The initiative will start in June in Pescara
Anci Abruzzo, Order of Journalists of Abruzzo and Union of Journalists of Abruzzo, following a discussion which started from the document of the same Association of Italian Municipalities on the publishing crisis and on the serious dispute that is affecting the newspaper Il Centro , shared the desire to convene the States General of Information in Pescara during the last week of June. Among the issues on the table is the absence of a regional law on publishing, necessary to promote and support pluralism and to provide the world of information with the tools to overcome the current crisis.
The maintenance of the information system is in fact decisive for the defense of the democratic principles of the country and, today more than ever, it is necessary to become aware of the impoverishment of the sources of information that Abruzzo has experienced and is experiencing, between closures of editorial offices and newspapers, even unexpected ones. An impoverishment which is accompanied by increasingly rampant precariousness.
The journalistic profession, especially in recent years, has faced profound changes linked to numerous factors. Changes to which publishing companies have responded mainly with cuts and closures and which, together with artificial intelligence, if not adequately governed, risk having even more negative effects in the near future than what has happened to date. This, both in employment terms and with respect to the quality and correctness of information.
“The question of the right-duty to information concerns us all – underline the President of Anci Abruzzo Gianguido D’Alberto, the President of the Order of Journalists of Abruzzo Stefano Pallotta and the SGA Secretary Ezio Cerasi – and this is why we have shared the need to launch the States General of Information, involving institutions, political forces and civil society in what is a real battle of civilization and freedom”.
The serious dispute that the journalists of the newspaper Il Centro are facing is symptomatic of the publishing situation in Abruzzo and in the country.
“Despite the crisis that the sector has been experiencing for some time now, the ever-increasing workloads, the closure of editorial offices and the staff reduced to a bare minimum – continue D’Alberto, Pallotta and Cerasi – the editors and collaborators of the Center have continued, between a thousand difficulties in describing Abruzzo, representing one of the pillars of information in our Region. A dispute that must be addressed and which confirms the need, which can no longer be postponed, to bring together institutions, order, trade unions and civil society, in order to all undertake together a path aimed at defending the Abruzzo information system and, consequently, the right- duty of citizens to provide correct information. Information which, we must reiterate forcefully, can only be guaranteed by recognizing the role of journalists, guaranteeing the plurality of information sources and their freedom from any conditioning”. The objective of the States General is to arrive at a shared document that represents the basis for working together with the Regional Council, as first actions, on the definition of a new regional law on publishing, tools and measures to support the exercise of the functions associated in matters of institutional communication, in addition to interventions to support the information system in the internal areas and small municipalities of our region.
