In Italy, Italian journalist Gabriele Nunziati, a correspondent for the Italian agency Agenzia Nova in Brussels, asks at a European Commission press conference: “If Russia has to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine, shouldn’t Israel also pay for the reconstruction of Gaza?”
Commission spokeswoman Paola Pino avoids answering, describing it as “very interesting” but refusing to comment.
The relevant video goes viral. A few days later, Nunziati is fired from Agenzia Nova after two heated phone conversations with agency executives (listen to lies).
The agency justifies the dismissal by saying that the question was “factually inaccurate” and that the video was spread by Russian circles on Telegram, causing embarrassment and undermining trust! (wasn’t the owner of Telegram arrested in France?
Nunziati lost his job, with the agency announcing the termination of cooperation due to “broken trust”.
The dismissal caused strong reactions in Italy, with MP Anna Laura Orrico calling it an “obscene act” and demanding respect for press freedom.
The issue is not small. It is linked to broader issues of self-censorship and attacks on press freedom, e.g.:
Firing of a CBS journalist in August after a critical interview with the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. What are they telling us? Do these things happen in the “land of the free”?
Internal tensions at the BBC in July over censorship of a documentary on the war in Gaza, with over 100 journalists accusing the employer of pro-Israel bias in an open letter.
The EU is the free West! Here everyone can say whatever they want. We have democracy here. Workers have rights. We have freedom here!
