Italian state media RAI, which has TV channels, radio channels and internet publications, is preparing for a strike from 24 hours, counting from 5:30 a.m. on May 6 to 5:30 a.m. on May 7, reports the media, as well as the ADN Kronos agency and the editions "Prima online" and "Fato Quotidiano", BTA reported.
The strike was organized by RAI unions and the motives are diverse - from organizational issues to political pressure perceived as an attempt to censor media content.
In a statement, the RAI journalists' union said it has a stifling control over journalistic work in the media and is trying to reduce RAI to a government megaphone. The union also criticizes the lack of clear plans for the media's business development, the lack of staff in all editorial offices, including the failure to hire replacements for female employees on maternity leave. The issue of non-negotiable performance-based bonuses and the prospects for the media's most precarious journalists are also among the reasons for the strike.
On May 6, there will also be protests in front of RAI's regional offices between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
On the same day, the RAI employees' union organized a press conference in Rome at the Association of the Foreign Press, which includes correspondents of foreign publications covering the events in Italy. At this press conference, the unions will explain to a foreign audience their reasons for the strike. The press conference will also include the TV presenter Serena Bortone, in whose program recently the management of RAI did not allow an anti-fascist monologue by the Italian writer Antonio Scurati to be delivered on the occasion of April 25, when Italy celebrates the liberation from the fascist regime. Because of the scandal that broke out at the time, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni published Scurati's monologue on her Facebook account, leaving her audience free to reflect on the content of the text and only clarifying that she had been informed that Scurati's participation had been canceled in relation to a fee of 1,800 euros that he was to receive for his brief appearance on the show, which was equivalent to the monthly salary of some workers in Italy. Journalist Bortone also read the writer's monologue, the RAI management's decision to cancel Scurati's participation in her show.
The strike will not include employees of Radio RAI, who already went on strike for two days at the end of April against plans to merge RAI's radio channel broadcasting parliamentary sessions with RAI's television channel dedicated to the activities of the Italian Parliament and against the merger of RAI's sports radio channel with the media's sports television channel.
The strike will take place shortly after the famous Italian TV presenter Amadeus announced that he is leaving RAI to join Discovery Media Group's private Nove TV, where he will host several TV programmes. Amadeus has been a presenter at the Sanremo festival for five years and his skills in this direction are believed to have contributed to the high viewership. However, some events of participants and guests of the festival in its last two editions have generated various controversies in Italy.
The departure of Amadeus was another departure of a well-known presenter from RAI. Last year, Fabio Fazio's show also moved to Nove from RAI, in which guests were current people from Italian and world political, cultural, social and sports life, including Pope Francis, Barack Obama, Madonna, Fanny Ardan, etc.