“We are disappointed because we did not meet any of the government representatives.” The European Media Freedom Rapid Response Consortium, on a mission to Italy following dozens of alerts on the lack of press freedom received in the first months of the year, had asked «to be received by the Minister of Justice and/or Deputy Minister Sisto, by the president of the Senate Justice Commission Bongiorno and by all the group leaders of the same commission. And we also asked this – the researchers reported at the conclusion of the mission – to the Undersecretary for Publishing Barachini and to several parliamentarians who took part in the debates on the Media freedom act”.
Yesterday, at the end of the EU mission, the group of researchers reported which institutions accepted the meeting and explained some recommendations on the protection of freedom of information: decriminalizing the crime of defamation, implementing European indications, starting with that which concerns procedures for appointing the Rai Board of Directors, resolving conflicts of interest, including the Agi case.
The EU envoys reported having met with Agcom, even if “the meeting on electoral equality was very disappointing”. «We instead spoke with the president of the Floridia Supervision, with Ilaria Cucchi, vice-president of the Justice Commission with whom we discussed the Balboni bill on defamation. And then we saw Grippo di Azione, the media representative at the Council of Europe Mazzella and the representatives of Usigrai”, summarizes David Diaz Jogeix.
«We are a little disappointed not to have had a meeting with the government: for us it is important to have a constructive dialogue, this is our mission – explains Renate Schroeder, director of the International Federation of Journalists – We are not here to just say that there are things that don’t work, we want to improve things especially now that there are laws on the Media Freedom Act and the anti-slapp directive.”
But, going into the Italian merits, according to Schroeder “the defamation reform does not comply with European standards”. For this reason, he underlines, “a discussion on this topic was urgent”. And even more important was to discuss article 5 of the Media Freedom Act which «guarantees the independence of public radio and TV and the election of the board in a transparent and proportional way». Which «is not happening and we know it. But change is an opportunity”, insists the researcher.
The proposal is to call «a sort of States General with professionals, independent experts and parties to carry out this reform. It will be very difficult, we know it, but European law helps us. We came here – concludes Schroeder – to express our concern but we cannot do more: we still have another year to change the law”.
