Govt to announce RAI nominations Wed

(ANSA) - Kyoto, August 4 - Premier Matteo Renzi pledged Tuesday that "professional-level" appointments will be made at public broadcaster RAI, including a new president and CEO. The appointments will be made on Wednesday as previously promised, Renzi added during a visit to Japan where he met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "These will be professional level (nominations), with competence and independence as it should be," said Renzi. Last week, his cabinet lost an important vote in the Lower House on reforms to RAI and although these were later approved in the Senate,the loss was a political blow. Meanwhile, in a post on his blog Tuesday, Beppe Grillo, head of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) political party, proposed TV executive Carlo Freccero as a director for public broadcaster RAI. Grillo added that the government has rushed the process of naming new executives to RAI. "There has not been the time required for start a serious process," wrote Grillo, who often communicates through his blog posts. While Renzi on Tuesday would not name new leadership for RAI he acknowledged he had high regard for one potential candidate. Antonio Campo Dall'Orto is "highly professional, among the most interesting innovators of Italian television, a name with the highest value that matches the criteria of quality, authority and capacity...but we will see," Renzi said. He added that his government had "no alternative" on the renewal of RAI. Any delays would be bad for an organization with three-billion euro budget, he said. That explains why a new board of directors and senior executives are being appointed under the existing system rather than waiting for reforms to be completed, said Renzi. His government's reforms are now working their way through Italy's parliament.
    Also on Tuesday, parliament's RAI oversight committee elected seven new members to the public broadcaster's board of directors. They are Rita Borioni, Arturo Diaconale, Carlo Freccero, Guelfo Guelfi, Giancarlo Mazzuca, Paolo Messa, and Franco Siddi.
    Borioni and Guelfi got five and six votes respectively from the majority wing of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) committee members. Siddi was voted in by five members from the PD and their centrist allies. Carlo Freccero was elected with six votes from M5S and the small leftwing Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party. Diaconale got five votes from Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, and Messa and Mazzucca got four votes from a caucus of New Center Right (NCD) and the small centrist UDC party. A dissenting leftwing minority within the ruling PD voted for Ferruccio De Bortoli, who did not make it onto the board.