in Italy, the leaders of public television suspected of directing the channel’s content

Rai is in turmoil in Italy after yet another controversy last weekend, following the cancellation of the visit of an author critical of Georgia Meloni.

In Italy, Rai is experiencing a period of great turbulence. On Saturday April 20 evening, the writer Antonio Scurati, author of a series of reference books on Mussolini, was censored on Channel 3. His participation in a program, a few days before the anniversary of the Liberation of Italy, was canceled.

The affair is becoming so serious that on Sunday, on the television news, a union press release was read by the presenter: “The control of Rai leaders over public service information is becoming more suffocating every day.” Saturday evening, on the show Che will be on the third channel, Antonio Scurati was to denounce Giorgia Meloni’s refusal to clearly distance herself from fascism.

An internal investigation is underway

Rai puts forward an economic explanation for the cancellation: Scurati would have asked for 1,800 euros to participate in the show, which he did not deny. On the other hand, the Italian press published an internal company email which gives editorial reasons for the cancellation. The possible big check would therefore only be an excuse. Was there a burst of zeal from a middle manager? The Rai management argues that the writer’s participation was announced in an official press release and that an internal investigation is underway. “to see if any mistakes have been made.”

To add to the picture, on this same broadcast, the deputy director of news programs on the 1^e Rai news channel was participating in a debate on abortion and said: “We are confusing a right with a crime. Abortion is homicide.”

Not the first controversy

“This is Meloni’s Rai”, comments the Democratic Party on the left. To try to put out the fire in the Scurati case, Giorgia Meloni reproduced on her Facebook page the text of the writer’s planned intervention. A way of saying that there is no censorship. But that is not enough because this controversy is far from being the first at Rai.

Georgia Meloni, after her election, began by appointing close friends to head the company. It is a classic in Italy but she combined this with a desire to set up a new narrative, believing that the left benefited from hegemony in the cultural world. There are regular reports, a hierarchy, invitations considered very biased and in recent months, several stars have left the ship to join the private sector.