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As journalists in Italy’s state broadcaster RAI go on strike protesting at the “suffocating control” of right wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration, and the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) gives a ‘bad’ rating to seven out of 10 countries around the globe, here our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry looks at the vital importance of having an independent media (needed now more than ever after the disturbing European Parliament election results), with the kind of investigative journalism he undertakes central to keeping those in power on their toes.
It is even happening in a modern democratic state which is part of the European Union (EU) where media freedom is enshrined in law.
The concept is defined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as well as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The EU’s enlargement process guarantees it, describing an unfettered media as a “key indicator of a country’s readiness to become part of the EU”.
Italy has signed up to all of this, and is, therefore, not some tin-pot far away country where basic democratic freedoms are regularly trampled on.
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Apart from being a signatory, it should be noted that it was also a founding member of the EU – one of the most important trading blocs in the world, where an independent media is fundamental.
But last month journalists on RAI were forced to strike because Georgia Meloni of the fascist-rooted party Brothers of Italy, was “attempting to turn RAI into a mouthpiece for the Government”.
Ms Meloni decided to place herself at the head of candidates for the European elections, and a victory emboldened her still further.
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She has declared in a fiery speech: “We want to do in Europe exactly what we did in Italy on September 25, 2022 – creating a majority that brings together the forces of the right to finally send the left into opposition, even in Europe!”.
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The memories of Phil’s astonishing decades-long award-winning career in journalism (when he was able to operate in a largely free environment) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – Phil looks at how more and more today the lazy cliché is given that something is the ‘size of Wales’, and is even now being used in advertising!