The Italian public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) looks set to become even more of a battleground between Rome’s conservative government and the left as key government MPs proposed measures that would ensure the “positive representation” of heterosexual families on the station.
RAI, the biggest media conglomerate in Italy, is directly funded by the Italian Ministry for Finance and has already seen boardroom clashes with Italy’s new right-wing administration as critics denounced an “ideological purge” following the departure of its director Carlo Fuortes in May.
The proposal to promote the natural family is being pushed by multiple Forza Italia MPs in changes to RAI’s code of governance, with additional amendments to strengthen the “motherhood” of women. Already, Italian progressives have likened the proposals to similar measures taken by the Hungarian and Russian governments—despite no mention of LGBT communities in the wording of the amendments.
While Meloni’s ruling coalition has been chastised by the right for failing to get a handle on Italy’s spiralling illegal migration on the Mediterranean, the Italian government has spooked NGOs in the past year for challenging progressive surrogacy laws and limiting the recognition of homosexual unions.
RAI was ridiculed by the Italian right for its partisan sympathies during last year’s Italian elections, while Meloni’s culture spokesman Federico Mollicone garnered international headlines for his demands that RAI not show an episode of the children’s TV show “Peppa Pig” due to the inclusion of a same-sex couple on-screen, decrying it as a form of “gender indoctrination.”
One of the few European nations not to have legalised same-sex marriage, despite recognising civil unions since 2016, Meloni made her pro-family credentials clear on the campaign trail with firebrand speeches proclaiming her opposition to the “LGBT+ lobby.”
As the political career of the recently deceased Silvio Berlusconi shows, institutional control over the media is an important part of consolidating power in Italy. Meloni’s party has already publicly boasted about ending the Italian left’s traditional dominance of RAI.
Meloni’s defence of the traditional family featured during May’s G7 meeting in Japan when Canadian PM Justin Trudeau publicly castigated the Italian premier in front of assembled media. Meloni responded by accusing Trudeau of falling victim to “fake news”, adding that his view “doesn’t correspond to reality.”
