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Florence Newspaper Report: Who controls media and information in Italy today
Information in Italy today is under control: less openly than under Mussolini's fascist regime, but more effectively. In the links below this article it is possible to find a bibliography and a filmography on why information and the media in Italy today are under control.
In all the Italian cities on April 25th there will be a gathering of signatures to demand three things:
1) The abolition of the Ordine dei Giornalisti created by Mussolini
2) The abolition of the 1 billion Euro per year public fundings to newspapers
3) The abolition of the Gasparri Law and of the duopoly Political Parties-Mediaset
Information in Italy has these brains behind it: ABI, Confindustria, Mediaset, political parties. They influence public opinion. They own the main TV channels, and the newspapers with the biggest circulation. They use them to defend their interests. The editors choose them, pay them, sack them. And they swap them like collectors’ cards.
Democracy is a beautiful word. But what does this word mean in fact?
Representation does not exist without knowledge. Democracy is only an abstract concept without the freedom of information. The conflict of interests between the commercial powers and the media is enormous.
It has reached such a size that we no longer see it. It has become normal for a daily newspaper like Il Corriere della Sera to have banks and industrial groups among its shareholders. For a public TV channel to be owned by the parties and for the private TV channels to be owned by the President of the Council, who got to that position because he owns those TV channels.
When everything is false, the truth disappears. It becomes an intangible concept, something metaphysical. The citizens start even to doubt that information can be free. In no democratic country can the one who owns the media be a politician. Imagine Obama controlling CNN, ABC and FOX. Or Zapatero dictating articles to the editors of El Mundo and El Pais, as they are his employees.
A democracy is based on the separation of three powers: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Information is defined as the fourth power. A power that can win the elections, that conditions the values of Stock Market shares, that modifies the rules of democracy.
It is clear that information must be independent so as not to transform every item of news into propaganda. It’s not reasonable to except that those who are inside the information system: editors, journalists, opinion leaders want to change things and neither that they will admit that they are carrying out orders. They have mouths to feed and they have already decided which side their bread is buttered.
Information is the last resort for our politicans. They know that very well. They no longer have any shame, they say that openly.
Berlusconi: “An election campaign is needed and it needs to be won. The publisher Ciarrapico has some important newspapers, I believe it is absolutely important that these newspapers are not hostile. Given that nearly all the big newspapers are on the other side, when there is one that is in our favour I believe that it is absolutely logical to try to continue to have it in favour.”
And everyone talking about Ciarrapico the fascist and not about the control of information. A guy who owns three national TV channels thanks to Parliament and the Mondadori Group, that counts for 50 PUBLICATIONS, thanks to the corruption of judges, is delirious and no one calls an ambulance. In another democratic country they wouldn’t even let him be seen on Tele Pesco Fiorito in the late evening.
The President of the Republic Napolitano sleeps like a just communist, he awakes only if the talk gets noisy. It’s as though a thief could steal the silverware as long as he does it silently and without swear words.
Without the control of the TV channels and the press no one of our politicians and would go to the elections on 13 April. Not even those who count the votes. Politicians are behaving like bandits. They control the country with total disdain for the citizens. Italy is cosa loro {their thing}. Whoever is elected is cosa loro. With a stroke of the pen, people that were condemned or investigated for mafia-crimes Cuffaro, Crisafulli, Carra and Dell’Utri are put into lists safe as steel.
Better to have a safe seat than a probable prison. If they were to end up in prison and if they were to talk, how many would they drag in with them? Politicians lie, as do their newspaper directors, their allied servants who just want to “survive”. A place in the Lower or Upper House is worth more than dignity, if they ever had any. Collusion between information and politics needs eliminating or democracy will die completely.
(From the Beppe Grillo's blog)
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO KNOW MORE ABOUT INFORMATION AND MEDIA UNDER CONTROL IN ITALY TODAY
Florence News - a8.04.30.16.30
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