100 Italian newspapers face closure as Rome pulls aid

ROME—Around 100 Italian newspapers face closure due to government subsidy cuts in 2012 as part of measures to fight off a ferocious debt crisis, a National Press Federation spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

“100 or so titles — newspapers but also some weekly and monthly publications — are at risk,” said Renzo Santelli from the FNSI federation, adding that around 4,000 jobs in the journalism industry were in the firing line.

Among those which may collapse without government contributions are the left-wing Il Manifesto newspaper, L’Unita — a communist daily founded by Antonio Gramsci in 1924 — and the Catholic newspaper Avvenire.

Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Thursday that it was “unthinkable to completely stop aid which guarantees pluralistic information and the coexistence of cultural and political currents vital for the country”.

However, newspapers which have limited readership cannot continue to be propped up by the government “in a period when every euro that the state spends has to be scrutinised”, he said.