Govt should intervene in RAI says PD

(ANSA) - Rome, February 25 - The deputy secretary of Premier Matteo Renzi's center-left Democratic Party (PD) said Wednesday that a government intervention in RAI public broadcaster could be on the agenda.
    "All the conditions are there," Debora Serracchiani told an ANSA forum on political reform and regional policies.
    Such an intervention is "necessary" and could be carried out "jointly with parliament if conditions allow" said Serracchiani, a Renzi loyalist who is also the governor of the northeastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
    She went on to say "it is not up to the Lower House speaker to say whether the emergency prerequisites are there".
    That comment came after House Speaker Laura Boldrini said there is no need to issue a decree to reform the public broadcaster.
    "The government needs a schedule but we must also provide the opposition with guarantees," Boldrini remarked.
    Renzi on Sunday pledged to reform the public broadcaster "beginning in March" by cutting its bureaucratic components and making it more efficient.
    The government is said to be working on revisions to create a smaller board of directors of perhaps just five members and change the way the chief executive officer is appointed, as well as measures to ensure RAI's independence from political interference.
    Among reforms will be changes to the so-called Gasparri law of 2006, which made significant changes to broadcasting in Italy under then-premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi.