«Orbanisation»: orbanization. In Reporters Without Borders’ analysis of press freedom in the world, published yesterday, the European Union is called upon to confront the political class’s attempt to increasingly reduce the space for action for independent journalism. And the yardstick taken by the NGO for Europe is Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, where “public broadcasting has been transformed into a propaganda machine” and “several private media have been silenced”. Result: “Thanks to the takeover of the media by oligarchs with close ties to Fidesz, the ruling party, the latter now controls 80% of the country’s media.”
HUNGARY, which occupies 67th place (out of 180) in the ranking led by three European countries (Norway, Denmark and Sweden), sees Italy coming closer, which drops five positions, from 41st to 46th place, thus becoming the worst country of “Western” Europe for freedom of the press, ending up in the middle of the “Orbán zone”. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, RSF underlined how “some political groups fuel hatred and distrust towards journalists by insulting, discrediting and threatening them” while others “are orchestrating a takeover of the media ecosystem, both through state-owned media under their control, or through privately owned media purchased by allied businessmen.”
THIS IS THE CASE, specifically cited in the report, from Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, «where a member of the parliamentary coalition in power is trying to acquire Agi». The reference is to the attempt by Antonio Angelucci, a healthcare entrepreneur and former owner of Free, The newspaper And The weather and, above all, deputy of the League to take over from Eni – of which the state is the main shareholder through the Mef (4.7%) and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (28.5%) – “the second largest news agency” .
IN THIS SCENARIO, even if «the majority of Italian journalists enjoy a climate of freedom», they sometimes «give in to self-censorship, both to conform to the editorial line of their newspaper and to avoid a defamation lawsuit or other forms of legal action ». All aggravated, for crime and judicial journalists, «by the “gag law” supported by the government coalition of Prime Minister Meloni, which prohibits the publication of a precautionary custody order until the end of the preliminary hearing».
ITALY thus it went from yellow to orange, from a country where the situation for journalists is “rather good” to “problematic”, and is in the company of Hungary (67), Malta (73) and Greece (88), the three worst states in Europe. And it is precisely the Greek case that should further worry the EU. Here “a few entrepreneurs run the vast majority of the media, despite being involved in other highly regulated business sectors” and some of them “have close ties to the country’s political elite”. Furthermore, the government spokesperson “is responsible for supervising the public media, which endangers their editorial independence.” Finally, RSF underlines how the Greek Intelligence Service (EYP), led by the prime minister, «was involved in the surveillance of journalists, many of whom were targeted by “Predator”», a highly invasive spyware program that once infiltrated in a device has access to the microphone, camera and all data without the user knowing.
THE RISK for “eastern” Europe (plus Italy) it means sliding more and more towards the red zone of the RSF index, permanently occupied by the majority of Asian countries, some from Latin America (Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua and Cuba) and the states of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Above all, the real danger is that of seeing a Europe increasingly under what is defined as “the toxic influence of the Kremlin”, in a slow process of Orbanisation.
AS HE REPORTED Anne Bocandé, editorial director of RSF, «while more than half of the world’s population will go to the polls in 2024, states and political forces are playing an increasingly smaller role in protecting press freedom, undermining the role of journalists or even exploiting the media through disinformation campaigns”.
