Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has written to the president of the European Commission to complain about “misinformation” in the annual report on the rule of law in the EU regarding Italy. According to the far-right leader, the recommendations on the rule of law addressed to Italy have been “distorted” for “political use by some” in an “attempt to attack the Italian government.”
In the document that is delivered annually, some concerns are mentioned regarding the rule of law in Italy, in particular due to cases of intimidation of journalists by politicians, the lack of protection of professional confidentiality and sources, as well as political interference in the public media, namely Rai Italia. Now Giorgia Meloni has come out to reject these accusations.
The letter states that some media articles on the Italian parts of the report were “clumsy and misleading attacks that can only happen in the gloomy context of the recurring use of fake news that increasingly pollutes the debate in Europe.” “It is a shame that even the Commission’s report on the rule of law and, in particular, on freedom of information in public service broadcasting has not been separated by specialists from disinformation and ambiguity,” Meloni wrote in the letter known on Sunday.
The Italian Prime Minister also rejected accusations of political interference in RAI: “The current members of the RAI Board of Directors were appointed in the last legislature by a majority, including [coligação] The Irmaus d’Italia (FdI) was not part of it, so it is difficult to understand how this government could be accused of alleged interference in the political management of the RAI.
The concerns highlighted in the report come shortly after RAI journalists went on a general strike against government attempts to control the company’s editorial content.
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