Rome, 16 Nov. (LaPresse) – “Journalism is a fundamental safeguard for the democratic life of our country, but the quality of information is deteriorating. Publishers have not seized the opportunities in the revenues of the digital transformation of the sector and, faced with the crisis of traditional media, they have preferred to cut labour costs. The reduction of newsroom staff and of journalists’ pay through layoffs, repeated crisis situations with wage support measures and thousands of early retirements, the contractual paralysis, have dried up the supply of news with negative repercussions on pluralism and on citizens’ right to be informed. For these reasons, journalists have declared a national strike for 28 November to protest against the lack of renewal of the national labour contract Fnsi-Fieg, which expired more than ten years ago,” Fnsi said in a statement.
“They believe that for the development of information it is necessary to have a new agreement with publishers that takes into account the loss of purchasing power of salaries eroded by inflation, that encourages the entry of young people into newsrooms, that guarantees rights and adequate remuneration for the thousands of contributors and correspondents – mostly precarious – who every day report what happens in our cities,” the statement continues, concluding: “The strike, which will be preceded the day before, 27 November, by a public demonstration in Rome, has no political motivations, but aims to reaffirm that quality information is possible only with professional journalists who are free and protected, like all the workers of our country, in their rights and in the remuneration made adequate by the renewal of the labour contract.”
Publishing sector, Fnsi: “Journalists’ strike on 28 November for the renewal of the contract”
