AGI, PD to EU Commissioner Jourová: “Takeover a risk to journalists’ independence”

Brussels – The Democratic Party brings the negotiation for the takeover of the Italian News Agency (AGI) by Antonio Angelucci before the European institutions. In a letter addressed to the Vice-President of the EU Commission and Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, the PD delegation in the European Parliament calls on Brussels to “clarify what action it intends to take in the event of failure to respect the editorial independence of the Agency” and “the European law on media freedom.”

After parliamentary questions in the Italian Chamber of Deputies by the PD and the Five Star Movement, the matter thus reaches Brussels. European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand, responding to a question about the possible takeover of AGI, said already last week that the matter is still to be examined but that, in any case, the commission will monitor compliance with the Media Freedom Act, the European legislation finally approved by the parliament on 13 March.

“Rather than an editorial takeover, this seems to be a clear political operation that will lead to a concerning concentration of the media under political control,” the PD’s MEPs denounce. “ENI, the current publisher of AGI, has the Ministry of Economy as a shareholder, led by a minister from the same political party as Angelucci,” the letter to Jourová continues. On this point, Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti explained during question time in the House of Deputies that his ministry “is not the authority deputed to answer.”

The editorial staff of AGI has been protesting since last March 18, when rumours grew of a possible sale of the agency to the Angelucci Group, which is headed by Lega deputy Antonio Angelucci, a real estate and publishing entrepreneur who already owns Il Tempo, Il Giornale, and Libero (through the San Raffaele Foundation), as well as various local newspapers. After calling two days of strike action on March 21 and 22, AGI journalists walked out again on March 27 and 28 to protest the change of ownership.

The European Media Freedom Act requires all publishing groups, both large and small, to publish information about their owners within a national database to allow the public to know who controls individual media outlets and what interests may lie behind ownership. It also provides several safeguards to avoid excessive concentration in the hands of individual publishers. However, the effectiveness of the new rules depends on their implementation, which is why the regulation establishes a new international body, the European Media Services Council, which will oversee member states to make sure they implement the rules. The Italian News Agency affair is already the first test case.