"Rama's phone call, a serious act"/ Italian MEP: Unacceptable interference in media freedom

2024-04-25 13:13:00, Aktualitet CNA

"Rama's phone call, a serious act"/ Italian MEP: Unacceptable

The Italian MEP of the "5 stars" party, Sabrina Pignendoli, has reacted to the statements of Prime Minister Edi Rama regarding the journalist and the investigation of the show on "RAI 3".

The MEP stated that external interference in the independence and freedom of the media in Italy is a serious and unacceptable action. Among other things, he called Rama's phone call a serious act.

"Rama's phone call, an absolute heinous act," she says.

There was also a reaction from the parliamentary media commission, which also called Rama's phone call an unacceptable and flagrant interference.

"It is paradoxical that a foreign head of government directly interferes with a public service manager after being mentioned in a journalistic investigation. Even if the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, believed that he was harmed in some way by the investigation of 'Report', this cannot in any way justify his direct intervention in RAI", said the head of the commission.

"I hope that there will be a broad consensus of all political forces in the fight against external interference in information in order to protect the independence of the media," she added.

Three members of this commission, Dario Carotenuto, Dolores Bevilacqua and Anna Laura Orrico, also reacted strongly.

"As if the Melon government's pressure on the broadcasts of 'Report' was not enough, now the heads of the governments of foreign countries, such as the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, are also involved. Let's ask Giorgia Meloni a simple question: do you think it's normal for a public television host to be contacted directly by the Albanian prime minister to complain about a journalistic report? Don't you think you should personally intervene to avoid what seems like an unnecessary intervention of the Albanian prime minister in the freedom of the press and the independence of Italian journalism? If he really cares, as he often likes to say, "the sovereignty of the nation", let him speak to his friend Rama and tell him that Italy cannot tolerate such events. As for 'RAI', we ask that every detail of this matter be clarified", their statement says./CNA