A threatening handwritten letter addressed to four prominent Italian journalists was delivered in an envelope also containing four bullets to the headquarters of Italy’s public broadcaster, RAI, in Rome’s Via Teulada on 1 March. The envelope was addressed to journalists Michele Santoro, Marco Travaglio, Gianni Barbacetto and Peter Gomez. RAI journalist and anchorman Michele Santoro, […]

In an unexpected telephone call broadcast live during a television show on Italy’s TV channel LA7, the country’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, criticized the programme, calling it a “brothel” and “a disgusting show, conducted in a despicable, vile and repulsive way.” The 24 January political talk show, “L’Infedele” (“The Infidel”), hosted by well known Italian […]

A delegation from the International Press Institute (IPI) traveled to Italy from 8-12 November to meet with key representatives of the Italian media, civil society and state institutions in order to investigate the various manners in which the Italian media system, the laws and practices regulating it and the current political environment affect the media’s […]

The International Press Institute (IPI) on Friday completed a week-long press freedom mission to Italy during which it met with a broad array of media stakeholders, politicians and government representatives, and concluded that while the media in Italy is marked by a strong degree of freedom, there are pockets of serious concern. IPI noted that […]