The Italian government takes the broom through the Italian public broadcaster RAI, which in its view is too left-wing. According to the government, right-wing program makers have been kept out for too long or received those programs at impossible times.
The first heads are now rolling: the popular talk show host Fabio Fazio announced last weekend that he is switching to the Warner Bros. discovery group. What exactly he will do there is still unclear, but it seems likely that he will continue his successful talk show there.
Fazio’s contract with the Italian public broadcaster expires this summer and the new management of RAI did not intend to extend it. Fazio’s show Il Tempo che fa managed to get big names like Barack Obama, Maradona and the Pope on Italian television. The show attracts an average of 2.4 million viewers on Sunday evening and has a market share of over 11 percent.
The reactions from government circles to Fazio’s departure speak volumes. Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted on Sunday “Belli ciao‘ and Forza Italia prominent and ex-minister of media affairs Maurizio Gasparri wrote sarcastically that the RAI should ‘broadcast a still image of Fazio’. “He is irreplaceable.”
Fazio himself reacted laconically during his talk show on Sunday evening: “I’ve worked for the RAI for forty years, but not everyone is suitable for every season, at least not me.”
Eliminate critical noises
The Italian opposition party PD is not pleased with the steps taken by the Meloni government towards the RAI. “The right is doing damage to television, to culture and to Italy,” said former party chairman Enrico Letta.
Despite efforts to keep politics out of public broadcasting, it is not unusual for a new Italian government to appoint new directors within the RAI. Usually, the pluralistic task of the public broadcaster is taken into account, but this time the Italian government seems to want to eliminate all criticism. The general director had already been replaced by a pro-government candidate, now it is the turn of the program makers themselves.
In addition to talk show host Fazio, other prominent left-wing program makers are also nominated to be replaced. The highly critical research program Report, broadcast on the third channel of the RAI, has been under fire from politicians for years. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi filed a case against the program twice; he lost both cases, incidentally. The contract of Reportpresenter Sigfrido Ranucci is expiring and it is not yet clear whether that contract will be extended.
The gaps that are now falling in the programming will be filled with familiar faces from the Berlusconi stable and with friends and acquaintances of the prime minister and ministers themselves. Nicola Porro, Deputy Editor of Il Giornale – until recently owned by Silvio Berlusconi – will most likely take the place of Fabio Fazio. Roberto Poletti, minister Salvini’s biographer, will host a morning program, and Pino Insegni, host of Prime Minister Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party rallies, will present a game show in the evening on RAI1.
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