Kiosks in Italy will be semi-empty this Saturday, February 18. Several dailies including La Repubblica And La Stampawhich are among the biggest and most famous in Italy, will not appear on newsstands this Saturday.
With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir
The journalists of the Italian press group GEDI, to which they belong, have indeed observed a day of strike to protest against the sale of certain titles with their sites and newspapers in paper or digital format.
Controlled by a holding company of the Agnelli-Elkan family, GEDI is one of the most important press groups in Europe. But over the past three years, it has sold daily newspapers as well as a historic weekly, Espresso, and reopens to the market. This is the reason why the journalists of the group went on strike this Friday, February 17.
In a statement, they denounced, “ the logic of profit which quickly replaced that of interest in the territory and information “. They recognize that the owners have every right to sell daily newspapers, but underline that free information and pluralism represent an essential good for democracy. They demand maximum transparency on the future owners and respect for the labor rights of employees.
In fact, around ten titles are on sale, including daily newspapers from the North-East such as IMattino di Padova and the Gazzetta di Mantova. But also Radio Capital and maybe even La Repubblicafounded in 1976.