The report highlighted concerns about press freedom in Italy.
Over the weekend, Meloni wrote to the Commission about the report.
Speaking to reporters during her official visit to China on Tuesday, Meloni named and shamed several publications.
“The European Commission reports the critical tones of some interest holders,” she said.
“Let’s call them stakeholders: (daily newspapers) Il Domani, il Fatto Quotidiano, La Repubblica.
“But the Commission is not my direct interlocutor,” she continued.
“Those who manipulate that report are.
“Besides, the report does not say anything particularly new with respect to previous years.”
In an editorial, il Domani Editor-in-chief Emiliano Fittipaldi said Meloni’s words were “serious, false and above all, dangerous” and accused her of “victimhood”.
“Those comments were followed by articles by right-wing, supposedly liberal newspapers that made a sort of blacklist of colleagues like our Francesca De Benedetti and Nello Trocchi, who are ‘guilty’ of having spoken to the media freedom observers,” Fittipaldi said.
La Repubblica said Meloni was continuing to fail to respond to the observations made in the report and said her comments “betray her illiberal idea of journalism and of the role journalism has in an accomplished democracy”.
Italian journalists’ union FNSI also responded to Meloni’s comments, saying “blacklists are a risk for democracy”.
Centre-right figures, on the other hand, expressed indignation at a writer for State broadcaster Rai, Riccardo Cassini, over a post making fun of Meloni for bringing her daughter to China.
They said it showed allegations Rai was being made to do the government’s bidding were false and showed the need for its governance to be reformed.
ANSA
