“With all due respect to the institutions, I would like to call for further internal reflection” on the cancellation of Saviano’s programme Insider, scheduled for November,” said Soldi.
“This is a programme that has already been recorded.”
Insider is a television product “in the spirit of public service broadcasting”, she added.
On Wednesday, Rai CEO Roberto Sergio announced in an interview to Il Messaggero that Saviano’s show would not be airing.
The 43-year-old Gomorrah author, who has been under police protection from the Camorra for 17 years, said the decision was “clearly political”.
“They have come up with an ethical code that responds to the desires of those like (Deputy PM and right-wing League leader Matteo) Salvini who in 2015 said ‘I’d swap two Mattarellas for one Putin’,” said Saviano.
Saviano is currently on trial for calling Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini “bastards” over a strict immigration policy in which they called NGO run rescue ships “sea taxis” and “cruise ships”.
He also recently described Salvini as “the organised crime minister”.
Brothers of Italy (FdI), Meloni’s rightwing party, said this remark alone meant the writer, a hero to many, was “unworthy” of appearing on public television.
The centre-left opposition Democratic Party (Pd) said Italy’s parliamentary anti-mafia commission should debate Rai’s decision, alleging that it is part of an ongoing government purge of left-wing voices from the airwaves.
ANSA
