Di Maio accuses newspapers of polluting the ‘debate’ as he threatens to pull advertising from state-owned companies
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After Toninelli, it was Luigi Di Maio, who has taken aim at the country’s newspapers, accusing them of “polluting the debate” and threatening to pull advertising by state-owned companies.
“The newspapers… are now polluting the public debate every day and the worst is that they are doing it with public money,” the deputy prime minister wrote on his Facebook page this week.
And he warned that in its next budget, the government was planning “a reduction of indirect state contributions” to the press.
“We are preparing a letter to state-owned companies to ask them to stop paying for newspapers” by purchasing advertising space, wrote Di Maio who heads the populist Five Star Movement (M5S).
Like its founder Beppe Grillo, the anti-establishment M5S is convinced the traditional press is trying to undermine its governing alliance with the far-right League of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minister.
Both Di Maio and his party, as well as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and several League ministers who predominantly communicate through Twitter and Facebook, have unleashed a barrage of attacks on the traditional press in the name of defending “the people” against the establishment.
“This is not journalism, it’s just propaganda seeking to defend the interests of a small elite who think they can continue to control when it rains and when the sun shines,” wrote Di Maio, 32, who serves as labour and economic development minister.
“I don’t read the Italian newspapers to be informed… but only to understand how they want to attack us.”
