The newspapers are destined to disappear. Meanwhile they are still living on at our expense thanks to the so-called direct and indirect contributions.
They are the megaphone of the parties and of the areas to which they belong. We are paying them so that they can take us for a ride. In recent years, since the V-Day in Turin, there has been a bit of progress. They get less money.
What’s needed is to take a definitive step and eliminate ANY direct and indirect contribution (“the newspapers pay sales tax at 4% and not at 20% like normal mortals.…” Lopez). It’s intolerable closing the factories and financing the daily newspapers. Anyway it’s just a matter of time, that in this case is a gentleman. Information is shifting to the Internet and the newspapers are by now getting to be similar to an archaeological find.

Interview with Beppe Lopez, author of "La casta dei giornali” {the caste of the newspapers}

Indirect contributions
Greetings to the friends of Beppe Grillo’s blog. My name is Beppe Lopez. Some of you already know me because I am the author of “La casta dei giornali” {the caste of the newspapers} in which we have denounced all the public contributions to the publishing industry, especially in relation to fraud, tricks etc. I am standing here. This is Palazzo Chigi, as you know. Here is the Headquarters of the publishing department, and to be precise the public place where this money is handled. I remember that in the year this book came out, this department had given the assisted newspapers something like 700 million Euro. Tremonti first halved these contributions to the newspapers in some way. Monti almost cancelled the payments at first, but now they are trying to bring back a bit of the contributions. As usual the ones called the sector lobbies are in action to try to convince even the technical people that the newspapers need the contributions. Naturally, the most important reason is because otherwise the newspapers without these contributions, the existing newspapers that for 20 years have been enjoying these contributions. Today what is certain, I have written down some figures, is that Monti has reduced the annual payments that in the golden days amounted to 700 million euro a year and that has been slowly reduced to 170 million.

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Yes to state contributions with specific criteria
There are still incentives for electricity. However we are facing a moment in history. Now finally we can do what should have been done if the contributions had been abolished as Grillo wanted and as even Di Pietro wanted because it’s possible to start again.

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