The controversy surrounding the cancellation of Roberto Saviano’s “Insider” on Rai: Political interference and censorship

Insider – face to face with crime is an interview program by Roberto Saviano, the author of the hit novel Gomorrah, in which the journalist opened a booklet about the Camorra, organized crime in the Naples area. Saviano has been under police protection for years because of death threats.

The second season of Insider, with four pre-recorded episodes, was scheduled for November. But the Italian public broadcaster Rai has now decided not to broadcast them. According to Roberto Sergio, the new managing director, it is a “company decision” that has nothing to do with politics. There was not much further explanation. But Saviano’s program is scrapped shortly after he once again called Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini the “minister of the underworld.” Suddenly there appears to be a problem with the Rai’s code of ethics.

Nonsense, responds Roberto Saviano in an online video message. Why is this not a political decision? Roberto Sergio is a politically appointed official, who sits there on behalf of Salvini’s Lega party.” That he calls Salvini the minister of the underworld is nothing new, says Saviano himself: “For five years now, a lawsuit has been pending against me. The Rai knew for a long time that I call him that.”

In the already recorded episodes of his program, former criminals, who decided to cooperate with the judiciary, talk about the ties between organized crime and politics, and between the mafia and the economic world, says Saviano. He sees the fact that the program is now being canceled as a way to stop a broadcast that is unpleasant for those in power and to punish him at the same time. The message to other journalists, Saviano concludes, is: “Shut up if you want to keep working.” According to him, because the four episodes are owned by the Rai, they cannot be broadcast elsewhere.

Roberto Saviano is known for his polemical statements. In addition to the lawsuit for insults against Salvini, there is also a second trial because he personally attacked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni about Italy’s tough migration policy. His program Insider was anything but a ratings hit last year on Rai 3, the third and traditionally progressive network of the public broadcaster. Reportthe well-respected research program of that network, for example, will hold up and will not be scrapped.

But that also doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong. There has been concern and dismay among the Rai since Meloni’s new right-wing government began appointing its own confidential advisers across all public broadcasters. Carlo Fuortes, the boss of the Rai, resigned this spring. And two well-known and popular television figures saw the storm approaching in the rapidly changing climate and switched to the pay channel Discovery themselves. When progressive talk show host Fabio Fazio and popular comedienne Luciana Littizzetto left, Minister Salvini sarcastically responded: “Beautiful hello!” (“Goodbye, boys!”).