Journalists and the Fair Compensation Law, a statement from the National Press Federation

There National Federation of the Press (FNSI), through an official communication, expresses satisfaction for the approval by the Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies fair compensation law which concerns many journalists. The law onfair compensation was followed by the same FNSI Self-Employment Commission which is directly affected given the large number of freelance journalists who are increasingly forced to receive disrespectful and unworthy compensation.

Below is the official note applauding the initiative which, however, is not yet definitive as the process requires that the fair compensation lawreceive the same treatment in the Senate as well.

The law on fair compensation for freelance journalists, recently approved by the Chamber of Deputies' Culture Committee, is an excellent step forward in recognizing the equal moral and material dignity of all journalistic work, regardless of its conditions. It is also an act of restoring professional freedom and autonomy, increasingly essential at a time when the media is required, even more than in the past, not to silence the things that citizens need to know to ensure their right to knowledge and to foster scholarship and critical thinking.
Freelance and precarious journalists – too often forced into restrictive individual contracts and starvation wages – are today, in fact, placed in conditions of hardship: poverty and fear are a condition of lack of freedom.
This is why the measure approved today by the Chamber's Culture Committee has the full support of the National Press Federation, which, including through specific union work carried out by its own independent work committee, has been advocating for the dignity of all journalism for years, despite the ostracism it has faced until now. It is also important that all journalism organizations are committed to this initiative and have received the support of civil society groups and associations like Articolo21 and the precarious workers' movements.
It is significant that the fair compensation law, presented by the President of the Chamber of Deputies' Labor Committee, the Honorable Moffa, signed by all political groups, and finalized in a text shared by rapporteur Enzo Carra, was born from a parliamentary initiative and is the result of discussion and participation with all stakeholders in the professional information sector. This is a useful approach. And, in a case like this, it also highlights how, with serious and concrete commitment, it is possible to find, within a reasonable timeframe, the right ways to address problems festered by years of inertia.
The FNSI now hopes that the same capacity for coordination and convergence of the Chamber will have institutional continuity in the Senate and that, soon, the vote that will make the law definitive and effective can be cast there.
In a time of crisis in the publishing industry, with so many jobs being lost, ensuring clarity and fairness in all forms of journalistic work is an essential direction for the social partners, particularly publishers, to ensure that self-employment is recognized not only as an individual but also as a collective right. At the same time, it is important to offer the publishing industry a framework of rules that guarantee fair competition and, therefore, a useful option for higher editorial challenges in the name of quality.