The confession of Franco Di Mare at Che tempo che fa provokes not only demonstrations of affection and closeness, but also indignation towards Rai managers for his behavior after learning of his illness.
“Repugnant”, the journalist defined it bluntly. Today Viale Mazzini clarified that CEO Roberto Sergio and CEO Giampaolo Rossi only became aware last night of the incident in which the host was the victim, to whom “they express all their human closeness and assure their willingness to do everything possible to allow the journalist to reconstruct what he requested”. Di Mare explained that he fell ill with mesothelioma, a tumor caused by breathing in asbestos particles.
“I spent a long time in the Balkans, among depleted uranium bullets capable of knocking down a building – he said in an interview with Corriere della Sera -. Each explosion released infinite asbestos particles into the air. One was enough. Six thousand times lighter than a hair. Maybe I met her in Sarajevo, in July 1992, my first mission. Or the last one, in 2000, who knows, but I had breathed death last even 30 years. Here we are.”
Just under four years ago he was diagnosed, followed by the worsening which now forces him to constantly use an artificial respirator. In the meantime, the repeated requests to have the service record from the company, i.e. the list of missions carried out to obtain the compensation required by law. The journalist said he had sent at least ten emails, from the CEO to the head of personnel, without receiving any response. He also talks about it in his new book ‘Le parole per dirlo’, out tomorrow with Sem.
“I must admit, however, that I struggle to hide the revulsion, the horror caused by the behavior of the top management, all those who have succeeded one another in the last four years, who have literally disappeared. General managers, CEOs, heads of personnel. Liquefied – he writes – I don’t understand the reason. It could be a professional strategy, the method of which I don’t agree with, but which perhaps fits into the dynamics of trade union conflict human relationships, which should always be a beacon of our behaviour”.
In recent years they have succeeded each other as CEO Fabrizio Salini and Carlo Fuortes, before Sergio’s arrival. Di Mare asks the company for the necessary documents to verify the relationship between the disease and the professional activity carried out, which must be ascertained by INAIL. In 2021 the journalist, already director of the third network, retired, but continued to host the Frontiere program on Rai3 until May last year. “Your complaint about how Rai left you alone is without appeal. Your bitterness is our bitterness”, underlines Sandro Ruotolo, his colleague and now information manager of the Democratic Party. Also increasing the indignation of Di Mare, who will be a guest on diMartedì on La7 on Tuesday, is the consideration that the RAI headquarters in Viale Mazzini is full of asbestos.
In the last book, which defines his will, he talks about the dangers of particles for health, delving into the topic of the Balkan Syndrome. Together with the reflections, the power of the story, nourished by the events he witnessed in the field in the many years as a correspondent: events that marked him and now echo in the battle against the evil within him.
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