After the outrage of the Democratic Party, Rai has decided not to carry out the contract of Professor Alessandro Orsini born on the initiative of Bianca Berlinguer's “Cartabianca” program.
The story is causing a lot of discussion, but let's start from the beginning.
Professor of sociology of terrorism at Luiss, considered one of the leading terrorism experts in Italy, Orsini is a member of the Radicalization Awareness Network and of the strategic analysis committee of the Defense Staff. Recently, his frequent appearances on TV in which he talked about the war in Ukraine, both by Bianca Berlinguer and in Piazza Pulita on La7, caused a lot of discussion.
Yesterday Il Foglio gave the news of a contract stipulated between Orsini and Cartabianca which provides for a fee of approximately 2 thousand euros per episode for a total of six appointments.
THE POLEMICS - Open heaven, the insurrection of the dem started immediately: "It is unacceptable that the resources of the public radio and television service are used to finance Putin's propaganda pipers", the attack by Andrea Romano. “Orsini is right to freely express his thoughts, God forbid. But I also have to pay for it, even no. Crazy stuff ”, the words of the Emilian governor Stefano Bonaccini.
"It is unacceptable - according to Pina Picierno - that public television money be used to pay for the speeches of Alessandro Orsini, who pollutes and disorients the public debate with falsehoods and historical reconstructions, to say the least, questionable in support of Putin".
THE RAI DECISION - An outcry that has had its effects. This morning the communication from Viale Mazzini: "The management of Rai 3, in agreement with the CEO of Rai, deemed it appropriate not to carry out the contract originated on the initiative of the Cartabianca program which provided for a fee for the presence of Professor Alessandro Orsini in the transmission ".
BIANCA BERLINGUER - A decision that did not go down to the presenter: “I learn that the signed contract will be interrupted due to a decision of the management of Rai3 without my having been consulted on the matter. This severely limits my role as author and program manager ”.
Orsini's, adds Berlinguer, is a “voice certainly representative of an opinion present in Italian society and among scholars. Excluding is a mortification of the debate, isn't this the mission of the public service? ”.
The presenter also clarified that the sociologist "had been offered more conspicuous contracts by the competition" and that Orsini's positions had been confronted "with opposing ideas, in the name of a debate that is neither univocal nor homologated".
Rai “cannot escape the opinion-makers market, on pain of less competitiveness with respect to audience ratings. Participation in Cartabianca is generally free, except for those who ensure a constant presence of time.
ORSINI - “Many other broadcasts had offered me much higher remuneration than Rai, I chose Berlinguer because I think it is a guarantee of freedom. And this freedom must be defended, for this reason I announce that I am ready to participate in Bianca Berlinguer's broadcast for free ”, wrote the Luiss professor on Facebook.
THE POSITIONS OF ORSINI - But what are the positions of Orsini that led the dem to define him as a "piper of Putin"? The lecturer, who also condemns the Russian aggression against Ukraine, argues that other great powers such as the United States have not behaved differently in foreign policy over the years.
He did so by citing Afghanistan, Iraq with the phosphorus bombs and the overthrow of Saddam, Cuba and the missile crisis. Moscow, Orsini argues, feels threatened by the eastward enlargement of NATO and the hostile foreign policy of a neighboring country like Ukraine. And therefore we must treat Putin not as a criminal or an animal, we must "humanize" him and sit at the table with him.
According to Orsini, weapons should not be sent to Kiev, because it means extending the war, perhaps bogging Putin down but causing a massacre of civilians. And therefore the solution is diplomatic and in his opinion Europe must move, because the United States - is the teacher's thesis - has an interest in the war going on and wearing down the leadership of Vladimir Putin. Basically we need to give Moscow the Donbass, recognize Crimea and guarantee the neutrality of Ukraine.
In particular, he made Cartabianca discuss one of his statements on the atomic bomb. “We repeat 'certainly, he will not use the atomic bomb'. But Putin said, even in a conference with French President Macron, that he had the atomic bomb. ' If Putin really, in a desperate condition in which he risks losing the war in Ukraine, were to use the atomic bomb, Europe would be morally co-responsible ”, his words. So must Putin win the war to avoid the risk associated with the atomic bomb? he was asked. "If we put the discourse in this light, I say we will let Putin win the war".
(Unioneonline / L)