Massimo Troisi as Ghali in Sanremo, VIDEO

A video from 1981 appears in which Massimo Troisi talks about Rai “censorship” in Sanremo: him like Ghali at the 2024 Festival.

For a few months now, many have been questioning the credibility of the Raiand the reason is Rai itself: the chain of events that followed the “stop the genocide” of Ghali at Sanremo 2024 triggered a controversy that continues to this day. And there are those who even talk about censorshipso much so as to bring to light old episodes that would confirm this modus operandi: the same thing happened to Massimo Troisi.

The controversy after Ghali’s “stop the genocide” in Sanremo

Sanremo 2024 was supposed to be Rai’s stellar show, the great success of Amadeus in his last Festival, and instead… he did more damage than good. To remind us, perhaps, that too much is a good thing: the latest Amadeus Festival, apparently increasingly determined to abandon ship, will be remembered not only for John Travolta’s Ballo del Qua Qua, but also for the enormous media fuss triggered by the statements of Ghali on the Ariston stage, which Rai apparently felt the need to “contain”.

Let’s go over the facts: Ghali, on the Sanremo stage, asks “stop at genocide”. Not anything new from the singer, especially in this edition: his song was actually about peace.

His statement, however, does not please the Israeli ambassador to Italy Alon Barwhose disappointment leads Rai to take action: CEO Roberto Sergio has Mara Venier deliver, live on Domenica In, a communicated in which he declares Rai’s support for Israel, forgetting even the existence of Palestine.

At that point, the viewers go into a rage, and the protests they continue for weeks. Rai has been accused of censorship, and apparently this is not an isolated case.

Does Rai censor? The same happened to Massimo Troisi

Supporters of the theory of censorship on Rai’s part they simply dig for other examples that support their accusations, and finding them is not that complicated: on several occasions the national television network has been accused by the artists themselves of having “given indications” on what to say or not say, and which topics were best avoided.

Now a video emerges that would demonstrate that something similar also happened in 1981 to Massimo Troisi: invited as a guest to Sanremo, the actor was supposed to perform a monologue.

The themes he intended to cover, however, were judged as “too strong” by Rai, which provided him with them directions precise about what not to say, as well as asking him not to improvise: “they told me to do everything except talk about religion, politics, terrorism, earthquake”, the actor tells a journalist. And then he jokes: “so I’m undecided between a poem by Giovanni Pascoli and Carducci”.

Troisi, as expected, didn’t want it bend over to these limitations, and left the Festival before the live broadcast. 43 years later, the situation in Sanremo and Rai does not seem to have changed: in 2024, we can really still talk about censorship?