Corecom Toscana Balance Sheet: One Year of Activity
Corecom Toscana Balance Sheet: from Corecom tour which has made it possible to publicise the functions of the Regional Committee in the Tuscan provinces, to resolve disputes, which has allowed over 800 thousand euros to be returned to citizens and businesses in Tuscany.
From the digital license for schools, which has become a best practice at a national level, to the supervision of equal conditions.
The actions carried out in the world of telecommunications and in the local media system by Corecom of Tuscany are different and significant one year after the establishment of the new committee, of which it is president Marco Meacciwhich occurred on June 29, 2023.
Corecom, the Region’s consultancy and management body on communication matters, functional body of the Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM); it also carries out investigative tasks on behalf of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy. LR 22/2002 in Title IV regulates its organization and functioning.
The first balance of the activity was illustrated in the Sassoli Media Center of Palazzo del Pegaso where the President of the Regional Council of Tuscany spoke Antonio Mazzeo and the president of the Culture Commission Cristina Giachi.
President Mazzeo thanked President Meacci and all the members of Corecom “for the important work carried out to protect Tuscan citizens” recalling both the ordinary activities linked to disputes and projects such as the digital driving license in schools. “The Corecom is a flagship of our institutional activities. Our goal is to ensure that every single citizen, from those who live in the largest municipality to those who live in the smallest village, can have access to the same rights. And Corecom’s work is going in this direction, as demonstrated by the choice to go to all the territories of our region to make its activities known, an unusual commitment that gives the sense of deep roots and the desire to listen and deal with everyone.”
“The new committee has worked in a choral manner and with unity of purpose,” the president began. Meacci underlining a positive relationship both with the Culture Commission and with the Regional Council “which has approved the latest acts of the Corecom always unanimously”.
“The first challenge was to make Corecom known throughout Tuscany – Meacci explained –. For this purpose, in October 2023, we inaugurated the Corecom Toura trip to the 10 Tuscan provinces in collaboration with the UPI which allowed us to come into contact with many realities, not only information operators, but also institutions, schools, associations, businesses”.
Meacci then highlighted the commitment in the last two months to the supervision and control activity on equal conditions in the electoral campaign for the European and administrative elections of June 8 and 9 in which 17 television stations, 9 radio stations and 78 political entities were involved in the broadcasting of free self-managed messages. “As regards institutional communication, there have been spontaneous adjustments by the Administrations, therefore a collaborative relationship”, he stated.
The activity of Telephone dispute resolution: over the last year, 4,475 conciliation requests were presented and 4,478 were closed. The agreements reached were over 83 percent. As regards the requests for settlement, those presented over the last year were 518 while those closed were 742. Furthermore, the numbers speak of over 90 percent of reactivations of the interrupted line and approximately 820 thousand euros returned to citizens and businesses. “On conciliations we will host a national conference organized together with Ag-com in the autumn and we will return to the territories with a sort of Conciliaweb tour”, said Meacci.
On the digital education front, the project of the Digital license in Tuscan middle schools which trained almost a thousand students from 25 classes on the skills needed to use the internet and social media. The project was chosen by Agcom as best practice at national level. Furthermore, as part of a study for the European Communications Regulatory Group (ERGA), the Authority proposed the patentino as a “case study visit” for Italy. The first Patentino Day was held in Florence on 4 December 2023.
Again, the numerous awards for good communication were remembered: “Tuscany In Spot”, “Tuscany that does good” with Cesvot dedicated to the best social communication, the award for Best Communication Thesis in Tuscany and the “Tuscan Communicator of the Year” (in 2023, six Tuscan journalists sent to conflict zones were awarded, bearing witness to reality in dangerous and complicated contexts, such as Ukraine and the Middle East).
“We are very satisfied with the work done by Corecom this year – stated the president of the Culture Commission of the Regional Council, Cristina Giachi – who interpreted the needs that emerged during the reflection in the Commission on the importance of making Tuscan citizens better aware of their rights in the field of communication and information”. Giachi underlined how “the strenuous work of media education for the youngest thanks to the collaboration with the Istituto degli Innocenti and the one on the management of disputes in the telecommunications field”. “The award to Tuscan communicators is also important because it allows us to give younger citizens models. Learning to communicate and to do it responsibly is fundamental and teaching how to do it is a task that institutions must feel is their own. Corecom has shown that it does so with great care, attention and a sense of its role”.
As for the next projects: in December 2024 the second edition of the “Patentino Day” and in 2025 the presentation of the survey entrusted to Irpet on information operators in Tuscany and the great event of the General States of Information in Tuscany.
At the presentation of the Corecom Toscana budget all the members of the Corecom of Tuscany, Benedetta Baldi, Carlotta Agostini, Biagio Depresbiteris, Bianca Maria Giocoli, the vice-president of the Culture commission Luciana Bartolini and the councilor Vincenzo Ceccarelli.
