Certainly do not need to recall here that the medical category bases itself (or should bases itself) on the famous “Hippocratic Oath”. Let us now have a look at what type of oath the category of journalists is based on, having stated beforehand a very solemn triviality: whereas the primary importance of doctors has always been a fact, despite the various facets adopted in different ages, with the XX Century technologies, the press (especially on radio and television) has gradually taken on a crucial role in the life of individuals and of the general public, so much so that it has now been for quite a long time the “nervous system” of our planet, this enormous body with its 6 billion earthlings.

Some time ago, I was invited to take part in the TV evening show “Sciuscià-edizione straordinaria”, hosted by Michele Santoro.Subject: Freedom of Information between the Right and the Left. Even though I was fully willing to discuss freedom of information today, under Berlusconi, I could not but relativize the concept (indeed, until the contrary is proved, freedom of information, as well as its reverse, that is censure, and also truth, or democracy etc., are relative concepts and “practices”), and view it in a historical perspective. We are who we are, in view of who we used to be, are we not? I recalled that in the late ‘80s, during one of those wonderful conferences that are held in Venice, at the Cini Foundation, the then number two of FIAT, Mr Cesare Romiti (who over the last quarter of the century influenced the career of all, or most of, the Italian journalists’ élite, directly or indirectly, at the Palace or in the salons) said something like: “Before discussing freedom, journalists should first stop acting as doormats”. I concluded that, in my opinion, not only did they continue to act as doormats even before the Cavaliere’s reign started, but in fact they are also having shoes wiped on them and, at the same time, they have started wearing militants’ helmets. In other words, they used to, and continue to serve as Generals and, going down in rank up to private soldiers, under the bipartisan armies of the Ulivo and of the Polo (Italian Left and Right), to the point of persuading public opinion as a whole that it is normal, and even right, for things to be “as they are”. One who is not wearing a helmet is either insane or naïve, or possibly he’s only taken it off to put on a different one; in other words he is the classical turncoat. You see, here again we need be quite clear about it. Let us start from the words we use, which represent the raw material for this category. In order to turn coat, you need to wear one: in plain terms, if on one side the professional level is increasingly poor, then you have less and less to offer, that is to “turn”, and as a result of this you increasingly depend on your boss, or “boss”, whether it is politics or strong financial power, or the two things together. Hence we have a world made up of an overwhelming majority of colleagues who are either “shareholders” within one front, or “fans”, or both. The usual objection is: it is the “commitment”, the militancy that leads them to choose a front. Rubbish! they have simply replaced the commitment to provide correct information with militancy, with belonging to a specific front. Not only: while, according to Adorno (an unknown thinker from the Frankfurt School), freedom does not consist in having to choose between two things, but in the possibility of not making a choice, on the other hand according to (let’s suppose) Adornato, a name in contemporary publishing, it is better to explicitly take a stand, even though, in his case, this was first in favour of the Left and then of the Right. When on TV I put the following question to Mr Santoro: “Is it possible to find in nature, or in Italian nature, a host in a show who is not bound to be factious, or who even guarantees both political parties, who wishes to speak to all citizens, etc.?”, nobody had the guts to reply. So here is the foundation of our category: it is an oath, again, as for the medical category, but it is an unspoken oath, increasingly shared in terms of product rather than service: it is the “Hypocritical Oath”, nothing to do with “that’s news!”, as the celebrated Bogart quotation goes.

traslation by Interpres