Lavitola’s lawyer: ‘My client warned Ranucci of possible attacks a month and a half earlier’. Controversy over *Report*’s salaries

“We believe that Lavitola warned Ranucci of the risk of attacks before the events of 16 October. In fact, there was a meeting on 7 September during which Lavitola probably warned Ranucci of the dangers he faced due to possible attacks. This was, therefore, a month and a half before the attack itself.” This was reported by lawyer Arturto Cola before entering Rebibbia prison for a meeting with Valter Lavitola, the instigator of the attack on the *Report* journalist Sigfrido Ranucci. “We are interested in the facts: during the preliminary hearing, my client ruled out the possibility of any prior agreement regarding the attack,” he added. Meanwhile, controversy is flaring up over the salaries of Report journalists, the figures for which were published in the daily newspaper *Il Tempo*, with journalists from the investigative editorial team announcing a defamation lawsuit against the paper, referring to “false and underhand figures”.

 “On 7 September, a meeting took place during which Vitola probably warned Dr Ranucci of the dangers he faced due to possible attacks. This was, therefore, a month and a half before the attack itself.” This was confirmed by Arturno Cola, Valter Lavitola’s defence lawyer, before meeting his client – who is being held at Rebibbia Prison on charges of masterminding the attack on *Report* presenter Sigfrido Ranucci – in a statement broadcast on SkyTg24. “I am here today to speak with Lavitola and check whether it is necessary to supplement the confession made on 12 August ahead of the review hearing, which I presume will take place next week,” adds lawyer Arturo Cola before entering Rebibbia Prison for a meeting with Valter Lavitola. “It is not a question of retracting or saying anything different, but rather,” the lawyer continues, “simply of clarifying and offering an accurate interpretation of what has already been stated. We are able to do this because, at the review hearing, spontaneous statements may be made.” The hearing before the Review Court has not yet been scheduled. According to his defence lawyer, “there are two points” that Lavitola will need to “clarify” for the judges: “The first is how the attack was carried out and the second is the motive,” Cola explained further in a statement.

Meanwhile, a political row has erupted over the salaries of journalists on the ‘Report’ editorial team, following the publication by *Il Tempo* of figures on the programme’s costs, which, according to the Fratelli d’Italia MP Francesco Filini, the party’s group leader on the Rai Supervisory Committee, “reveal a shocking reality about the actual costs of the programme ‘Report’”. “So much for ‘low-cost’ in-house production: what we are facing,” says the Fratelli d’Italia MP, “is a veritable drain on the public service’s coffers and, consequently, on the pockets of Italian citizens. The figures, in fact, speak for themselves: in three years, the costs for the salaries of writers and journalists on Sigfrido Ranucci’s programme alone have soared dramatically, rising from 2.2 million for the 2022–2023 season to over 2.9 million forecast for 2024–2025”. “An exponential increase,” Filini adds, “which translates into literally astronomical salaries for key contributors, with figures peaking at over 300,000 euros a year for journalist Giorgio Mottola (over 27,500 euros per investigation) and €228,000 for Giulia Innocenzi. In effect, journalist Mottola earns more than the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and more than double the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni’.”

However, the journalists at Report have announced that they are taking legal action against the daily newspaper *Il Tempo* and any other publications that reproduce the information published regarding salaries: “The smear campaign against the journalists at Report has today entered a new phase: money. This morning, the newspaper ‘Il Tempo’ published false and misleading figures, passing them off as the salaries of the programme’s journalists. The sums quoted are incorrect and have been artificially inflated; they do not in any way reflect the individual remuneration of the reporters, but rather comprise the total costs incurred in producing the individual reports. Most of the Report journalists have freelance contracts with Rai under a VAT registration number and, in line with the programme’s production model, they produce their own reports themselves, thus paying out of their own pockets for travel costs, editing and all other out-of-pocket expenses necessary to carry out an investigation over a period of months.” So stated the journalists from the Report editorial team in a note. “The sums paid for journalistic reports therefore only partially cover the journalists’ fees; a large part is used to cover expenses already incurred by the correspondents,” the programme’s correspondents continue. “Thanks to this production model, which passes on the out-of-pocket costs to the journalists and thereby reduces them, Report is the least expensive in-depth current affairs programme in Rai’s prime-time slot, costing around 150,000 euros per episode, whilst others in the same time slot and on the same channel can cost twice as much. The desk editors have also been thrown into the fray, and they certainly cannot be accused of receiving exorbitant salaries.”