Trapani seen from above (Photo: Myke Bryan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Press offices 25 June 2024
More than two years after the publication of the final selection ranking, and having received news of the administration’s intentions to provide itself with a spokesperson, on 20 June 2024 the regional union wrote to the mayor highlighting the differences that distinguish the two figures and reiterating the determination “to defend the dignity of journalistic work”.
Over two years after the publication of the final ranking of the competition for the post of ‘public journalist specialist in media relations’, announced in December 2020, the Municipality of Trapani has not yet released the winner into service. In the meantime, according to what is known to Assostampa Trapani and the press office group of the Sicilian journalists’ union, it seems “it is the intention of the Administration, as informally announced by a member of the municipal council, to equip itself with a spokesperson for the mayor”, thus evading the insolvency proceedings.
For this reason, on Thursday 20 June 2024 the regional secretary of the Sicilian Press Association, Giuseppe Rizzuto, and the president of Gus Sicilia, Viro Orlando, sent a warning to the mayor and the general secretary of the Municipality asking for the winner to be put into service of the competition.
«The failure to hire – recalls Assostampa – was justified because the accounting and budgetary tools of the organization were missing from the 2020 final balance onwards», just a year after the policy act of March 2019 which committed the administration «to equipping itself of a press office to be entrusted to a journalist registered with the Order and chosen through normal procedures”.
After the approval of the latest three-year budget forecast by the city council on 12 June, the Personnel Councilor announced the restart of hiring. However, without “any mention of the public journalist”, the regional union notes in the letter, which recalls the directive of the regional department for Local Autonomy regarding ‘Information and communication activities in the Public Administration’, reiterates the differences that distinguish the roles of press officer and spokesperson, also recalling that the latter, «who is not required by law to be registered with the Order of Journalists, cannot therefore, under any circumstances, carry out the functions required by law for the press office».
Hence the invitation to immediately put the winner of the public journalist competition into service, according to the order of the final ranking. “Otherwise this union, determined to defend the dignity of journalistic work, will proceed to act in the competent bodies”, concludes Assostampa.
