Rai commission president and opposition members quit

The president of the parliamentary

commission overseeing Rai, Barbara Floridia, announced she was

quitting on Thursday, saying that the ruling majority had made

it impossible for the commission to do its job and complaining

of government meddling with the State broadcaster.

The other members of the commission from opposition parties also

resigned, sources said.

In a post on Facebook, 5-Star Movement (M5S) Senator Floridia

said she has resigned to give out a "strong signal in the face

of the arrogance and unscrupulous use that this ruling majority

makes of the institutions and parliamentary commissions.

"As long as I could, I tried in every way to make it possible

for the Commission to function, I sought dialogue, I resisted

provocations and obstacles," she said.

"The majority's systematic boycott of the oversight commission

and the situation into which public service is falling do not

allow me to keep going any further.

"For almost two years, the forces supporting the government have

deliberately prevented the normal conduct of the commission's

ordinary work because the opposition refused to vote for their

candidate for the presidency of RAI.

"Not because of differences over the merits of the issues. But

just out of blackmail...

"Never before in the history of our Republic has a regulatory

body been held hostage by those who govern.

"It no longer makes any sense to preside over a commission now

emptied of its functions, artificially kept alive by the ruling

majority only to provide a fig leaf for decisions made

elsewhere, by the government, on the backs of millions of

citizens who pay the license fee every year"..

Many high-profile Italian TV figures, most considered to be on

the Left of the political spectrum, have left Rai since Premier

Giorgia Meloni's government took office in 2022.

"We are witnessing one of the most disheartening spectacles in

the recent history of public service broadcasting," Floridia

said.

"Management of public service broadcasting that blatantly and

without a shred of shame has rewarded political affiliation

almost exclusively, undermining merit, quality, independence,

and even the economic sustainability of editorial decisions.

"Those who were able to have gone, including the viewers.

"Others were brutally shown the door".

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