The historic presenter of “Un giorno in pretura” criticizes the spectacularization of the Garlasco case and the crime news on television
For almost forty years, Roberta Petrelluzzi has been reporting on the great Italian trials on the Rai 3 screen. But despite the reopening of the investigation into the murder of Chiara Poggi in Garlasco in March 2025 and all the developments in the last year in this regard, the case (one of the most controversial ever in the history of Italian crime reporting) has never entered the studies of her renowned program A day in court. A choice that the journalist insisted on claiming without hesitation.
In an interview with Corriere della SeraPetrelluzzi defined the media outcry surrounding the Garlasco detective story almost with disgust: “a shame, an exaggeration”. The reason is brutal and shows the disenchantment of the presenter: «It makes a lot and costs little, while we cost a lot and make little». A criticism that affects the entire television, which according to Petrelluzzi is literally “invaded by crime news”.
The model of A day in court
The presenter does not hide her pride in the work of her program, which stands out precisely for its rigor in the selection and narration of cases. «There is such study and reasoning in the construction of A day in court that we should have 30 percent”, he declared, alluding to the ratings that, in his opinion, the format deserves. A format built on the courtroom, as a privileged place to understand the facts, far from the vulgar logic of entertainment.
To explain the mechanism that fuels these phenomena, Petrelluzzi recalled the story of Alfredino Rampi, the child who fell into a well in Vermicino in June 1981. For three days Italy remained glued to live television. It was “a similar thing”, he commented, recalling how his mother had also been emotionally involved in that story. «You are seized by a sort of “black magic” from which you cannot escape. You no longer think, it becomes a drug.” Then the prediction: «These are phenomena that swell on their own. A gigantic bubble, which will then burst on people’s heads.”
The position on Alberto Stasi
When asked directly about the Garlasco case, the journalist’s response is clear: «No, and it’s a source of pride». Regarding the possibility of dealing with it in the future, he left a window open, but very narrow: “I will do it if it comes to trial, but not with pleasure.”
On the judicial position of Stasi, the only one definitively convicted of the murder of Chiara Poggi, Petrelluzzi took a clear position. «Alberto Stasi was acquitted twice. So: enough, let’s stop. If at first instance and on appeal they were unable to find sufficient evidence, it must be closed.” A reading that reflects one guaranteeist vision of the criminal processin stark contrast to the media trial that has been ongoing for over a year.
The disease for the crime news
In the conversation with the CourierPetrelluzzi also broadened his gaze to a much broader and more complex topic. In this regard, he cited Angelo Izzo, the protagonist of the Circeo massacre, as the incarnation of a “true evil” that must be distinguished from clinical madness. «The madness is that of the stabber in Milan outside a bar who says: “I had fun, when I go out I’ll do it again”». For the journalist, «the spread of mental illnesses it is a great plague today”, a social problem that television often tends to exploit rather than analyse.
