A leading Italian current affairs programme has opted to buy the BBC documentary ‘Sex Crimes and the Vatican’ to be transmitted this Thursday along with a studio debate.
In most of the free world controversy comes after the broadcast of sensitive programmes like this. When toes have been trod upon, one can expect a reaction. Enlightened Italian politicos, ever vigilant to safeguard the nation’s sensibilities, are, though, ahead of the game. They’re trying to avoid controversy, by ensuring there’s no debate to start with.
Mario Landolfi, a member of the politically appointed committee which oversees the State broadcaster (the existence of such a committee says it all), has urged the Director General to intervene against the broadcast. Landolfi, a member of the ‘post-fascist’ Alleanza nazionale party remarked that he wished “to avoid public service television becoming a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope”[1].
Today Pier Ferdinand Casini, leader of the centre-right UDC party, supported this line, saying “I don’t see why we have to always copy the others. I don’t understand why because the BBC have broadcast a trashy documentary, we have to imitate them, buying it perhaps with money from the Public TV service […] Let’s have a good inquiry into the work of the Church in the World, giving Paedophile priests the space they deserve, which is a tiny fraction in respect to all the positive work of the Church in the world”.
Landolfi’s argument simply shows how little he knows about the role of public broadcasting in a democracy. Should one expect any better from a post-fascist? It’s unclear as to whether Landolfi has seen the film in question. He doesn’t take issue with the BBC’s journalism directly. That’s nothing new in the history of censorship.
Casini’s arguments are more media-friendly but are equally ignorant of the purpose of public broadcasting.
Public broadcasting has, as one of its many functions, the unpleasant task of asking difficult questions, of invesigating power. Paedophilia is universally recognised as a particularly serious crime. If there is evidence that an institution, such as the Church, has repeatedly protected paedophiles within its ranks, then that is a matter for public broadcasting to deal with.
Landolfi and Casini could reasonably suggest that the Church be fully represented on Thursday night’s programme. There is no suggestion, though, that presenter Michele Santoro would wish to exclude church spokespeople from the programme. On the contrary, one would imagine that he’d be delighted to have someone on to whom he can pose difficult questions.
Because, what Casini and Landolfi and their ilk try to obscure or censor is the fact that there are serious questions to be asked of Ratzinger, and the Vatican. Read the Ferns report, for example, and come to your own conclusions.
Italy has, thus far, had very few scandals involving Paedophile Priests, despite the fact that cases have come to the fore across the catholic world. The unholy alliance between Politicians, the Media*, and the Vatican, as demonstrated in this case suggest, sadly, that this may be more a case of ‘hear no evil’ rather than one of institutional virtue.
Interestingly, the film has been broadcast unofficially with subtitles on YouTube, getting thousands of views. If the film is as bad as Landolfi and Casini suggest, it should be in the public interest to broadcast it within the context of a balanced debate. Best not mention it, though. They’ll probably try to shut YouTube down.
Things were so much easier when you could just burn books…
*reporting on the film, virtually all newspapers carry severe points of criticism from the Vatican press office. None carry any response from, or reference to the film-makers
[1] BBC