On 25 April, Beppe Grillo will collect signatures for the three referenda for freedom of information in a free State. The referenda are asking for the abolition of the Order of Journalists, the abolition of public financing of the publishing industry and the repeal of the Gasparri law on radio and TV. Italia dei Valori has decided to support the initiative and I’m inviting all the members and those who feel like us, to take part. You can give your signature in more than 400 cities throughout Italy, as indicated on the website www.beppegrillo.it. The Italia dei Valori organisation is available for the collection of signatures and to supply if necessary its own people to do the authentication of the signatures. Those who want to contact us can get in touch with one of the party offices indicated in this link.
I have decided to support these referenda because I believe that a democratic State cannot exist in the absence of information that is pluralist and free from economic and party political interests.
The victory of the Centre Right has been possible thanks to Silvio Berlusconi’s ownership of three TV channels and the Mondadori group. The Centre Left has made many errors, but the most important one is not to have enacted a law on the conflict of interests, to bring it into line with other western democracies. Today it is paying the price.
Starting from the day after the elections, the Centre Right has 6 out of 7 national TV channels. All in the hands of a single person.
To know the truth we have to look for it on the Internet. The programme Anno Zero and the journalist Marco Travaglio have already been subjected to verbal attention from Silvio Berlusconi. Tomorrow, 17 April, I will be a guest on Santoro’s programme. Watch the programme. It could be one of the last opportunities.