• Journalists from RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, went on a 24-hour strike on Monday to protest budget cuts and alleged repression by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government. Mint
• Usigrai, the union representing 1.6K of RAI’s 2K journalists, defended the strike, calling the situation “unprecedented” and accusing Meloni’s right-wing government of stifling free speech. Al Jazeera (LR: 2 CP: 1)
• RAI radio and television journalists also protested the company’s budget tightening, including hiring freezes. However, RAI said it isn’t cutting jobs and is committed to protecting “pluralism and freedom of expression.” Associated Press (LR: 3 CP: 5)
• Last month, RAI canceled a monologue by Meloni’s critic who was reportedly scheduled to denounce the alleged fascist ties of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. However, RAI maintained that the broadcast was canceled for financial reasons. AJC
• Despite Monday’s 24-hour walkout, RAI, which owns Italy’s three main public TV channels, was able to air most of its programming. Associated Press (LR: 3 CP: 5)
• The strike comes after the international non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders downgraded Italy five spots to 46th out of 180 countries in its annual index of press freedom. Associated Press (LR: 3 CP: 5)

Left narrative:

• Meloni’s government has been censoring speech since it took power in 2022, and RAI journalists are striking to sound the alarm on Italy’s eroding press freedom. Meloni has done little to distance herself from her party’s fascist roots, and has even demonstrated her own fascistic tendencies by shutting down a monologue by an antifascist author. The Italian right seeks to seize media control, and journalists are standing up to this overreach.
  GUARDIAN (LR: 2 CP: 5)

Right narrative:

• Left-wing activists at RAI are engaging in a political protest against Italy’s democratically elected government, showing how little they know about threats to press freedom. For decades, RAI was run by officials hand-picked by liberal governments, and ignored right-of-center Italians. Now, liberal journalists are protesting the fact that there’s conservative representation. There’s no media suppression at RAI — it’s just a movement towards an even distribution of opinions.
  GROUND NEWS

Nerd narrative:

• There’s a 70% chance that Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party will win the most seats in the Chamber of Deputies in the next Italian election, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
  METACULUS (LR: 3 CP: 3)