The pandemic “bites less”, Mes in the foreground of the TV news. Eurispes-CoRiS Sapienza Television News Observatory Report

The pandemic “bites less”, Mes in the foreground of the TV news. Eurispes-CoRiS Sapienza Television News Observatory Report

Prime time, less space for contagion “numbers”. MES and Recovery Fund, en plein of openings. After Maradona, farewell to the “Pablito Mundial”

TV news from 7 to 11 December – After months of unchallenged domination of prime time, the news of the epidemic takes a back seat: only 3 openings (all by Studio Aperto) on the Covid “numbers”, less than 10% of the total 35 between Monday and Friday. The pandemic “bites less”, and with the vaccine around the corner – headlines for all on Tuesday to the first vaccinated in the UK, with an opening for Tg5 – the information seems to have “made the habit”. Even the daily count of victims, which is still very serious – on Friday, Italy was the fifth country in the world for Covid deaths, overtaking the United Kingdom -, is not subject to particular attention in the reports.

Claiming space on the front page is once again politics, with the awaited appointments for the vote on the ratification of the MES reform and the strong controversy in the majority on the governance of the Recovery Plan: 25 openings, with double or triple headlines to relaunch the usual stances. The overcoming of Hungary’s and Poland’s veto, which will allow Italy, in the near future, to start benefiting from the 209 billion of the Recovery Fund, is attributed by all to Angela Merkel’s effective mediation; few, however, are the reports that illustrate the details of this difficult agreement. More space is given to the clashes in the majority on the MES, which have since been re-emerged; the Mediaset TV news are following them with great attention, which, like the La7 TV news, have been framing the renzian “tear” on the Recovery Fund since Monday: Mentana’s news opens on Wednesday, while on Thursday the Tg5 goes into detail on Renzi’s moves (mentioned 18 times in the headlines) together with Cerasa of Il Foglio. Present to a lesser extent is the debate on party restrictions, with an opening only for Tg2 on Friday.

Pablito, Italy mourns the Spanish Mundial champion. Regeni case, after 5 years the “Italian” trial. Mentana: «On the Zaky affair Egypt is recidivist».

The death of Paolo Rossi, the “Pablito Mundial” legend of the World Cup of 1982 held in Spain, hit Thursday’s editions, earning the openings of Studio Aperto, Tg5, Tg2 and a double headline from the Rai flagship. There was great transport in the reports, with parting words even from President Mattarella.

On the same day, three more headlines (Tg3, Tg1, Tg La7) go instead to the conclusion of the investigation into the death of Giulio Regeni, which after five years of enquiry has ascertained the responsibilities of the Egyptian secret services, producing on Thursday the indictment of four agents: 12 headlines between Monday and Friday, with new audio testimonies proposed by Studio Aperto, Tg3 and Tg La7. Egypt’s conduct had already been analysed by prime time at the beginning of the week for the prolongation of Patrick Zaky’s imprisonment (headlines for Tg3 and Tg1), with some media openly critical of Macron’s France, which just recently awarded President al-Sisi the Legion of Honour (headlines for Tg5 and Studio Aperto); Mentana was very harsh at the end of the report: «We have been heard too little. Egypt is recidivist, and Italy cannot be left alone».

During a week in which the protests for the release of the fishermen detained in Libya by Haftar found little space (brief mentions by the Mediaset TV news), the appeal launched on Friday by the European Council for their release features in the reports by Tg3 and Tg5.

Worthy of note is the report on Monday’s Tg La7 dedicated to the unemployment emergency, from which it emerges that, according to Unioncamere data, at least 220.000 jobs are vacant due to the difficulty of matching supply and demand.