Italy's ruling party rejects EU Commission warning about interference in public media

euronews (in English)

The Commission identified concerns about "undue political influence" over Italy's public broadcaster, pointing to issues about how its leadership is appointed.

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00:00When it comes to the rule of law, Italy has made little progress and more needs to be done.

00:05That's the sense of the European Commission's assessment in its latest report published on Wednesday.

00:11The European Commission has expressed doubts on a number of issues,

00:15including the latest draft reform to introduce the direct election of the Prime Minister

00:20and whether it will indeed bring more political stability.

00:23There are also concerns about whether the role of the head of state could be weakened as a result of it.

00:29The European Commission's assessment also touches on the latest justice reform

00:35and whether the independence and the authority of judges could be affected as a result of this latest reform.

00:42Here is what a British of Italy deputy, who is part of the ruling coalition, told us about the Commission's report.

00:49Something positive has been found in Brussels by this government in the last year and a half.

00:55What has been underlined as negative, such as the Rai question or the referendum,

00:59allow me to say that the Rai question is something that has been around in Italy for a long time

01:03and cannot be linked only to the Meloni government.

01:07As far as the referendum is concerned, I would like to remind you that the Italians,

01:10almost two years ago, voted for a government, voted for Meloni,

01:13and this government has been reaffirmed in the recent European elections, also to make reforms.

01:43In Italy, freedom of information and its perimeter are becoming more and more restricted,

01:48and this is what we have shown in the last few months to both the FGI and the European Commission

01:56with letters, with requests for missions, with requests for superpositions,

02:01with everything we could put on the field to say,

02:06attention, ladies and gentlemen, in Italy freedom of information is fading.

02:10Never, as in this case, has there been the occupation of the public service.

02:14The Rai has become a television with a strong political connotation of government,

02:22and this is not good, it is not good for the pluralism of information.

02:36Italian opposition parties have blamed Meloni's government for Italy's decline in democratic standards,

02:41arguing that they have long disagreed with some of the reforms at the heart of the report.

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