Anomalies of the Italian public service broadcasting despite the Law 220 of 2015

The article analyses the Italian media systems, focusing on public service broadcasting (PSB) after the reform (Law 220/2015) to verify whether it respects the principles of independence and impartiality laid down in national, European and international laws. The analysis also considers the results from other sciences in an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective.

Law 220/2015 for the ‘Reform of RAI and of public service broadcasting’, approved on 28 December, altered some regulations governing the broadcasting industry. In this article, I analyse these changes from an historical and comparative perspective, taking into account the established cultural models in the European area. By framing the Italian experience within a model, specifically the Mediterranean one, we are better able to understand certain phenomena. In fact,
if interpreted only within the confines of domestic law certain phenomena might be hastily labelled as ‘anomalous’ (e.g. the relationship between the political class and the media) or vice versa, be considered as normal, (e.g. the territorial organization of the public broadcaster).