"We believe that Lavitola warned Ranucci about the risk of attacks before what happened on 16 October. There was, in fact, 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 the lawyer Arturto Cola before entering prison in Rebibbia for an interview with Valter Lavitola, the instigator of the attack on the Report journalist Sigfrido Ranucci.
“We are interested in the facts: during the preliminary interrogation my client ruled out the possibility that there was a prior agreement on the attack,” he added. Meanwhile, the controversy over the salaries of the Report journalists whose numbers were published in the newspaper "Il Tempo" is heating up with the journalists of the investigative editorial team announcing a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, speaking of "false and surreptitious figures".
"On 7 September there was a meeting 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 is what is confirmed by the lawyer Arturno Cola, defender of Valter Lavitola, before meeting his client detained in the Rebibbia prison on charges of being the instigator of the attack on Report presenter Sigfrido Ranucci, in a statement broadcast on SkyTg24.
“I am here today to speak with Lavitola and verify whether it is necessary to integrate the confession of August 12th in view of the Review hearing which will presumably be held next week,” adds the lawyer Arturo Cola before entering the Rebibbia prison for an interview with Valter Lavitola. "It is not a question of retracting or saying different things but it is - adds the lawyer - simply a matter of clarifying and offering an authentic interpretation of what has already been reported. This is possible for us because spontaneous declarations can be made during the Review". The hearing before the Court of Review has not yet been scheduled. According to his defender, "there are two points" that Lavitola will have to "point out" to the judges: "The first is the method of execution of the attack and the second is the motive", Cola further explained in a statement.
Meanwhile, the political controversy around the salaries of the journalists of the Report editorial team explodes with the amounts on the costs of the broadcast published by Tempo and which according to the Fratelli d'Italia deputy Francesco Filini, group leader of the party in the Rai Supervisory Commission "reveal a disconcerting reality on the real costs of the 'Report' broadcast".
"Other than internal production at 'reduced costs': we are faced - states the Fratelli d'Italia deputy - with a real drain on the public service coffers and, consequently, on the pockets of Italian citizens. The numbers, in fact, speak clearly: in three years the costs for the remuneration of authors and journalists of Sigfrido Ranucci's broadcast alone have risen dramatically, going from 2.2 million in the 2022-2023 season to over 2.9 million expected for 2024-2025”.
"An exponential growth - says Filini - which translates into literally pharaonic salaries for top collaborators, with peaks exceeding 300,000 euros per year for the journalist Giorgio Mottola (over 27,500 euros per investigation) and 228,000 euros for Giulia Innocenzi. In practice, the journalist Mottola earns more than the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella and more than double the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni".
The Report journalists, however, announce a lawsuit against the newspaper Il Tempo and all the newspapers that will resume the information published on salaries: "The defamation campaign against the journalists of Report today is enriched by a new chapter: money. This morning the newspaper 'Il Tempo' published false and surreptitious figures passing them off as salaries of the journalists of the program. The sums indicated are incorrect and artfully increased and do not indicate the individual remuneration of the individual correspondents at all but include the total expenses incurred for the production of individual services. The journalists of Report mostly have VAT-registered self-employment contracts with Rai and, based on the production model of the broadcast, they produce their own services, therefore paying travel costs, editing costs and all other out-of-pocket expenses necessary to conduct an investigation for months".
Thus in a note the journalists of the Report editorial team. "The sums paid for journalistic services therefore only partly go to pay the journalists' fees, a large part is used to cover expenses already incurred by the correspondents - continue the correspondents of the program - Thanks to this production model, which passes on the out-of-pocket costs to the journalists and thus cuts them down, Report is the least expensive journalistic in-depth program on Rai prime time, with around 150 thousand euros per episode, others in the same range and on the same network cost double that. Even the journalists were thrown into the cauldron. desk editors, who certainly cannot be accused of taking pharaonic salaries."
