Find solution on news agencies (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, March 29 - 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.