Political fairness and balance between public service and commercial TV market RAI's broadcasts content and nominees are frequently accused of political bias, However, many people underline that RAI needs to balance political equity and public services with the market rules and competitors. All these issues are ongoing. RAI's main channels are considered slightly politically oriented: Rai 1 is liberal or centre-right, Rai 2 is usually more right-oriented, while Rai 3 typically has the majority of left oriented programmes and hosts
Fabio Fazio and
Bianca Berlinguer, or the journalistic deep investigation programme
Report, famous for its investigations over far-right scandals. This issue in Italy is referred as and is yet to be solved.
Political censorship and civil rights advocacy controversies RAI is frequently subjected to controversies and censorship accusations regarding political matters, especially civil rights and LGBT issues. The broadcaster was strongly accused in 2008 of cutting the gay love scene of the Oscar-winning movie
Brokeback Mountain. RAI initially apologised for the cut, explaining that the cut was due to a pre-cut edition originally planned for the prime-time slot, and wasn't corrected when airing was shifted to the late-night slot. Critics noticed that similar scenes of heterosexual lovers were never cut out before in prime-time and reinforcing the accusation of homophobic censorship. The company rescheduled a new uncut version of the movie, but this was aired again in an even later time slot, a choice seen as a confirmation of the accusation. Only two years later, the movie aired again with all homosexual sex and kisses cut off. RAI was forced again to apologise, accusing a problem" with the pre-cut edition by the distribution company and a lack of fact-checking by the RAI employee. In 2011, episode 125 of the German TV Soap
Um Himmels Willen ('For Heaven's Sake'), shown in Italy since 2004, was entitled
Romeo and Romeo and due to screen on Rai 1 but was left out in order to "avoid controversy", according to the broadcaster. In 2016, during the first clear broadcast of the show
How to Get Away with Murder, on Rai 2, the gay kisses for one of the main characters (portrayed by
Jack Falahee) were completely cut off. RAI apologised again, stating that the incident was "merely the mistake of an overzealous editor". Criticism on the social media platforms was so strong that Falahee and showrunner
Shonda Rhimes both tweeted against the network's "inexcusable" censorship.
Fedez controversy In 2021, another accusation was made against RAI by Italian rapper
Fedez. During the 1 May , a traditional Italian TV broadcast concert in celebration of the
International Workers' Day, the rapper was invited to perform and have a speech on the stage. The rapper honoured the entertainment workers affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic and spent half of his speech in support of legislation that would punish
violence against women and
LGBT people as
hate crimes in Italy. During his speech, he recalled all the political exponents' hate speech (confirmed by videos or sentenced by court) during the late years, and accused Rai 3's executive of trying censoring his speech by order of superiors as "this is how it works". RAI immediately denied all accusations and Fedez leaked a recorded audio of the conversation between him and the executives, where managers and hosts (declaring their names and roles to him) tried to censor his speech, by "asking you to adapt to a system that you probably don't get". After the video was reposted by all national media and web news sites, RAI sued the rapper, while a parliamentary investigation was opened. Fedez replied he was proud and ready to face the court, and he said he was available as a testimony for the RAI's Superior Commission. Fedez's accusation was one of the biggest media scandals of RAI, as not only all political parties took sides in the cause (centre and left in favour of the rapper, including ex-prime ministers
Giuseppe Conte and
Enrico Letta, while right and far-right parties in favour of RAI, including
Matteo Salvini and
Giorgia Meloni's colleagues). In July, the new board of RAI was elected, including the CEO and executives; this led to RAI's CEO Fuortes revealing not only the withdrawal of the action in court for failing all the required accusatory elements but also that no legal action was ever meant by the new management. Far-right exponents opened a parliamentary question over the withdrawal. After the CEO's declaration, no other details were said about any apology or agreement with Fedez: nonetheless, the rapper was invited by
Fabio Fazio to the first episode of the new season of his late show. Following the 2021 controversy, Fedez reinforced some controversy against RAI when he announced he was not invited to the 2022 Concertone for the first time.
Editorial independence Shortly after the Meloni government took office in October 2022, influential managers were replaced, and well-known journalists and presenters such as Fabio Fazio, Bianca Berlinguer, and Lucia Annunziata left RAI. In 2023, Giorgia Meloni was accused of pressuring out the head of RAI for not supporting her political agenda. In 2024, Meloni called for her government's ministers to be given more speaking time in the
European election campaign. In doing so, she called on the RAI to violate the law "par conditiono", according to which all parties must receive the same amount of broadcasting time. The resistance to this was massive, and the plans are off the table for the time being.
Accusing of censorship on Liberation Day 2024 Antonio Scurati, a well-known Italian writer and expert of the history of fascism, was commissioned by the public broadcaster RAI to read a speech on the day of liberation from fascism (Italian: ) on 25 April. However, at short notice, Scurati was disinvited again and was no longer allowed to give his speech. The presenter of the show did not want to accept that and quickly decided to read out his words in front of the camera. A passage from Scurati states, "As long as those who govern us do not utter the word
anti-fascism, the specter of fascism will continue to haunt the house of
Italian democracy." It is a clear criticism of Prime Minister Meloni, because the leader of the Fratelli d'Italia party has not distanced herself from her party's fascist beginnings. He was turned down for ideological and political reasons, Scurati told the
German public broadcaster ARD. "I criticized the fact that, during the 19 months of Meloni's government, the Prime Minister insisted on the reading of history that corresponds to her
neo-fascist background, i.e. she shifted the blame for the slaughter and massacres onto the German Nazis, even though the fascists of
Salò were accomplices and collaborators." It was noticed that, frequently, dinners, expensive watches and jewellery were all paid by RAI for unknown people outside the company. In 2022, a new scandal was investigated by the
Guardia di Finanza surrounding corruption and bribes. At least 5 people in total were arrested, while the investigation is still ongoing. ==TV channels==