A-Infos (en) Italy, Umanità Nova #3: Line up and cover! Media regulation, clandestine press and repression of movements (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In recent weeks, part of the media world has been protesting against 
what is called the "gag law". Press releases from trade organizations 
read on the news, transversal positions taken by the main newspapers, 
protest notes from the bodies of the journalists' association, street 
initiatives in various cities. In the last two years we have seen quite 
frequently voices raised in the press against the measures of successive 
governments. For the first time, however, we are witnessing such a broad 
stance against a measure. In this case, the aim of the protests is the 
amendment to the European delegation law signed by MP Enrico Costa of 
Action, which prohibits journalists from literally publishing, including 
extracts of, precautionary custody orders, which have no longer been 
secret since 2016. The amendment was approved last December 19th in the 
Chamber, with the favorable vote not only of the majority, but also of 
Azione and Italia Viva, and the Senate should decide on the matter this 
week.

It may be that by the time these lines are read the matter has already 
progressed a lot, so it is best to limit ourselves to making some 
general considerations. Without going into technical aspects, however 
this story goes, it is clear that we are faced with yet another 
authoritarian act of control of information by political power, and in 
this sense the voices that criticize the political class for wanting to 
protect themselves with these measures are not wrong. As they say, 
however, they have discovered hot water: the political class always 
tries to protect its privileges. It is clear that in a phase marked by 
war and the authoritarian and military solution to crises, these forms 
of control are strengthened so that the executive has not only greater 
power but also a path free from obstacles.

One of the illusions of the ideology of the democratic regime is to 
consider the media an instrument of control over political power, when 
in reality they are factories of consensus. This definition, already 
widespread for a few decades, is generally valid today even though the 
media system has profoundly changed. In this sense, the publication of 
wiretaps and judicial orders, which is very important to the Italian 
media system, is also part of the consensus mechanism. In fact, even 
when the media in recent history have given strength and arguments to 
protest movements against the government, the role of the media has 
always been functional to the clash between power groups, to the 
regeneration of the political class, to the rehabilitation of 
institutions tainted by this or from that rotten apple, certainly not at 
the service of the oppressed and exploited. It is therefore a machine 
only functional to the reproduction of the current system of domination.

If on the one hand there are those who always fall on their feet in this 
game, in an eternal repainting of power, there are those who always find 
themselves crushed by the media and judicial power, regardless of who 
governs or what gag law is in place. that current moment. They are these 
companions whose names are always published in the newspapers, together 
with other personal data, when they are investigated for crimes relating 
to demonstrations or political actions; they are workers, 
environmentalists and subjectivities that the media never talk about 
except when there is a need to criminalize some protest that comes out 
of rituality; they are those who are dehumanized because they are 
without documents or because they are closed behind bars; they are those 
who without work, without children, without a career, without a future, 
are always subjected to the judgment of some expert; they are those who 
are always reduced to silence, whose voice, even when reported, is often 
only in a fragmented and stereotyped way and in any case always drowned 
out by the deafening "other bell".

For these, for us, the publication of a few interceptions or a few lines 
of ordinance certainly does not change the living and working 
conditions. The same goes for those in the government who claim to 
defend the "presumption of innocence". In this case we are always 
talking about the innocence of some honorable person, knight and 
manager, who cannot see his reputation tarnished, certainly not of those 
who this social order already crushes in the mud every day.

If it's just a clash of powers why should we care about it then? Because 
the clampdown on the media, the centralization of information and the 
control over what is published is an effective authoritarian measure by 
the government, which today intervenes by limiting judicial reporting, 
but which intends to impose mechanisms, partly already tested, which 
want subject information in general to further scrutiny.  Let's think 
about the system of "certification" of news, which government 
representatives would like to formalize, or the Committee for the 
development and enhancement of defense culture. Let's think about the 
repression of the so-called "clandestine press", which has recently come 
back into fashion. The military and financial support for Ukraine first 
and then the support for the war waged by Israel were, in different 
ways, accompanied by a choral media campaign. Even if over time 
different positions and dissonant voices emerged, in the early stages 
there was a transversal and overwhelming support for the government's 
policy. A further authoritarian clampdown on information would therefore 
only limit freedom of expression on paper and digitally, and make the 
relationship between media and political power even more organic, 
especially in support of cross-party policies conducted in the name of 
self-interest national, from wars to the restriction of freedoms and 
social rights.

All authoritarian regimes in their construction pass through the 
standardization of the media. It is important to note that in a general 
context of crisis and authoritarian and military solution by the state 
we are faced with a transition that goes in this direction. In the fight 
for freedom one must be able to grasp these signals, also to try to 
adapt one's initiative. It is difficult to say how far the government 
will proceed in this direction. Whether it will be enough for him to 
pull a little bit to make things take the right direction, or whether 
more complex forms of control will be imposed.

Of course, reading certain declarations against the Costa amendment 
makes one say that someone even had their eyes and ears blindfolded by 
gagging. There are those who seem convinced that they live in a free 
society in which the media are censored for no reason. But we know well 
that the power relations that govern society, which have been in crisis 
for some time, have narrowed the margins of "democratic viability" very 
much. Some examples are given by the most recent provisions. With the 
security package launched by the government in the autumn, the crime of 
prison revolt is established, which will be effective, eloquently, also 
for the CPR. This is the new art. 415-bis of the penal code which 
establishes what was defined by Antigone as "the crime of prison 
treason" punishing up to 8 years "Anyone, within a penitentiary 
institution, through acts of violence or threats, even passive 
resistance the execution of the orders given or through attempts to 
escape, committed by three or more people together, promotes, organizes, 
directs a revolt". Article 415 of the penal code, which punishes 
incitement to disobedience to public order laws, is also extended, going 
as far as punishing those who instigate revolt with writings directed at 
prisoners. Aren't these gags? Likewise, the anti-strike laws, against 
"raves", against "vandalism", against occupations, pickets and road 
blocks, which limit the freedom to demonstrate, are also gags.

Those who really want to oppose the government's authoritarian grip will 
therefore not be able to limit themselves to their own backyard, the 
only possible fight is against all gags and all chains.

https://collettivoanarchico.noblogs.org/post/2024/01/27/allineati-e-coperti-regolamentazione-dei-media-stampa-clandestina-e-repressione-dei-movimenti/
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