Rai Sport, Petrecca resigns, deputy Lollobrigida acting director

The director of Rai Sport, Paolo Petrecca, has relinquished his mandate in the hands of Rai's managing director Giampaolo Rossi and will leave the post at the end of the Milan Cortina Olympics. Responsibility for Rai Sport - on a transitional basis - will be entrusted to Marco Lollobrigida, deputy director. This was announced in a Rai note.

Petrecca's step back - learned from Rai sources - came after the Rai Sport director ended up at the centre of the controversy for the errors in the commentary of the opening ceremony of the Olympics Milan Cortina, in which he decided to take the place of his colleague Auro Bulbarelli, who was forced to step aside after anticipating information on the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, at San Siro. Also on the warpath was the editorial staff of Rai Sport, ready to go on strike at the end of the Games. In support of the protest, the journalists of the news and gr programmes of the newspaper withdrew their signatures from all commentaries, interviews and reports during the Games. Petrecca had also ended up at the centre of new protests for the 'crazy' expenses of his management, which had risen, according to rumours filtered through the press after a meeting with the head of personnel, to the tune of recruitment, promotions and bonuses and external consultancies.

"Petrecca's resignation from Rai Sport was necessary and comes too late. Petrecca is the emblem of Telemeloni and of the method by which the government has privileged the logic of political affiliation and proximity over merit and the enhancement of professionalism within the public television service," commented the leader of the PD group in the RAI supervisory committee, Stefano Graziano, "An approach that has ended up weakening the authority of information and more generally of the entire RAI system. What is needed now is real discontinuity. One cannot continue with the 'remove to promote' mechanism or with simple internal relocations. The public service needs transparency, competence and independence, not cosmetic operations'.

"We learn from agency sources the news of the resignation of the Director of Rai Sport. A decision that follows the great mobilisation of the colleagues of Rai Sport and Usigrai, at their side in these days of protest together with the other newspapers and editorial offices. Paolo Petrecca has assumed his responsibilities. Not so the top management, mainly responsible for the decision to entrust, and confirm, the management of the sports paper in the year of the Olympics to an editor challenged three times in a few months by the editorial staff'. Thus in a note the Usigrai, the public television journalists' union. 'Choices that have resulted in enormous damage to the image and reputation of the company, and those who work there, which will remain even after Petrecca's resignation,' Usigrai added. Which then asks: 'Who will repay RAI, and its employees, for these damages?

The resigning director responds via social media by quoting the Gospel of Mark. He posts a picture of a fresco depicting the apostle, with the coordinates 'Matthew 26, 20-29', which contain Jesus' words during the Last Supper: 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me'.