Saviano says cancellation of Rai show political decision

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 26 - Anti-mafia writer and campaigner Roberto Saviano told ANSA Wednesday the cancellation of his scheduled Rai state broadcaster show on the Mob had been a political decision influenced by Italy's rightwing government.
    Rai's decision to scrub the Insider show scheduld for November on the previously left-leaning Rai3 channel "is clearly a political decision," said the 43-year-old Gomorrah author, who has been under police protection from the Camorra for 17 years.
    "They have come up with an ethical code that responds to the desires of those like (Transport Minister and righwing League leader Matteo) Salvini who in 2015 said 'I'd swap two Mattarellas for one Putin'." Saviano noted that the programme, on which he had been working for over a year, highlighted the anti-mafia work of father Giuseppe Diana, slain by the Camorra in 1994, and other "persecuted" reporters.
    He said he would not take the programme to other channels and said that on Rai there was "no longer room for doing anti-mafia (shows)". (ANSA).