Walter Veltroni has come out against nominating a new Rai board with the current law. Whilst one might disagree with the method found in the current law to appoint board members (seven of nine members by parliamentary committee, president plus one ordinary member by ministerial nomination subject to two-thirds majority in the same committee), it [...]
Once again, Marco Travaglio has appeared on a Rai programme, made some provocative comments, and kicked off a furore which will generate more heat than light. Here is my hasty transcript of his remarks from the video posted on Repubblica.it: È molto istruttivo quando vengono elette le alte cariche dello stato, perché i giornali pubblicano [...]
Several months ago, leaked telephone intercepts showed that Agostino Saccà, director of Rai Fiction, had been in regular phone contact with Silvio Berlusconi about which actresses to recruit, and how best to advance his own production company, Pegagus. Now they’re trying to fire him. It seems to be more difficult than it ought to be, [...]
Romano Prodi has recently announced his retiral from Italian politics. Today, I chanced upon a reference to his work at IRI from almost twenty-five years ago, in Musella, Luigi, Craxi, Roma: Salerno Editrice, 2007 “Prodi, president of IRI, asked for a meeting with Craxi. Prodi had the right, by law, to choose six of the [...]
Event: presenter on Rai’s RadioDue tells voters to rip up their voting papers and throw them in the bin. Bad because: presenters on public service broadcasters shouldn’t be making political statements. Good because: at least he’s not beholden to a party.
The Italian parliamentary committee that oversees Rai has expressed its lack of confidence in Rai president Claudio Petruccioli thanks to the votes of the Udeur and Italia dei Valori. Given that “the parliamentary commission has no power to revoke” Petruccioli, as correctly noted by Fabrizio Morri, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Asthe resoconto [...]
In the UK, my comments earlier this month about the BBC preferring to promise structural reforms and issue ample apologies instead of sacking people were invalidated by the resignation of BBC 1 director Peter Fincham, following a report by former deputy Director-General Will Wyatt. In Italy, Clemente Mastella threatens to vote no-confidence in Rai’s board [...]
Perhaps the Berlusconi years made me lazy, but I’ve had to re-learn some cautionary principles of Italian politics: the position of the government is not necessarily the same as the position of the parties that compose it; the position of the government is not necessarily the same as the position of the largest party in [...]
Repubblica reports that the share-holder meeting for Rai has ended with Petroni being removed and replaced with Fabiano Fabiani. Il Sole 24 Ore has better coverage on Fabiani’s background: CEO of Acea spa, municipal electricity company in Rome; board member for Suez Environment; former director-general of IRI former MD of Cinecittà, Finmeccanica;
The Gasparri law which currently regulates the Italian media landscape is a bad law in very many ways. Not least of these is the fact that it sets out two different ways of appointing and removing members to the Board of Rai. The first of these – the one currently in use – is hidden [...]