Italy - Media Pluralism Monitor 2014

MPM 2014 divides the risks for media pluralism into three categories, encompassing respectively legal, economic and socio-political aspects. The implementation of the MPM 2014 for Italy reveals to what extend media pluralism is at risk in the country. The report shows a medium risk for media pluralism in Italy, with the highest concern related to the economic dimension.

Regarding legal regulations, MPM 2014 identifies as sources of concern the insufficient regulatory safeguards against excessive ownership and/or control of mainstream media by politicians

Moreover, limits to the independence of PSM derive from the composition of the Council of Administration of RAI usually reflects the political situation in the Parliament.

The report also notes that with the Law Decree 66 of 2014, the Italian government unilaterally adopted a decision modifying the usual method of financing of the PSM, which can be seen as a potential threat to the independence of PSM.

As for the economic type of indicators assessing risks to media pluralism, high risk is detected in ownership concentration, readership/audience concentration and cross-ownership concentration. High risk is also assessed concerning the availability and quality of the broadband.The lack of data on Minority and Community Media has not made the implementation of the indicator assessing possible.

High-risk in the socio-political indicatorsis noted with regard to political bias in the media,shows a high risk that is related to unbalanced representation of the different groups of political actors in the selected media sample.