The press flies too much on state flights

4 May 20213 years ago babelfish

Sister Anna Monia Alfieri's notebook

"Freedom is looking for, which is so dear, as he knows who refuses life for her" (Pg, I, vv. 71 – 72)

Dear guys,

before this day ends, I would like to reflect with you. Yesterday, a day dedicated to freedom of the press, reading the newspapers (I read at least six of them every day), I came across a curious piece of news that tickled my youthful desire, never dormant, to deepen the news. After ignorance, in fact, the thing I fear most in life is slavery, physical and intellectual: I hate the thought of feeling like a puppet in the hands of the puppeteer. No one should influence our choices, on the contrary, it is necessary to deepen and orient oneself independently.

Thinking about it, it is bizarre that I write this to you precisely in conjunction with the World Press Freedom Day, a freedom that is functional to guaranteeing information as a public good. And yes, we are all convinced, in a perfect analysis, that the freedom of the press translates first of all into the duty of reliable, free information, which does not yield to exploitation.

Yet, sometimes, too often by now, one gets the feeling that, in order to clear an already pre-packaged idea, the “piece” is artfully built. Is this freedom of the press? And most importantly, has the press fulfilled its right to be free and its duty to provide reliable information? There is no right without duty, otherwise distortions are created that are an abuse, because they prevent our young people from keeping the bar of life straight.

Young people, take the field, in politics as well as in journalism, giving the best of yourself: you will then be able to live that proximity that always makes you respectful of the other, of his dignity. In recent times there has been continuous talk, in a sometimes cloying way, of integration, welcome, respect; the slightest crooked eye that discriminates against the other stands as a crime. In this way, just as it is normal, it actually pursues the opposite purpose. If we do not cultivate a sensitivity of institutional and human respect, we will not only give partial information but, on effective titles, we will build those battles that are consummated for undeclared third party interests.

I'll tell you a secret: now, when I read a newspaper or listen to news, I ask myself: what is the unspoken? In this unspoken there is the real interest. Why do you speak or write? What do you want to sell? There are those who declare it openly and there are those who do not declare it but for us it is essential to discover it, to try to read reality as objectively as possible. It is necessary, to be free from cultural idiocy, ours and others. I am hungry and thirsty for freedom. We try?

The news that I would like to comment with you has actually gone unnoticed: the hidden thought must always be brought to light. We read that the President of the Senate, the second in charge of the state, would have taken too many state flights for her travels. In short: no one, not even those who report the scoop, accuses her of having acted against the law which, in fact, provides for the use of the State Falcon for institutional reasons for the five offices of the state.

Yet, someone has raised their voice against President Casellati, accusing her of having acted against the law. Disdain for the institutions, for that relationship of trust which is so necessary for citizens. On the other hand, that politics is the highest form of charity that serves the country and that journalism is among the most worthy services rendered to the community because it informs are obsolete concepts for a generation accustomed to screaming in the streets and bringing home the news to at all costs.

Let's go ahead: State flights are scheduled for the highest positions, not only to guarantee their safety but also to protect passengers who, in short, have done nothing wrong to find themselves in the carriage that blows up …

But the President of the Senate has chosen to travel by train for the years 2018 and 2019. She likes to travel by train because she thinks, she studies: it is known to everyone, except the journalist who probably considered it not very functional to the scoop, that the President is a workaholic. Career of indisputable profile, hours and hours in the office, a high sense of the institutions so as to keep the Senate open in times of Covid. Very high security measures to allow the senators to be present, she herself did not move from Rome for three months. In order of priority, we were in times of pandemic, all conferences canceled, it was necessary for the Senate to function, considering that, in addition to the health emergency, the democratic one was also to be addressed, with a government that was proceeding with the Dpcm and , since December 2018, it acted with votes of confidence. Not surprisingly, President Mattarella intervened and now we have moved on to a government of national unity.

But the journalist does not need this piece of truth: a woman, a mother, a grandmother, far from loved ones. It is a matter of choices: those who decide to serve the nation do so to the end.

Let's go ahead: State flights are scheduled and paid for whether they fly or not, for 350 hours per year each. So the six Falcons are paid to fly or not to fly. So it is not clear where the waste would be, if the second state office took the plane for a hundred hours for institutional reasons, to save time, to be in Milan, close to the citizens, in short, to do its duty. Again: last summer, President Casellati went on vacation with her husband (a pity for the hundreds of amendments to be studied that she took to the stock exchange) in a time of crisis, the one opened by Salvini, and she had to be available and go to Rome in a short time.

Obviously, the sexist note cannot be missing: on vacation she went to the hairdresser. Could we say that it is in the role of a representative of the institutions to present herself in order and not sloppy? That there is a social cost to sloppiness. Or could we perhaps say that a man, even more than the Institutions, we will never have made the accusation of having gone to the hairdresser?

So, guys, to conclude, the story teaches us that 1) a law is not enough to not discriminate, because there will never be a law that will be able to fill not the regulatory void – which, moreover, does not exist – but that of thought that a sometimes it turns out to be a chasm, 2) it is necessary to deepen, because the truth is always more complex than what is described to us, 3) it is necessary to do the cost / benefit analysis. There are bad costs that produce poverty and good costs that produce progress: high civic sense, service of the nation, culture and competence.

Pope John Paul II remained in the hearts of many for his ability to get close: he traveled a lot, he reached everyone; and yet, he too was reproached precisely for wasting the money of the Church, of the poor, on his travels. Judas Iscariot who held the chest of the Twelve rebuked the woman who wasted the nard that could be sold and given to the poor. However, he did not refuse the thirty denarii.

Dear friends, the question always remains the same: you who speak, you who write what are you selling?

I, I assure you, am selling a desperate desire for freedom.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-stampa-vola-troppo-sui-voli-di-stato/ on Tue, 04 May 2021 09:53:03 +0000.