Italy’s RAI journalists strike over budget streamlining, complain of censorship and media repression

ROME (AP) — Some journalists at Italy’s state-run RAI are on strike to protest budget streamlining and what they say is an increasingly repressive atmosphere in Italy for media. The 24-hour RAI strike Monday is the latest protest by Italian journalists against what they say are threats to freedom of the press and expression in Italy. The threats include criminal investigations of journalists and suspected episodes of censorship. The strike came just days after media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders downgraded Italy five notches in its annual index of press freedom. At No. 46, Italy moved into to the “problematic” category of countries alongside other EU members Poland and Hungary.