In the wake of last week’s 2024 Rule of Law report from the European Commission, which raised concerns about freedom of the press in Italy, the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has accused Italian newspapers of manipulating the document’s findings.
Speaking to journalists in Beijing on Tuesday, Meloni said the critical remarks on media freedoms in Italy in the report hadn’t come from the Commission itself but from “some stakeholders.”
“Who are those stakeholders?” she asked, “Il Domani, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Repubblica.”
Meloni sent a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday complaining about parts of the report; she described the missive as a “reflection” of the fact the report’s findings had been manipulated.
She also claimed knowledge of an “attempt to seek external help by the left in Italy that is evidently saddened for not being able to use, for example, the public service as if it were a party section.”
Meloni denied her letter had generated “any friction” between her government and the Commission. “I do not see any negative repercussions for Italy, I do not think that relations with the European Commission are getting worse,” she told reporters.
The Italian newspapers cited by the prime minister hit back on Tuesday, accusing Meloni of blacklisting journalists and undermining press freedoms.
Emiliano Fittipaldi, editor-in-chief of Domani, called Meloni’s accusations “serious, false and above all dangerous,” and accused right-wing media of targeting Domani journalists.
Il Fatto Quotidiano also accused Meloni and right-wing newspapers of drawing up “prescription lists” of journalists labelled “anti-Meloni.”
“It would have been enough to read the entire report — and report it correctly — to realize how there are no anti-Meloni journalists behind the European report,” the daily wrote.
La Repubblica noted that Meloni hadn’t responded to the report’s observations, and said her comments “betray her illiberal idea of journalism and of the role journalism has in an accomplished democracy.”
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