Today is “strike day” for Rai journalists

Monday 6 May is a strike for Rai journalists: from the Foreign Press Association, the Usigrai journalists explain the reasons for the protest

BOLOGNA – The “Scurati case” is just one of the attempts at censorship against which Rai journalists (registered with Usigrai) are protesting. A few days after World Press Freedom Day, and after many years, public service broadcasting journalists today, Monday 6 May, are on strike until 5am tomorrow morning. To explain their reasons, a press conference was held at the headquarters of the Foreign Press Association in Rome, attended by the presenter of “Chesarà” Serena Bortone, the presenter of “Report” Sigfrido Ranucci , the president of the Fnsi Vittorio Di Trapani and the secretary of the Usigrai Daniele Macheda. It was the latter who clarified that the reasons for the protest were different. First of all, “the reasons for the strike are of an industrial nature”, specifies Macheda. “For example, we didn’t find a line on information in the industrial plan – he explains – only to later discover that they wanted to merge the newspapers without discussing it with the union”. Secretary Usigrai then underlines that there is an aspect relating to the independence and autonomy of journalists: “Things have happened that do not give us hope in this time”. It then reviews episodes similar to the Scurati case, i.e. when, last April 25, the monologue of the writer Antonio Scurati in the Rai 3 broadcast ‘CheSarà’ was cancelled: since the disappearance from Rai News 24 of the intervention of the chief prosecutor of Naples Nicola Gratteri, in favor of aptitude tests also for politicians, to the company’s silence on the accusation of lynching that Giorgia Meloni would have launched at the Report investigation into the costs of migrant camps in Albania. Despite the strike, the main editions of Tg1 and Tg2 are still broadcast: “We will verify that there have been no union violations – Macheda says – we know that it is an attempt that the company is making We will see how many colleagues have joined the strike.” Finally: “Ours is not a left-wing union – he points out – our position is always the same: ‘Get the parties out of RAI'”.

In her speech Serena Bertone therefore retraces the case that concerned her broadcast: “What happened that Friday afternoon in the editorial office of ‘Che will be’, I, in 35 years of work had not seen never in my entire working life“, he laments. “I’m very sorry – she adds – for two weeks the managers, my superiors, should have offered a public reconstruction of what happened and taken action but I’ve been waiting for two weeks”.