Marcello Foa, a Eurosceptic journalist who has often shared stories proved to be fake, has been appointed president of Italian public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana SPA (Rai), in a move that has raised fears over its autonomy.
Foa, who also holds anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-vaccine and pro-Russia views, was pushed for the role by the governing coalition of the far-right League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, despite concerns from journalists’ unions.
The parliamentary committee that oversees Rai late on Wednesday voted in favor of Foa after former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party dropped its opposition to his candidacy.
Foa, 55, earlier told the committee that “Rai must promote an authentic political, cultural and religious pluralism, and in respect for all.”
A former journalist with Berlusconi’s Il Giornale newspaper, he added that the mandate received from the government is “professional” and not “political.”
“I have never served any political party or sought support for my career… The mandate appeals to my professional career; I intend to honor it in the name of journalistic values,” he said.
Rai’s journalist union, USIGRai, had urged the committee to carry out an “in-depth assessment to ensure the legitimacy” of the candidate.
Fake stories shared by Foa included one during the 2016 US presidential election campaign about former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton participating in satanic dinners and another about a supposed plan to overthrow US President Donald Trump.
He has also said that being gay is abnormal and that giving babies vaccines could provoke a “shock” in the child.
He has expressed admiration for former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and in the past has collaborated with the state-funded Russian news outlets RT and Sputnik.
Industry sources said that Foa’s appointment is likely to prompt journalists at Rai to resign in protest.
“They fear the loss of freedom,” one source said.
Many speculate that Foa’s appointment was made possible after Berlusconi struck a deal with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini ensuring that his business interests would be protected from government interference.
Berlusconi owns the rival media empire Mediaset.
It could also be linked to upcoming regional elections, in which Forza Italia is to compete as part of a center-right coalition with the League and Brothers of Italy.
“Foa won the vote because of the Berlusconi accord,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Before the vote, Five Star leader Luigi di Maio said that Foa is an independent journalist.
When Foa was first mooted in July, Di Maio said he would help purge the “parasites” installed by mainstream parties who had led Rai for decades.
“[Five Star’s] election campaign spoke about ‘no more conflict of interest’ and ‘no more Berlusconi,’ then this happens,” the source said. “Unfortunately, that’s what populist movements are like.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing