Scurati case, the director of Rai Rossi and the investigation: «No censorship, no to surreal reconstructions»

No censorship in Rai. Enough with the aggression. The general director of the public radio and television company Giampaolo Rossi takes the field personally on the issue of Antonio Scurati’s monologue, which was not broadcast on Rai3. And it’s not usual. But the manager, with the note issued in the afternoon, seems to want to clarify two points.

The first is that no conclusions regarding the Scurati affair should be drawn before the investigation that Rai has started is brought to an end. «In these hours – he writes – in which unlikely news and surreal reconstructions follow one anotherI find myself forced to intervene to try to brake yet another attempt at aggression against Rai». And he continues: «An investigation is underway to verify whether there have been errors relating to the non-participation of the writer Scurati in the program “Chesarà…” by Serena Bortone, participation which was foreseen in the official press release released the evening before the episode in question.” This last step, which is already a conclusion: the program, we read between the lines, had not been cancelled.

«The sense of responsibility – continues Rossi – would require us to wait for the end of the investigation before indulging in comments or conclusions that risk being mere media fuss, as on other occasions in the past».

The second point that Rossi wants to clarify is even more delicate and concerns the own role in the story, given the rumors that have emerged regarding his telephone conversation with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the Scurati affair. «I would like to underline – she states – that the General Director of Corporate has no competence over editorial aspects (which also includes the choice of guests in the programmes). At the same time, I am obliged to remember that the narrative of a censoring Rai is completely baseless.” It is in fact a denial of the rumors but also a defense of the company’s actions carried out in this year in which Rai was governed by a board of directors with a right-wing majority.

For Rossi, today «the schedule and programming of the public service demonstrate pluralism, variety of points of view, visions and cultures, aimed at guaranteeing the greatest possible heterogeneity of stories». The CEO claims the work done «while yet another instrumental attack» on Rai rages on competing newspapers and televisions: from the new industrial plan with the expected transformation of the company into a “digital media company”, to the «approval of the budget by the Board of Directors, with a strengthening of the economic fundamentals”. A job, concludes Rossi, “of which there is obviously no trace in the debate around the company”.
At this point all that remains is to wait for the results of the investigation.

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April 22, 2024 (modified April 22, 2024 | 6:58 pm)

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