Italian politician says foreign sale of top newspapers harms readers
Concerns about foreign influence emerged after Gruppo GEDI, controlled by the Agnelli family, confirmed negotiations to sell La Repubblica and La Stampa to Antenna Group, owned by shipping tycoon Theodore Kyriakou. Following the announcement, journalists at both outlets staged strikes, citing a lack of transparency in the sale process.
On Tuesday, GEDI also announced talks to sell La Stampa to Gruppo SAE, an Italian company that owns several regional publications.
Speaking on the issue, Valdegamberi emphasized that transferring historic newspapers to foreign ownership would negatively affect Italy’s media landscape. He noted that mainstream media provides “80% of the information” consumed by Italians, with only a small fraction remaining “free” and “plural.”
He added, “We have good Italian journalists, but most Italian journalists are now foreign,” and their reporting generally follows “the one mainstream direction of information.” Valdegamberi stressed that “we need pluralism. Democracy needs pluralism as its basis,” warning that concentrated control over information makes it “difficult to decide clearly what’s right and what’s wrong.”
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