I’ll tell you about the phony political case of Fedez-Rai
The theme is not freedom of expression, but the bias and absence of contradiction in the contexts in which they are allowed to do so. The opinion of Federico Punzi, editor of Atlantico newspaper
It is difficult to remember such a paradoxical controversy full of short circuits like the one on Fedez's monologue at the May Day concert broadcast on Saturday by Raitre . Contrary to appearances, the 'Fedez case' has nothing to do, if not marginally, with freedom of expression, and the object of the dispute, the starting point for his monologue, the Zan law proposal, only marginally concerns and sanctions homophobia, while on closer inspection it affects freedom of expression. And other than censorship, the only Rai executive to speak with Fedez in the incriminated phone call has actually given the go-ahead for the singer's attack on the League.
But let's try to extricate ourselves between the different levels of reading and the different exploitation.
The "media" plan. The artist's freedom of expression has nothing to do with what happened and reported by Fedez . And as we will see, Rai has to do only marginally, but it is no coincidence that it ends up promptly at the center of the same controversies. Here the theme is not freedom of expression, because what Rai is reproached with is not that Fedez or others express their thoughts, but the bias and the absence of contradiction in the contexts in which they are allowed to do so, putting made the "public service" at the service of a political party, always the same.
It happens too often that cultural and artistic shows and events end up becoming stands for political rallies or moralizing sermons by the artist of the moment, which sometimes end up obscuring the event itself, bypassing that minimum of contradiction that even biased talk shows and Rai infotainment are called upon to guarantee.
( FEDEZ, THE FURBE BIRICHINATE AND THE FARLOCHE CENSORS )
This is the point: while a private publisher can be biased as much as he wants (in programs and moments that do not fall under the "par condicio" law ), Rai being a public television, paid with the money of all taxpayers, most disparate political and cultural orientations, it is expected that biased use of public service will never be allowed.
But there is another "misunderstanding" in this story, artfully fueled by Fedez to pass from being the victim of a RAI censorship. Thanks to the newspaper Domani , we get to know better how the May Day concert is organized. Rai pays a sum that is around 500 thousand euros for the broadcasting rights of the event. But the choice of the contents of the concert, since the Primo Maggio Consortium was established, is by an artistic director: this year Massimo Bonelli, CEO of the iCompany company, who has been in charge of organizing the show since 2015. If the one denounced by Fedez had been an attempt at censorship, it would be attributable to the iCompany company, not to Rai . And it can also be seen from the integral of the phone call released by the singer as proof of the pressure received.
( ALL THE POLITICAL CRILLS OF FEDEZ )
To utter the unfortunate expression "adapt to the system" , to which Fedez has attached himself to pass from being a victim of censorship, is Massimo Cinque, head of the iCompany project, as well as the request for a preventive vision of the text that the rapper he would have read on stage, while the only Rai executive to speak with the singer, the deputy director of Raitre Ilaria Capitani, intervenes precisely to avoid accusing the Viale Mazzini company of wanting to censor him. But this part of the conversation the shrewd Fedez cut it from the video he spread on social media :
“ Rai has absolutely no censorship to do. In the sense that… Rai makes a purchase of rights and filming, therefore Rai is not responsible for your presence, God forbid, or for what you will say […] ”. “I want to underline that Rai has absolutely no censorship, okay? It is not this […] After which I consider the context inappropriate, but this is his thing ”.
Therefore, not only the crafty Fedez recorded and disclosed to millions of people a private phone call without the consent of the interlocutors – already in itself a questionable conduct even from a legal point of view – but he also shredded his video, evidently premeditated, in a way that the attempted censorship appeared to be the work of RAI executives and not, if anything, of iCompany . In short, paradox within the paradox: in the end of this whole affair, the only censor is precisely the alleged victim of quasi-censorship.
But you understand that one thing is to pass from being a victim of RAI censorship, another thing for iCompany …
( ICOMPANY, HERE ARE SECRETS AND AFFAIRS OF THE COMPANY THAT CARES FOR THE CONCERTONE)
Fedez's accusation against Rai , at least from what can be seen from the widespread telephone call, therefore appears unfounded. What we reproach the Capitani and the RAI managers is, on the contrary, for not having done everything possible to prevent them from taking advantage of the means of public service for a political and personal attack without contradiction.
In this case, moreover, the alleged censorship would be consumed entirely on the left: on the left the censored singer, on the left the alleged censors. But if the monologue prepared by Fedez had appeared inappropriate not to some bad Northern League or Melonian fascist, but to the organizers themselves (certainly not right-wing) of the big concert and to the Rai executives in the Pd share, perhaps some questions should be asked.
It is the organizers' full right, if there are monologues by singers that go beyond the "artistic" content of their contribution to the event, to know the lyrics, if only to protect themselves from possible legal actions. This is "the system" …
It is not unusual in this kind of events that artists want to express their closeness, support a political or social cause, with a t-shirt, a song, or even a joke, a slogan. But what Fedez did is quantitatively and qualitatively very different, so much so that it was judged inappropriate by politically similar executives. He did not limit himself to declaring and motivating his support for the Zan bill, he lashed out at a party, against some political exponents cited by name and surname, without contradiction, without any of them being able to reply in front of the same public to whom he was addressing. Particularly violent, populist, and off topic, the attack on Roberto Formigoni on the reinstatement of the "annuity" (which is not an annuity, but social security treatment), unassailable at the point of law.
( FEDEZ, THE FURBE BIRICHINATE AND THE FARLOCHE CENSORS )
There is a substantial difference between social media and an event broadcast by Rai . On Twitter, Fedez reaches an audience "of his", his followers , a following that he has thanks to his skills, while that of the May Day concert is an audience that he was able to reach thanks to the organizers and thanks, above all, to the Rai media, paid by all the taxpayers, that is, also by the citizens who think differently from him, and by the people whom he fiercely attacked and who did not have the opportunity to defend themselves there. Fedez used Rai as if it were his Facebook page and thanks to the self-harm of the Rai executives he even managed to pass for gagged …
( ALL THE POLITICAL CRILLS OF FEDEZ )
An artist might want to support a political campaign with a gesture, with a slogan, even out of context, precisely in a broad sense of freedom of expression, but a rally to attack a party and individuals is something very different, intolerable in a format without contradiction. This is what is meant by "context" and that the iCompany and Rai executives were unable to explain to him in the phone call.
( ICOMPANY, HERE ARE SECRETS AND AFFAIRS OF THE COMPANY THAT CARES FOR THE CONCERTONE)
(Extract from an article published on atlanticoquotidiano.it)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/vi-racconto-il-farlocco-caso-politico-fedez-rai/ on Mon, 03 May 2021 08:01:58 +0000.