Members of the centre-left governing coalition have joined forces with like-minded celebrities and journalists in a campaign to rid state broadcaster RAI of all alleged political interference. Led by Franca Rame, actress, neo-senator and wife of Nobel-winning writer Dario Fo, and Green MP Tana De Zulueta, the campaigners are busy drumming up support for a 'people's bill' aimed at reforming RAI.
They must collect a total of 50,000 voters' signatures for the bill proposal to be valid and present it by July 10 at the latest.
De Zulueta said on Monday that the group had collected 35,000 signatures so far and was planning theatrical events and rallies as part of its bid to win more. On Wednesday, Rame and cult comedienne Sabina Guzzanti will be among those taking part in a theatre show in Rome to help raise money and support for the bill initiative.
Guzzanti's 2003 satire show Raiot was axed by RAI after it took swipes at former premier Silvio Berlusconi and his three-channel private TV network Mediaset. She subsequently made a hit documentary, Viva Zapatero, about her unsuccessful battle to get her show back on the air and media censorship in general in Italy.
De Zulueta said the campaigners were seeking to "make RAI independent of all political parties and give Italy true information pluralism". They want parliament's RAI watchdog committee to be abolished and replaced by a 21-member independent committee most of whose members would represent Italian civil society.
The new committee would also be responsible for appointing RAI's board. Under a media reform law passed by the previous Berlusconi-led government, RAI board members are appointed by the RAI watchdog and the economy ministry. Backers of the bill include Dario Fo, astrophysicist Margherita Hack, award-winning crusading comedian Beppe Grillo, theatre actor Moni Ovadia, Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, director Ettore Scola and head of the Italian journalists' union FNSI Paolo Serventi Longhi.
Veteran journalist Enzo Biagi and satirist Daniele Luttazzi are also supporting the reforms. The two disappeared from RAI's airwaves after Berlusconi accused them in 2002 of having slashed his May 2001 election lead by making "criminal" use of state TV.
