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)".
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