RAI Russia-League report under fire

(ANSA) - Rome, October 23 - RAI's board on Wednesday discussed an investigative report broadcast this week on alleged links between Matteo Salvini's League party and Russian funding, sources said.
    Board members Igor De Biasio and Giampaolo Rossi, who were nominated by the League and the rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party respectively, accused the 'Report' show of breaching electoral rules ahead of this weekend's regional government vote in Umbria.
    This argument was rejected by Rita Borioni, who was nominated by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), and Riccardo Laganà, representing employees, who said the show was simply exercising freedom to report the news.
    PD leader Nicola Zingaretti said no one should censor Report and that "freedom of expression must be defended in the public broadcaster". Former Salvini spokesman Gianluca Savoini is under investigation in relation to allegations he discussed taking funding via oil kickbacks from Russia at an October meeting at Moscow's Metropol hotel.
    Italian newsweekly L'Espresso and US news site Buzzfeed reported that Savoini and two other Italians met three Russians in the Moscow hotel to discuss siphoning off an alleged 65 million dollars from oil profits.