Rai - filo-governativo and disrespectful in one smooth package

RaiNews24 reports that four left-wing politicians (Giorgio Merlo, Margherita; Gennaro Migliore, RC; Loredana de Petris, Verdi; Esterino Montino, DS) have complained to Rai about the broadcast of the 'Prodi rap' during a news bulletin. The centre-right, in the shape of Altero Matteoli, accuses the left of stamping out 'liberty of expression', which presumably Rai enjoys.

At the same time, however, the centre-right - now in the shape of Paolo Bonaiuti - criticises Rai for being servile in its treatment of the Government's recently passed budget.

It would be a wonderful innovation if we could have evidence-based criticism considering Rai's coverage of politics over the medium-term - after all, why else does Agcom collect such voluminous data on politicians' screen time?

Technorati Tags: bias, monitoring, content+analysis, rai

Update on Italian politics

A friend recently asked me to give the five-minute version of what's going on in Italian politics. Here's my version, given in best Economist style:

"Dear Anna,

There are two major issues facing the Prodi government at the moment: the budget for 2006/7, and the government's relations with Telecom Italia.

The budget decree was agreed in the Council of Ministers on Sunday and signed that same day by the President of the Republic. It contains cuts ('savings') and tax-increases amounting to €33 billion, which according to the Treasury will reduce the budget deficit to 2.8% of GNP compared to 4.8 for the year 2006. The final figure represents a victory for Romano Prodi and finance minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa against the left-wing of the governing coalition, who had requested a change of closer to €26bn with fewer cuts. The manouevre was made possible by an unexpectedly good tax take earlier in the year (good fortune also shared by France and Germany), and by a judicious selection of cuts and tax increases. The government has been able to keep its promise to reduce employer and employee taxes, but employers' associations are upset about changes to the severance pay fund, from which the government will take €5bn more over the next year.

Attention now shifts to the Parliament. The Prodi government has only a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. It is likely that the government will have to make the Finance law a vote of confidence. One senator, Sergio de Gregorio, elected as part of the left-wing coalition only to defect shortly after, has threatened not to vote for the government, which would leave the government with a majority of one, perilously close to relying one the life senators, whose support would probably be enough to pass the budget - but also enough to show the government incapable of a majority in one of the chambers, thereby constraining it to resign. The government will have to whip carefully in order to ensure not only that it retains its majority, but that members of the leftist parties do not introduce amendments which will grossly distort the bill.

The decision on the finance bill will be a welcome relief for Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who has had a torrid week explaining his government's policy towards Telecom Italia. Prodi's consigliere Angelo Rovati, the author of a botched plan to rescue Telecom Italia's mobile arm from foreign ownership, has taken the fall for what was seen by many in Europe's financial press as excessive government interferene in a private company. Nevertheless, Prodi must ensure that he is a more collegial Prime Minister than he was President of the European Commission, where he produced a secret draft for a constitutional treaty unseen by fellow Commissioners".

Technorati Tags: majority, budget, Prodi, Penelope, telecom+italia

Notes on Polish journalism

Curry, J.L. (1990). Poland's Journalists: Professionalism and politics.

Lady Rutelli giornalista per Silvio

Thanks to a national strike of journalists, there is no print news today. This event - which I can't imagine happening in the UK after Rupert Murdoch's move to Wapping - came as a pleasant surprise. No longer the rush to catch up with and synthesise the daily flood of information.

In any event, there are some interesting stories. Francesco Rutelli's wife is going to work for Mediaset, which one can read either as confirmation of the already strong links between politics (in general) and the media (in general); a severe marital problem for the Rutelli, given the strong links between the right and Mediaset; or, a wise recognition on the part of Mrs. Rutelli that, had she taken the job she was offered at Rai, this would have caused no end of conflicts of interest.

In other news, Repubblica the same source (La Mescolanza) reports that six seats in Rai are shortly about to change hands: two radio news bulletins, the electoral broadcasts, Raisport, Rainews24, and RaiInternational.

Technorati Tags: lottizzazione, rai

Alexander Stille - Silvio's Shadow

There is but one lacuna in Alexander Stille's otherwise excellent piece 'Silvio's Shadow': it is not true that Berlusconi "occupied an incredible 50 percent of airtime on the state-owned newscasts". Data from the Italian communications watchdog show the figure for the three state-owned channels was closer to 20%. The quite remarkable figure of 50% of political coverage is, however, achieved, by TG4, the news bulletin on Berlusconi's Retequattro channel. (More information on these data can be found here.)

Technorati Tags: bias, monitoring

Notes on Swedish, British journalism; Italian parliamentary supervision of the media

• Stromback, J., and Nord, L.W. (2006) Do Politicians Lead the Tango?
• Malinconico, G. (1996). La commissione parlamentare di vigilanza sulla Rai a vent'anni dalla riforma della radiotelevisione pubblica
• Aldridge, M., Evetts, J. (2003). Rethinking the concept of professionalism: the case of journalism.

Lottizzazione for the naughties

There was a certain moment in the nineties when it looked as if the era of lottizzazione - of the division of posts in Rai along party-political lines - might come to an end. This wonderful piece from l'Opinione suggests it hasn't. It includes three classic elements of pre-1992 lottizzazione:

• Bizarre names to refer to methods of allocating posts: "Once it was called the Cencelli method; or if not, the 'balancing act', in other circumstances 'zebratura', and in others still alternation of posts [between supporters of different parties, understood] (Una volta si diceva “metodo Cencelli”, in altre circostanze si è parlato di “bilancino”, in altre ancora di “zebratura” e di “alternanza delle caselle”).
• references to the separate orientations of the channels ( "Il Tg1 resta comunque un telegiornale sostanzialmente filo-governativo sia che vinca la destra che la sinistra")
• the reference to past practice - including the return of Albino Longhi as political aide-de-camp to DG Claudio Cappon. ("Albino Longhi [former image consultant to Prodi in '96] occupa al settimo piano di viale Mazzini un ruolo strategico. Suggerisce, con la sua vasta conoscenza dell’azienda e dei giornalisti Rai, i “pizzini” delle nomine. Ai tempi di Biagio Agnes tale compito toccava a Salvatore Biamente".)

Technorati Tags: rai, lottizzazione, longhi, riotta, agnes, zebratura