WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Umanità Nova #3: Line up and cover! Media regulation, clandestine press and repression of movements (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In recent weeks, part of the media world has been protesting against

what is called the "gag law". Press releases from trade organizations
read on the news, transversal positions taken by the main newspapers,
protest notes from the bodies of the journalists' association, street
initiatives in various cities. In the last two years we have seen quite
frequently voices raised in the press against the measures of successive
governments. For the first time, however, we are witnessing such a broad
stance against a measure. In this case, the aim of the protests is the
amendment to the European delegation law signed by MP Enrico Costa of
Action, which prohibits journalists from literally publishing, including
extracts of, precautionary custody orders, which have no longer been
secret since 2016. The amendment was approved last December 19th in the
Chamber, with the favorable vote not only of the majority, but also of
Azione and Italia Viva, and the Senate should decide on the matter this
week.

It may be that by the time these lines are read the matter has already
progressed a lot, so it is best to limit ourselves to making some
general considerations. Without going into technical aspects, however
this story goes, it is clear that we are faced with yet another
authoritarian act of control of information by political power, and in
this sense the voices that criticize the political class for wanting to
protect themselves with these measures are not wrong. As they say,
however, they have discovered hot water: the political class always
tries to protect its privileges. It is clear that in a phase marked by
war and the authoritarian and military solution to crises, these forms
of control are strengthened so that the executive has not only greater
power but also a path free from obstacles.

One of the illusions of the ideology of the democratic regime is to
consider the media an instrument of control over political power, when
in reality they are factories of consensus. This definition, already
widespread for a few decades, is generally valid today even though the
media system has profoundly changed. In this sense, the publication of
wiretaps and judicial orders, which is very important to the Italian
media system, is also part of the consensus mechanism. In fact, even
when the media in recent history have given strength and arguments to
protest movements against the government, the role of the media has
always been functional to the clash between power groups, to the
regeneration of the political class, to the rehabilitation of
institutions tainted by this or from that rotten apple, certainly not at
the service of the oppressed and exploited. It is therefore a machine
only functional to the reproduction of the current system of domination.

If on the one hand there are those who always fall on their feet in this
game, in an eternal repainting of power, there are those who always find
themselves crushed by the media and judicial power, regardless of who
governs or what gag law is in place. that current moment. They are these
companions whose names are always published in the newspapers, together
with other personal data, when they are investigated for crimes relating
to demonstrations or political actions; they are workers,
environmentalists and subjectivities that the media never talk about
except when there is a need to criminalize some protest that comes out
of rituality; they are those who are dehumanized because they are
without documents or because they are closed behind bars; they are those
who without work, without children, without a career, without a future,
are always subjected to the judgment of some expert; they are those who
are always reduced to silence, whose voice, even when reported, is often
only in a fragmented and stereotyped way and in any case always drowned
out by the deafening "other bell".

For these, for us, the publication of a few interceptions or a few lines
of ordinance certainly does not change the living and working
conditions. The same goes for those in the government who claim to
defend the "presumption of innocence". In this case we are always
talking about the innocence of some honorable person, knight and
manager, who cannot see his reputation tarnished, certainly not of those
who this social order already crushes in the mud every day.

If it's just a clash of powers why should we care about it then? Because
the clampdown on the media, the centralization of information and the
control over what is published is an effective authoritarian measure by
the government, which today intervenes by limiting judicial reporting,
but which intends to impose mechanisms, partly already tested, which
want subject information in general to further scrutiny.  Let's think
about the system of "certification" of news, which government
representatives would like to formalize, or the Committee for the
development and enhancement of defense culture. Let's think about the
repression of the so-called "clandestine press", which has recently come
back into fashion. The military and financial support for Ukraine first
and then the support for the war waged by Israel were, in different
ways, accompanied by a choral media campaign. Even if over time
different positions and dissonant voices emerged, in the early stages
there was a transversal and overwhelming support for the government's
policy. A further authoritarian clampdown on information would therefore
only limit freedom of expression on paper and digitally, and make the
relationship between media and political power even more organic,
especially in support of cross-party policies conducted in the name of
self-interest national, from wars to the restriction of freedoms and
social rights.

All authoritarian regimes in their construction pass through the
standardization of the media. It is important to note that in a general
context of crisis and authoritarian and military solution by the state
we are faced with a transition that goes in this direction. In the fight
for freedom one must be able to grasp these signals, also to try to
adapt one's initiative. It is difficult to say how far the government
will proceed in this direction. Whether it will be enough for him to
pull a little bit to make things take the right direction, or whether
more complex forms of control will be imposed.

Of course, reading certain declarations against the Costa amendment
makes one say that someone even had their eyes and ears blindfolded by
gagging. There are those who seem convinced that they live in a free
society in which the media are censored for no reason. But we know well
that the power relations that govern society, which have been in crisis
for some time, have narrowed the margins of "democratic viability" very
much. Some examples are given by the most recent provisions. With the
security package launched by the government in the autumn, the crime of
prison revolt is established, which will be effective, eloquently, also
for the CPR. This is the new art. 415-bis of the penal code which
establishes what was defined by Antigone as "the crime of prison
treason" punishing up to 8 years "Anyone, within a penitentiary
institution, through acts of violence or threats, even passive
resistance the execution of the orders given or through attempts to
escape, committed by three or more people together, promotes, organizes,
directs a revolt". Article 415 of the penal code, which punishes
incitement to disobedience to public order laws, is also extended, going
as far as punishing those who instigate revolt with writings directed at
prisoners. Aren't these gags? Likewise, the anti-strike laws, against
"raves", against "vandalism", against occupations, pickets and road
blocks, which limit the freedom to demonstrate, are also gags.

Those who really want to oppose the government's authoritarian grip will
therefore not be able to limit themselves to their own backyard, the
only possible fight is against all gags and all chains.

https://collettivoanarchico.noblogs.org/post/2024/01/27/allineati-e-coperti-regolamentazione-dei-media-stampa-clandestina-e-repressione-dei-movimenti/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca