The government should renew Radio
Radicale's convention to cover parliamentary debates, media
watchdog AGCOM said Tuesday.
The government recently said it would not be renewing the
convention, sparking protests from the opposition.
AGCOM said in light of the government's announcement, the
government should set up procedures to task a broadcaster to
cover parliamentary debates.
Failing that, and pending a "comprehensive" reform of the
coverage, it said Radio Radicale's convention should be
extended.
Last week Premier Giuseppe Conte said that the possible
removal of Radio Radicale's public funding for its coverage of
parliamentary debates and other political stories was not
imminent.
"A three-year plan was done for Radio Radicale and that is
valid as a transitional regime," Conte said, adding that a final
decision will be made at the end of a consultation process for a
reform of Italian media.
The historic Radical Party broadcaster, however, said that
the three-year plan Conte referred to does not apply to it and
said the 2019 budget law had ended its convention for
parliamentary work from May and had removed all its public
funding as of January 1, 2020.
RAI CEO Fabrizio Salini said that the State broadcaster may
intervene.
"There have been meetings with Radio Radicale and we are
aware of the value of the Radio Radicale archive," Salini told
the public broadcaster's parliamentary oversight body.
"There hasn't been a positive outcome so far, but we
suggested another meeting and there could be concrete proposals
from us".
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