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An Italian journalists' union has called for political parties to be "eliminated from Rai" as public television journalists went on strike in protest against the "suffocating control" they say Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government is exerting over them.
The ruling coalition has been accused of influencing programming, including censoring topics that are not in line with the government's stance.
The strike came amid a growing debate in Italy about political influence in the media after Rai was accused of censoring an anti-fascist monologue to be read on one of his TV shows by high-profile author Antonio Scurati.
"This strike has an aspect related to the independence and autonomy of journalists," Daniele Macheda, the president of Usigrai, the main union representing Rai journalists, told media in Rome.
Since 2005, most of Rai's board has been elected by politicians and its main shareholder, the economy ministry, as part of a law that was strengthened by Matteo Renzi's center-left government in 2015.
"We have always said that the presence of political parties in Rai should be eliminated," Macheda added . "We went from 2005 to 2015, when Renzi's law put control of Rai in the direct hands of the government," he added.
While political influence and gamesmanship has always been an issue in Rai, concerns have intensified since the coalition government led by Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia, a party with neo-fascist origins, took power in October 2022.
Scurati was due to read the monologue marking the April 25 national holiday, which celebrates Italy's liberation from fascism, on the Rai 3 Chesarà talk show. But a few hours before the show started, he received a notice telling him that his appearance had been canceled "for editorial reasons".
Scurati is known in Italy for his books about the dictator Benito Mussolini and the Fascist period. His speech referred to Giacomo Matteotti, a political opponent of Mussolini who was killed by fascist assassins in 1924, and other massacres carried out by the regime. It also contained a paragraph criticizing Italy's "post-fascist" leaders for not "refuting their neo-fascist past".
Her government has also been accused of firing Rai managers or TV executives with left-wing views.
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