Public TV director says politicians meddling with network

(ANSA) – Rome, October 23 – The chief of Italian public broadcaster RAI on Wednesday told a parliamentary oversight committee that political interference is messing with his network.

Managing Director Luigi Gubitosi charged RAI lost popular TV presenter, comedian and actor Maurizio Crozza to rival LA7 network due to outside infringements. ”The Crozza case is emblematic. We couldn’t close negotiations because of the uproar over compensation”, Gubitosi told MPs. ”This amounts to meddling with the normal rules of competition, which is an Italian anomaly. Let us compete, without interference”.

LA7 on October 17 announced it had closed an exclusive deal with Crozza running from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016.