What You Can Do in the USA
I came across this little jewel of political satire whilst stumbling along using StumbleUpon.
Somehow, I don’t think a video like this would last too long in Italy’s sensitive political environment.
On the subject of political comment, there is an interesting story over on Beppe Grillo’s blog concerning what happens if the press tries to be a little too free in Italy. The story is called The blog and freedom of information
Moral of the story: Italian political bloggers and journalists should not host their blogs in Italy, or use the ‘.it’ domain.
StumbleUpon has an uncanny knack of helping me discover interesting corners of the world wide web. If you have not tried it, I’d recommend giving it a go.
Bullet in the Post? Not Yet.
In Italy, one of the signs that you are ‘getting too close’ or ‘are stepping on toes’ is the old anonymous letter with a bullet in it. Stories of such happenings, whilst not common, do crop up in the news here from time to time.
So far, this blogger, who ‘translates’ Italian news into English, has not attracted unwanted attention, and, I’m pleased to say, no bullets have been mailed to me in the form of a dire warning as to the consequences of continuing my actions.
Yes, I guess writing this makes me a little paranoid, but things such as this do happen here, and what I write about may not be appreciated in some circles, possibly. However, the fact that I’m writing about this means that the thought has crossed my mind. I examined some related issues in an post entitled ‘The Dangerous Heart of Italy‘ a while back.
Don’t worry though, nothing has happened to make me worried!
If, though, you find that Blog from Italy suddenly stops, or it looks as though little old me is not behind things, well, you may have an idea as to what has happened!
Just call me ‘danger blogger’, not.
Is Press Freedom about to be Limited in Italy?
Not too long ago, in fact just after Berlusconi won the elections, I spoke to a journalist who works for a major Italian newspaper, and this journalist told me that he and many of his colleagues were worrying about clamp downs on press freedom in Italy.
Well, it’s looking as though this hack’s fears were well grounded, and just recently an Italian TV presenter who runs an political chat show called Anno Zero has been accused of bringing the Italian national broadcaster RAI into disrepute.
What apparently happened, and I, alas, missed this controversial chat show, was that Michele Santoro, the journalist who runs the Genova chat show gave some airtime to the ever critical Beppe Grillo. The Grillo speech which was shown included an attack on journalists, Italy’s president and doctors .
The attack on the president which was considered oh so insidious was basically that Napolitano, the President of Italy, should be the president of the country, and not of the political parties that run the country. Grillo, never one to hold back, insinuated that Napolitano did not allow the referendum on Italy’s electoral system to go ahead before the general elections because he was in league with the politicos. The irascible comic from Genova came up with rather a crude analogy, as he stated that holding the elections before having held the election was like putting a condom on after having had sex.
After having said naughty things about the president, good old Beppe went on to say that he wanted to see a newspaper paid for by those who read it, not by certain ’sponsors’. This is a direct reference to the fact that newspapers in Italy have always been the voice of the controlling power mongers, and not, as in other countries, controlled by those who simply wish the make lots of cash from providing a news service - read Murdoch.
Grillo also points out that the Italian journalists’ association, which was set up back in Mussolini’s day, is more of an organisation designed to keep journalist in check than to promote the freedom of the press. The comic also mentioned one Beppe Alfano an Italian journalist who met his fate, reputedly, at the hands of the mafia.
Last but by no means least came Grillo’s assault on Italy’s doctors. Well, one in particular, a certain Umberto Veronesi, who also doubles as a politician and is very well regarded in Italy. However, Grillo and a group of Italian skin specialists are not too happy with Veronesi because of his public confirmation that the waste burning incinerators that Italy is proposing to install present no threat to public health. Grillo and the specialists appear to have evidence to the contrary, and so Grillo has concluded that Veronesi is in the pocket of the political and corporate Italian establishment.
Good old Beppe has ruffled quite a few feathers, and Santoro just went and poured salt onto the disturbed feathers by giving Grillo’s insinuation national air time. Claudio Petruccioli, none other than the president of the Italian Rai state TV channels, was one of those to have accused Santoro of having acted shamefully. Not a great surprise when you know that presidents of Italy’s state TV are just about always nominated by the government in power at the time. Petruccioli was one of Prodi’s boys, but it looks as though he’s trying to say that he’s Berlusco friendly too, possibly in the hope of hanging on to his job a little longer.
All these shenanigans would appear to point towards a likely clamp down on press freedom in Italy, again, and Michele Santoro will quite possibly be removed from TV, as he was during Belusconi’s last reign. Santoro probably knows what is in store for him, so one may consider the contraversial eposode of Anno Zero as being something of a swan song.
Incidentally, the Italian Observatory on Legality and Rights (in Italian) has pointed out that RAI president Claudio Petruccioli’s overreacted somewhat, and it went on to say that potential defamation should be challenged by legal means, and not by a journalist’s boss.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this latest tempest in a teacup and writing more when the outcome, such as it may be, becomes clearer.
The political control of the media in Italy does stink a little of the use of the media as propaganda machines during the rule of despots and dictators, such as during Mussolini’s reign, for example.
The Dark Side of the UK, and the Free Press
The Times in England was one of the papers to have written an article stating that Italy is in a bit of a mess at the moment.
In some ways, this article was a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black, as the old saying goes. Indeed, if you take a look at The Policeman’s Blog, you may discover that life for some in the UK is certainly not a bed of roses.
For an insight into all that is not too wonderful back in the land of my fathers, I suggest reading these two recent posts over at the aforementioned blog:
Niether post paints a particularly pretty picture of the state of the UK now does it?
I found the ‘A Rare Insight’ post quite worrying, and it also shows that Italy is not the only country where the establishment has become rather out of touch with the lives of its populace. Actually, one of my past posts covers similar issues. You can read it here.
These articles are also a good example of how blogs can be more informative than the traditional press, which seems to be rather out of touch, and, it has to be said, is restricted to what it can say by certain vested interests. Although you may like to note that the writer of the Policeman’s Blog, who was a UK copper, is now policing in Canada. He left the UK for fear of losing his job - as a result of telling the hard edged truth.
Even if the cost of telling it like it is can be high, many blogs have, in general, become the true voice of the people, and are one of the few forms of truly independant press which exist today. At least for the moment.
One of the dangers of commercialising a blog is that the ‘editorial freedom’ can become limited. As an example of this, I was considering becoming an affiliate of Ebay, but then I noticed that Ebay does not want to be affiliated with sites of a political nature. This effectively counted Blog from Italy out.
I won’t be becoming an Ebay affiliate, because I want to continue to talk about issues that relate to politics and politicians.
One day it may happen that the rustle of cash leads to some form of compromise on my part with regard to what I waffle on about. I do hope this day is a long way off, or it never comes.
To end, a question: Do you, dear readers, think that blogs are gaining more respect than traditional news sources?
Answers on a comment please.
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