{"id":391576,"date":"2024-09-23T10:52:13","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T08:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/09\/23\/liberta-di-stampa-nuove-tensioni-italia-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-09-26T19:33:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T17:33:37","slug":"media-freedom-fresh-tensions-between-italy-and-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/09\/23\/media-freedom-fresh-tensions-between-italy-and-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Media freedom, fresh tensions between Italy and the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Fresh\u00a0tensions between Italy and the European Commission on media\u00a0freedom:<\/strong>\u00a0the\u00a0Meloni government already\u00a0criticized <\/a>the rule of law report that the EU executive published\u00a0for the image it paints of the country. This time, the ranks of Fratelli d’Italia criticize the report published by MFRR (Media Freedom Rapid Response), a mechanism co-funded by the European Union to monitor and respond to violations of press and media freedom in EU member states.\u00a0The report, entitled Silencing the Fourth Estate: Italy\u2019s democratic drift<\/a>, denounces once again that “media freedom in Italy is under threat, with rising political interference<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

A publication that MEP (FdI\/ECR) Stefano Cavedagna<\/strong> does not like. He denounces the “specious content” of the report, which he thinks was based on “unfounded allegations against\u00a0the Italian government” and with “testimonies of institutional actors, members of civil society, and journalists who are staunchly opposed to\u00a0the Italian government.” He asks for enlightenment on what he implicitly considers a\u00a0waste, as he wants to know how much was earmarked for the contested study.<\/p>\n

Margrethe Vestager<\/strong>, Executive Vice President for Competition, responds on behalf of the college that MFRR support for the two years\u00a0from July 16, 2023, to July 15, 2025, totals \u20ac3.1 million, and it is part of the Creative Europe program designed with a clear purpose. Vestager stresses that the program encompasses “fact-finding, advocacy, monitoring, awareness raising and providing practical help to journalists under threat in Member States and candidate countries, without specific budget allocation per country.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0exchange between the Italian MEP and the EU commissioner is the latest chapter in the ongoing rift between Rome and Brussels over media freedom. Vestager implies that no one is above rules or monitoring and responds to criticism. Fact-finding\u00a0“is carried out in an independent manner<\/strong>, without the Commission intervening in operational aspects, such as earmarking funds for the preparation of a particular report or selection of contributors to a particular report.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report by EU Commission-funded Media Freedom Rapid Response once again denounces threats to journalists. FdI MEP submits parliamentary question. Vestager: “We pay for fact-finding.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":391574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26180,25746,27044,26511,25830],"class_list":["post-391576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-liberta-di-stampa-en","tag-margrethe-vestager-a","tag-governo-meloni-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391576"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392146,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391576\/revisions\/392146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}