Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso on
Wednesday called for a "satisfactory" solution to a dispute
pitting Italian news agencies against the government over a new
Europe-wide tender for news services, replacing traditional
funding via conventions. "There has been tension between news
agencies and the government...a tension that led to a general
strike by agencies on Saturday," Grasso said. "It is necessary
to find a satisfactory solution". All of Italy's news agencies,
including ANSA, struck for 24 hours from six o'clock a.m.
Saturday, in the first such action, to protest Sports and Media
Minister Luca Lotti's refusal to discuss the agencies' demand to
pull the tender, which they say threatens media pluralism and
independence. Lotti recently said there would be two tenders for
news services, one for the public administration and the other
for the foreign ministry.
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