Teutas - Diritto & Tecnologia

Τhe Department of Law of the European University Institute (EUI) organized a workshop on the Italian media system as part of the MEDIADEM project.The workshop took place in Florence on March 25, 2011. Two were the main topics debated: the evolution of the journalistic profession in the new media environment, covered during the morning session, and the audiovisual media policy in Italy, discussed in the afternoon.

The workshop started with an introduction to the MEDIADEM project’s aim, objectives and progress up to date by Prof. Fabrizio Cafaggi and Dr Elda Brogi. The morning session continued with a presentation by Mr Roberto Natale, President of the Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana (FNSI). Mr Natale described the challenges that the new media have brought to the journalistic profession, highlighting that in such an overloaded media context, professional journalism offers information and news of higher quality. The role of the professional journalist, explained Mr Natale, was made clear during the dispute between The Guardian and Julian Assange on the publication of the whole Wikileaks archive. The way The Guardian disagreed on the publication of the entire archive and decided to select information to be published is related to the definition of the tasks of journalism, even in the new media environment: to select and choose what is relevant for publication. The FNSI, he then noted, is in favour of the preservation of the Ordine dei Giornalisti (the public associative body of the profession), as the latter can guarantee respect for the deontological codes. Nevertheless, Mr Natale argued, the Ordine should be reformed, as well as the access to the profession, in order to have more qualified journalists: he underlined a journalist must be required of a specific professional education. Mr Giuseppe Rea, member of the Council of the Ordine dei Giornalisti and coordinator of the group Libertà di Stampa - Diritto all’Informazione (LSDI), then took the floor to present the draft legislation of the Italian Parliament on the reform of the Ordine and talked about online journalism, citizen journalism and data journalism. The Italian editorial industry, he argued, has not yet realized the potential of the new media and has not yet developed strategies for the use of the new communication tools. Prof. Gennaro Carotenuto, who teaches History of Journalism at the University of Macerata, underlined how the Wikileaks affair is changing the role of journalists: partially disagreeing with Roberto Natale, in fact, he affirmed that journalists nowadays are not asked to choose information, but to make it available as found and received with no selection but what is due in order to safeguard, for instance, certain personal rights (i.e the identity of the sources). Mr Piero Macrì, Member of the European Journalism Observatory, stressed the need that publishers should invest in the on line information market: as they recognize online information is a value in the supply chain of editorial industry, they should consequently reward better on line journalists. The afternoon session started with two other introductions of Prof. Cafaggi to the MEDIADEM project aims, stressing the focus on new media regulationand of Dr Elda Brogi who highlithed the most important issues on Italian audiovisual media regulation, from the debate on media ownership to the one on political pluralism, from the role of the National Regulatory Authority to the effective implementation of the European directive 2007/65/CE, “audiovisual media services” . Prof. Roberto Zaccaria, member of the Camera dei Deputati (House of the Representatives), then made a presentation on the critical aspects of the governance of the Italian audiovisual sector, focusing on the tasks of the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (the Authority of Communications). The session continued with Prof. Roberto Mastroianni (Professor of European Law at the University of Naples) who talked about the interpretation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to media pluralism, and Mr Ottavio Grandinetti (attorney) who talked about the attempts of Sky Italia to enter the digital terrestrial television market in Italy. Ms Camilla Sebastiani (Policy study department of the Authority of Communications), presented the role of the Authority in safeguarding media pluralism. The workshop ended with Ms. Valeria Amendola, (Head of Unit-Policy Studies Office of the Autorità Garante per la Concorrenza ed il Mercato he Italian Authority on Market and Trade), who referred to the case of the Association of the Italian Newspaper Industries (FIEG) v Google for the abuse of the latter’s dominant position in the online market. Participants have been discussing and exchanging opinions (some of them concerns) on how effective competition is in the audiovisual market in Italy, stressing the need of a more incisive role of the national communication Authority in implementing EU principles of competition and non discrimination in the regulation of the audiovisual market.

For more details on the MEDIADEM project, see www.mediadem.eliamep.gr/

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