“Clumsy and misleading attacks” with “fake news” against the Italian government following the EU’s Annual Rule of Law Report. Giorgia Meloni wrote this in a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. And the Prime Minister returned to the subject in response to a question from journalists in Beijing. “I do not see any negative repercussions for Italy, I do not believe that relations with the European Commission are getting worse. The European Commission and I have discussed” the rule of law report “and, moreover, the letter I sent is not a response to the European Commission or a moment of friction with the European Commission, it is a shared reflection on the exploitation that has been made of a technical document in which I am obliged to point out that the critical accents do not come from the European Commission, but from some interested parties,” he said in statements to the press.
In the report, “the European Commission,” the Prime Minister said, “reports critical accents from some interested parties, let’s say interested parties: il Domani, il Fatto Quotidiano, Repubblica… However, the European Commission is not my direct interlocutor, but those who explore this report, which, among other things, says nothing particularly new compared to previous years, this would also be worth remembering.” The governance of Rai “is defined by a 2015 law that was created by the Renzi government” and “they say that there is intimidation of the press because there are political figures who sue some journalists for defamation, but I do not believe that in Italy there is a rule that says that if you have a journalist’s card, which I also have in my pocket, you can defame someone freely and to say that if political figures initiate a defamation lawsuit they are practicing intimidation, this means not even respecting the independence of judges,” Meloni continued.
“For example, some complaints I made are also taken into consideration. I made them when I was in opposition, not when I was in government. I understand the attempt at exploitation, that is, I am aware of the attempt to seek external help from a left in Italy that obviously regrets not being able to use, for example, the public service as if it were a party section, but – he concluded – I cannot help on this point precisely because I believe in freedom of information and of the press.”
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
