Florence Charter approved by the National Council of Journalists

In the aftermath of the approval of the Florence “deontological” Charter on job insecurity by the National Council of the Order of Journalists, great satisfaction was expressed by fellow journalists who, like me, took part in the various stages of drafting the Charter. Here is the press release distributed for the occasion. You can sign the document by following the instructions at the end.

We express our deepest satisfaction for the approval of the “Florence Charter” by the National Council of the Order of Journalists.
The fact that the new deontological charter for the protection of rights and work of non-employed journalists was ratified by the Council of the Order unanimously, with only three abstentions and without any changes compared to the text approved by acclamation at the open assembly of October 7-8 in Florence, is a strong and clear signal that a new awareness is emerging within the profession.
We believe that with this approval, an extremely important step has been taken towards protecting journalists who are not classified as employees, who are not and can no longer be considered “second-class journalists” or fodder for the media system.
Having participated in various ways – as freelance members of the Order, the Fnsi, base groups – in the proposal phases, working groups, and committee and assembly work to analyze the proposed amendments, we can testify to the amount of listening, dialogue, verification, and open work that went into the drafts of the Florence Charter over the past months.
We can therefore say that it truly originated “from the ground up,” from the requests of freelance colleagues, collaborators, and precarious workers, but it then developed thanks to respectful confrontation and cooperation between freelancers and contract employees sensitive to these issues.
The Charter was created to establish the principle of solidarity among all journalists and to eliminate any excuses for maintaining exploitative situations in newsrooms that undermine both professional dignity and the quality of information.
Now we must ensure that this “Charter” does not remain only “on paper,” locked away in a drawer and then ignored. Instead, it must become the “living Charter” for the entire profession, to protect the work of all journalists without distinction, and ultimately for the quality of information provided to citizens.
And in this sense, we will commit ourselves.
Maurizio Bekar
Anna Bruno
Antonella Cardone
Nicola Chiarini
Maria Giovanna Faiella
Dario Fidora
Saverio Paffumi

 The text is open to further endorsements. Those who wish to sign it can notify one of the first 7 signatories, or email: giornalistifreelance@gmail.com