“They are building cars without radios, mobility is the first point of reference for listening”
Antonio Marano, President of Confindustria Radio TV, speaks on RTL 102.5, to explain the information industry’s appeal in favor of support policies and regulations for the market. Inside Non Stop News with Enrico Galletti, Giusi Legrenzi, Massimo Lo Nigro and Lucrezia Bernardo.
THE IMPACT OF BIG TECH ON INFORMATION
«So, first of all I will try to be a little clear, also because logically we would like to analyze it from not only a commercial but also a technological point of view. But let’s start from a premise: the basic concept is what are publishers? Article 21. If you are on the air at this moment, if citizens have information, it is because in Italy there is the possibility for radio, TV, newspapers, printed paper and books to be published and to be able to contribute to knowledge and information. Unfortunately, all of this is having a strong economic impact on the part of big tech companies, which do not invest in the area. I made a level metaphor, in a first interview, where I said that it is difficult to be competitive with those who don’t pay for the motorway, fill up on petrol and don’t even pay for that because it would mean not paying for the distribution technology and not paying for the contents. In short, this is the big problem. It is a problem that is affecting all European countries, where there is clearly a certain uprising on the part of all publishers. In Italy we find a certain difficulty, but mostly due to the knowledge on the part of the political forces and the criticality of this aspect. Let’s talk about your sector, the radio sector. They’re building cars, they’re importing them without radios in the car. What does it mean? That mobility is the first point of reference for listening and radio, but in fact with the fact that they will only leave the IP connection, therefore with the mobile phone, in fact they will be able to control what citizens and listeners can hear. Well, as you can see, it is a problem that affects various sectors, but certainly the fundamental thing is that our role as publishers, your role as radio publishers, must have the possibility of being competitive and uniform in the overall market. What we ask is that others behave like us, instead the real problem is that their economic strength but above all their technological strength leads to having total control without investments over the territory. So in the end we risk having structural poverty but, as someone much more important than me said, Italy risks being a colony.”
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE WHO PROVIDE INFORMATION
«This was a bit of the concept I was saying about contents. In short, their strength is the distribution of content to others without there being a journalist’s responsibility, without there being a director’s responsibility, therefore having only an economic advantage, without having any responsibility and no cost from an editorial or personal point of view. In the end this is the real big problem: they don’t want to practically recognize that they are the same as us. In fact this is clear. As publishers, it’s not that we’re asking for contributions, we’re asking to be supported. No, we ask that those who come to our country, but to other European countries, behave and respect the rules that we do. While they can easily broadcast videos of violence against minors and of any kind and we have witnessed in the last few days, but we have been witnessing it for months now, of those who stupidly make violent videos of bullying towards other children and practically send them on the internet, without any responsibility on the part of those who transmit them. If you do it, RAI does it, any broadcaster does it and is immediately sanctioned. Here, this is a bit of the question of what we ask: that they too respect the rules of civil, criminal and editorial responsibilities.”
THE IDEAL SCENARIO
«So, the ideal scenario is that they too adapt to respecting what the rules for publishing provide: direct responsibility and paid journalists, because they don’t pay anyone. I’ll give you an example: Meta invoices in Italy 2 billion and 2. Well, it has 24 employees. This is to make you understand what the impact is from a certain point of view, which is 24 families. So for them it is just a collection and not an investment.”
THE ECONOMIC ASPECT
«I’ll give you an example from the world of radio. Radio listening in Italy is almost identical to that of other countries. I’m talking in percentage, population or market value, be it France or Germany. What is the difference? That the Italian advertising market in the world of radio is a third of France and Germany. Why? Because there is no protection of what is the counted cost, which is valorization. The fact of false news, fake news, the fact that having no responsibility they create news but I add, even with artificial intelligence, because I have seen some videos where it is difficult to understand, in fact it is not at all clear how it is constructed in the real factor. And that’s the big problem. Today information, and this is why we refer to article 21, is one of the cornerstones of every democratic country. But here we are falsifying the truth and the truth is protected by responsibility. If there is no accountability, we don’t know if it’s the truth. And therefore the truth is pluralism. I’m not saying that what you say, what I say, what someone else says is the truth, but many voices make a comparison. The risk instead, which is what happened and we are seeing it in other situations, the direct and uniform control of those who control certain platforms, becomes a political, commercial value of cultural realization for entire generations. It’s not a minor thing. It’s a reasoning, I’m not saying complicated, but important, difficult to communicate, but those of us in the sector absolutely must express it.”
