The gagging law is both tragic and funny at the same time. It is tragic because it legally sanctions the disappearance of freedom of information and it is funny in the sense that freedom of information has been nonexistent in Italy since time immemorial. The gagging law essentially photographs something that is a matter of fact, and this is something that many of the “cover your arse” types don’t agree with. They wanted to continue to not inform in their own way, in other words silently. The regime - because we have been living under a regime for some time now - is a bipartisan one that the very people who are now rending their garments happily made possible, indeed vital at the time. The "glorious war machine that is information " operated across the board, without worrying about anyone and with no respect whatsoever for freedom.
Two years ago, I called for a referendum on "Freedom of information in a free Country ", which demanded three things, one of which was for the abolition of the Gasparri Law, which had placed the control of television broadcasting in the hands of only one man. I and two million other people who heeded the call and added our signatures on 25 April 2008 were ridiculed by the newspapers at the time. “La Repubblica” even went so far as to publish a scathing front page editorial. The “Corriere” allocated more space to an interview at the feet of that renowned bibliophile named Dell’Utri than it did to the VDay event. “La Stampa” published a photograph of Grillo yelling up at the backside of the horse statue in Piazza San Carlo, shot from below so as to make it look like there was no one else there while, instead, there were 150,000 people there on the day. The television channels, in a somewhat more restrained fashion, totally ignored the event. Confindustria, the trades union, the left wing that will win in the end and the political parties were all against it. The very ones that are now calling for street demonstrations under all manner of banners have never raised a finger to change the rules. When the citizens took to the streets, they left them to their own devices. When he was Prime Minister, D'Alema proceeded to introduce that infamous law (Law No. 488, art.27, clause 9, dated 23/12/1999) by which he handed television broadcasting over to Berlusconi as a gift. The PDwithoutanel is a collaborative party, it’s in the parties genes, while the other parties are merely the “would-be usurpers” of the Regime, living vicariously in its shadow. This government, this Parliament and these parties will have to collapse in order for us to be able to start again.
What to do? If everyone truly is equal, then each one of us will have to decide for him/herself whether to take part in civil disobedience and bear the consequences of that decision. Most of all me. I will continue to spread information in Italy, from an Italian website and via an Italian server. If everyone is truly equal, then we should not allow everything to change because nothing has changed. The transition from the First Republic to the Second Republic resulted in new faces wielding the same old powers. Indeed, the real danger is that history may repeat itself, in other words, that whitewashed sepulchres or false opponents appropriate the State. The citizens should be the only point of reference. No one has the right to usurp their power. Least of all the political parties that, in the midst of an economic crisis that is destroying the Welfare State, have not even had the decency to waive the one billion Euro of so-called (by them) electoral reimbursements and have continued to allow parliamentarians to qualify for full pensions after only two and a half years of service. They are all nothing more than willing accomplices, including the newspapers that live off public charity thanks to the State subsidies, Confindustria, which is essentially a State concession holder and the Trades Union that, just like the stars, have always just sat back and watched. When dictatorship is as blatant as this, no one can any longer deny its existence. The gagging law may actually be good news because at least, in its own way, it is a reflection of the truth.