Journalists at Italy’s RAI strike in protest at Meloni’s government
Al Jazeera
The broadcaster RAI has denied censorship claims and said it is transforming into ‘a modern digital media company’.
Journalists at Italian public broadcaster RAI have staged a one-day strike, accusing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government of stifling free speech.
The journalists’ union Usigrai says the situation has worsened since Meloni took office in late 2022.
“We prefer to lose one or more days of pay than to lose our freedom,” Usigrai, the trade union representing around 1,600 of RAI’s 2,000 journalists, said in a video defending the 24-hour walkout on Monday.
Usigrai highlighted staffing issues, saying retiring employees are not being replaced while some journalists are left to languish on temporary contracts.
“We have always fought against every effort to gag freedom of speech, but I want to make it plain that what has been happening in recent months is unprecedented,” Vittorio di Trapani, a RAI journalist and head of the Italian National Press Federation (FNSI) told the news agency Reuters.
