Maurizio Molinari: “the Scurati affair, a European injury”

Maurizio Molinari is editorial director of La Repubblica.

The censorship of Italian public television (Rai) against the writer Antonio Scurati and the personal attack he suffered from the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, tell us that in Italy the rule of law is attack. First the censorship, then the personal attack took place because Scurati was to read a monologue on television on the occasion of the anniversary of Italy's liberation from Nazi fascism – which took place on April 25 1945. This raises the question of why the Italian Prime Minister, despite repeatedly condemning fascism, remains unable to speak of “anti-fascism.” The deprivation of a writer – or any citizen – of their right to speak by a government constitutes a violation of freedom of opinion, a pillar of the rule of law, protected by the treaties of the European Union and proclaimed by the Constitutions of our countries as a fundamental right. This is why the censorship against Scurati is not only an Italian affair, but a European injury.

This is a European wound because when a single EU citizen, in any country, is unable to express his or her opinion, it is everyone's problem. It is a European injury because, when the public television of an EU country, instead of welcoming all kinds of opinions, prefers to choose only one, it is everyone's business . This is a European injury because, when the executive power publicly designates an individual as its adversary, beyond the legitimate criticism of their ideas, it is a problem for all EU citizens.

Scurati's censorship is not a political controversy between one party and another, and it should not be confused with ongoing electoral battles, as it concerns the exercise of freedom of expression. When this is violated, all of us, European citizens, become more vulnerable.

Unfortunately, Italy is not the only, nor the first, country in the EU where the executive power exceeds its legitimate prerogatives and gives in to the temptation to limit, to attack freedom of information in order to silence voices and unwanted opinions. This is why the task of independent media is to highlight such behavior, in order to prevent it.

(*) La Repubblica is part of the LENA alliance alongside Le Figaro, El País, Die Welt, du Soir, Gazeta Wyborcza, La Tribune de Genève and Tages Anzeiger.