Italy: IFJ-EFJ call for the reinstatement of sacked journalist Gabriele Nunziati
europeanjournalists.org
Italian journalist Gabriele Nunziati, Brussels correspondent for the Agenzia Nova news agency, was told his collaboration with the agency was stopped ...

News is from last year, but it’s still dystopic for anyone that missed it:

At a European Commission press briefing in Brussels on 13 October, Nunziati asked the spokesperson Paula Pinho: “You’ve repeatedly said that Russia should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Do you think Israel should also pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, given that it destroyed much of the Strip and its civilian infrastructure?”

on 27 October, the journalist received a letter terminating his working relationship with the news agency, which, however, did not specify the reasons for this decision.

The Agenzia Nova news agency told Fanpage.it that Nunziati’s question was “completely out of place and technically incorrect” and had created “embarrassment for the agency”

  • MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de
    990·
    4 days ago

    I mean, that comparison was unwarranted and unwanted by the agency he worked for. Calling this “actual journalism” in the title is misleading. You can ask that question without equating Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine that way.

        • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.socialEnglish
          294·
          3 days ago

          This is how capitalism leads to fascism, because the ruling class control the media and use it to advance their own interests.

          I’ll share my more detailed explanation:

          How does capitalism inevitably lead to fascism?

          Basically, the issue with capitalism is that the more wealth you have, the easier it is for you to make more money. And since money can be used to buy goods, services and influence, there is always a way to use money to gain more political and social power. With that political and social power, you can push society and the legal system in the direction you want to go. So you can use your wealth to gain power, and then you can use your power to change laws and society so that you can make even more wealth and power. It’s a positive feedback loop.

          Obviously, though, if the billionaires and ruling class are accumulating more and more of our society’s wealth, that inevitably means that there’s less for everyone else to go around - therefore, working class people feel poorer and poorer. Meanwhile, the economy is going absolutely great for rich people, so inflation continues to go up - everything gets more expensive, but wages don’t increase. The wealthy just keep more and more of the wealth for themselves. To accumulate more and more wealth, they change the laws so that they can avoid paying taxes, so public services collapse. Politicians are lobbied to ensure that public funds are diverted away from where it is most needed - housing, healthcare, transportation, infrastructure - and instead into industries where their class interests most benefit from it, such as weapons manufacturing and extractive industries such as fossil fuels and mining.

          The working class are bound to notice that their lives are getting shittier and shittier, and if that situation is left unchecked, the working class would realize that the ruling class are fucking them over, rise up, and overthrow their rulers. Obviously, the ruling class need to do something about this, but there’s no solution that the ruling class can offer. They’re causing all of the problems, to fix them they’d have to give up some of their wealth and power - and that’s not something they’re going to do. So they need to find someone else to blame the problems we have in society on. Unfortunately, though, no matter who they blame the problems on, and no matter what they do to “fix” it, the issue will continue to persist, because the material conditions underlying the issues are, very intentionally, never addressed.

          So, the conundrum returns: The ruling class said that minority A caused all of the problems, minority A is persecuted and oppressed, but society doesn’t actually get any better. Either the problem wasn’t minority A, or minority A just hasn’t been oppressed enough yet. So the ruling class can either escalate the oppression, or they can shift the focus to another minority group. The division continues to escalate in terms of how vitriolic and extreme it is, and it also continues to divide the working class into smaller and smaller groups.

          To get the working class to buy into this hateful message, they need to take advantage of our worst instincts, and one of those instincts is the in-group bias. The majority are manipulated into being suspicious, then intolerant, then hateful, then violent, then genocidal, towards whatever the targeted minority of the day is. Anything that can be used to divide the working class - sexuality, nationality, immigration status, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender identity, age, all of these will be used as wedges to keep the working class split apart and not working together, because they know that if the working class actually unite against them, they are completely and truly fucked.

          That’s exactly how fascism manifests. It’s because it’s possible for people to accumulate power through wealth. This is why capitalism must be abolished. If we do not abolish capitalism, fascism will always return. It’s just a matter of time.

    • NoForwadSlashS@piefed.socialEnglish
      373·
      4 days ago

      My news agency didn’t want me to report the news. It’s obviously only “actual journalism” if you report exactly what your boss tells you to.

    • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.socialEnglish
      202·
      3 days ago

      that comparison was unwarranted

      Can you explain why you feel that way? Genuinely asking in good faith, I can’t understand what you might be objecting to about it, but I’d like to hear your perspective.

      • MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de
        330·
        3 days ago

        Russias invasion was completely unprovoked, they deliberately target civilians as a policy at range with shahed drones and missiles and in occupied areas in a way that leads to mass graves. They deny Ukrainian culture exists, kidnapping children (who I think some got shipped to north korea) and move Russians into the territories to replace Ukrainians.

        Israel always had tensions and responded to Oct 7, they don’t deliberately target civilians, Hamas uses human shields, which leads to dead civilians. (Many rouge soldiers who go largely unpunished, but no statewide policy, so no indiscriminate bombing.) No mass graves from street executions, no children kidnapped. Moving Israelis in to replace Palestinians does happen in the west bank, but not Gaza and it’s not really state policy, although they really should crack down on that.

        Again, the question makes sense, as for what Israels obligation is, but the comparison is very weird. Also I don’t know if Palestinians want Israel to help rebuild and as long as Hamas is the Government there, Israel will not send money for rebuilding, only to have Hamas buy weapons with it.

        I would also bet that this is not the first issue the journalist had with his employer.

    • Riverside@reddthat.com
      1215·
      3 days ago

      You’re right, Israel-Palestine cannot be equated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine because the former is a genocide whereas the latter isn’t. This makes the comparison even more relevant though: “if you call for war reparations here arguing from international law, how are you not calling for even more reparations there from genocide under international law?”

      • 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org
        24·
        3 days ago

        Relocating children? Only allow the Russian language in occupied areas? Deny that Ukrainians have their own culture and are/should be part of the Motherlandtm? Looks at least like an attempt at genocide to me.

        • Riverside@reddthat.com
          419·
          3 days ago

          Relocating children?

          The main source for this claim is the Ukrainian government though, there’s no independent journalistic reporting confirming that this is happening at scale

          Only allow the Russian language in occupied areas?

          Likely true, haven’t done any research but sounds plausible

          Deny that Ukrainians have their own culture and are/should be part of the Motherlandtm?

          That’s what Ukraine was doing In eastern Ukraine but backwards, and it’s very bad policy in both cases. However, this unfortunately happens in essentially every modern nation state (look at Occitan/Breton in France as an example).

          In conclusion: Russia is engaging in Russian nationalist policy, and homogenization of culture, which is policy I hate and condemn, but not enough to call genocide unless we say that most modern atates are engaging in genocide.