack: “Delusional gathering on Tg1”
“Continue the propaganda, fuel a serious institutional conflict and throw away the Italians' money,” is the harsh attack from Democratic Party Secretary Elly Schlein. The leader of the movement, interviewed by Niccolò Carratelli and Paolo Festuccia on The press today, we are talking about a “delusional rally against the judges of Tg1”, symbol of a “Rai degraded as a spokesperson for the government which wants to dismantle the separation of powers”. Regarding the case of migrants in Albania, the Democratic secretary said: “I think that if a government wants to circumvent European rules and sanctions, it can only decide to leave the European Union.”
