Subject: [aha] Gasparri shuts off Italian neighborhood TV channel
From: "T_Bazz" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, August 5, 2004 4:20 am
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Senigallia, Italy, 26 July 2004
Senigallia, a small resort city on Italy's Adriatic coast, has recently
been the subject of a lot of controversy after a police order closed
down
a local television station. Aside from being a popular seaside
destination, it is the home of Disco Volante, one of the first public
access TV channels in Italy. The small station, which broadcasts within
the old city walls, started out as a community organization that worked
with handicapped and socially disadvantaged residents. Despite being
recent recipients of the Ilaria Alpi award for journalism, named after
the Italian reporter killed while investigating arms dealers in Somalia
in the early 90s, its staff now risks time behind bars.
In September 2003, Disco Volante was notified by the Italian
Communications Ministry that they were operating outside the law. They
were ordered to immediately cease operations. Its organizers, by now
well-known and respected in the community for their work with the
mentally challenged, decided to keep things going. In June 2004 their
small production company, Street TV, produced a report on the hardships
faced by the local handicapped residents that earned them the
prestigious Alpi award.
Today, 10 months after being tossed out of their improvised studios, the
trial which will decide Disco Volante's future has yet to take place.
With the recent approval of the Gasparri / Gonfalonieri law, which
orders
the reorganization of Italy's telecommunications monopoly, Disco
Volante
is once again feeling the heat. But, its founders, community leaders
who
truly believe in what they do, are not going down without a fight.
Translated by Brendan Monaghan
Contact Information:
Telestreet / Disco Volante
Press Office
Via Rodi, 6
60019 Senigallia (AN)
Italy
tel + 39 071 650 33
tel + 39 071 634 95
web www.telestreet.it
web www.studiozelig.it
email [log in to unmask]
email [log in to unmask]
-------------------------------------------
Press Release from National Federation of Newspaper Journalists (Italy)
The regional prosecutor of the city of Ancona, in Italy's Marches
region,
has recently sent out a notice of investigation to the founders of a
small television station in the seaside resort city of Senigallia. The
initiative came as a surprise to the organization Telestreet / Disco
Volante, made up of and dedicated to the handicapped residents of the
town. The decision is a result of the recent decision of the Italian
Ministry of Communications to restructure the Italian television
broadcasting. Once again, the Ministry, under the leadership of Maurizio
Gasparri, is taking a strike at the "weakest links" in the
telecommunications industry. The law, which carries Gasparri's name,
will
guarantee Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi more control over a
majority of the Italy's networks. Last month Disco Volante received the
prestigious Ilaria Alpi award for journalism for a report they produced
on obstacles faced by Senigallia's handicapped residents. Despite all
of
that, the judiciary of the City of Ancona ordered that Telestreet
immediately cease operations and that the legal proceedings against
them
begin immediately. The charge? Illegal television
broadcasting. Mediaset and RAI, despite being in gross violation of
certain laws regulating the diffusion of publicity, continue to operate
with impunity. Meanwhile, small local stations such as Telestreet can be
crushed in an instant. Is this the future of the diffusion of
information in Italy?
Translated by Brendan Monaghan
-------------------------
Gasparri shuts off neighborhood TV channel run by handicapped residents
from www.articolo21.com 28 July 2004
by Daniela Amenta (L'Unita')
As if shutting them down wasn't enough, the authorities went as far as
to
continue their legal battle against Disco Volante, a small
neighborhod TV channel run by the handicapped community of Senigallia.
The editors and staff of the tiny TV channel who only wished to document
the life and hardships faced by the disabled residents now risk being
put
behind bars. 18 months of detention, to be exact. A would-be
consequence of Italy's new Gasparri Law, the latest paradox in the
initiative the save Rete4, a major TV network owned by Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Disco Volante started out in the small
resort
city on Italy's Adriatic coast. With a small staff including members of
disabled community, they used their channel as a way of increasing
public
awareness of the everyday obstacles and injustices faced by the
physically and mentally challenged residents of Senigallia. Disco
Volante
broadcasts to viewers in a range of a couple of hundred meters within
the
city walls, tiny, yes, but enough to get the
authorities to intervene.
Operating without proper permission was enough to get them silenced. In
September 2003 a report was sent to the magistrate of the city of
Ancona.
Yesterday the Ancona prosecutor notified the channel's founder, Enea
Discepoli, that the legal proceedings against him for "Broadcasting
activity without proper government authorization" were about to begin.
Now Discepoli risks going to jail. It didn't seem to matter much when
Rete4 was operating in violation of certain laws. Nor did it matter that
Disco Volante had recently earned the Ilaria Alpi award for journalism
for their reports on the handicapped community of Senigallia. "A prize
we
earned by for our hard work," comments Discepoli, "for documenting a
report on the typical day of Franco Civelli, a disabled man confined to
a
wheelchair". First the damage, now the controversy.
A similar thing happened in 2002 to Telefabbrica, a TV channel founded
to
support the Fiat workers in Termini Imerese in their struggle to
prevent
mass lay offs. In Italy, there are about a hundred of these small
"street
TV" channels, usually convening in tiny improvised
studios. Their main scope to ensure freedom of information and to
protest
against the huge monopolies of the telecommunications industry. They
report on the social and progressive issues being faced by the
community,
using real people and examples. A difficult task in an industry where
the
richest and most powerful prevail.
Giovanna Grignaffini, a deputy of Italy's Democrats of the Left
political party, collected the signatures of about 100 members of
parliament to save "street TV". The petition eventually made it to the
chamber of deputies in October 2003 and the deputies requested that the
government not shut down these "street TV" channels without a thorough
investigation into why their activities were illegal. These pleads were
of course never taken into consideration by Gasparri.
Disco Volante broadcasted only for about 4 months. Today they operate
without antennas and continue to be defiant in the face of what they see
as a grand injustice. "We're not giving up now. We still have our
cameras
we'll keep filming everything happening around us for as long as we
can,"
says Fabrizio Manizza, staff member and editor. "We work with the
disabled and it's a wonderful experience in creativity and art. It's
also
important for the freedom of information." Perhaps another type of
information, which, for some reason is not included in the future plans
of those running the country. "First, they approve the Gonfalonieri /
Gasparri Law and the SIC and without moving a finger they give their
blessing to RAI and Finivest to do whatever they want. But then they
come
knocking on the door of our small channel, threatening us with prison
time. Does anyone want to comment on that?" adds Manizza. It stirs up
emotion, yes, and it would stir up even more reporting on the fact that
the Association of Roman Jurists declared such moves by the authorities
to be "illegitimate abuses of power". For now, Disco Volante remains
silenced, but its founders and believers aren't giving up so easily.
And
so, the battle against those who silence those they don't like, will
continue.
Translated by Brendan Monaghan
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