“Publishers’ balance sheets count more than the lives of war correspondents”

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For Giampaolo Cadalanu, the former correspondent of La Repubblica, the public financial aid to media should also go towards protecting journalists and not just to facilitate early retirement

OSSIGENO June 9^th 2022 – “The idea that the war in Ukraine is covered by uninsured young men scares me. Something must be done to ensure that these young journalists are protected”. This is the alarm raised by Giampaolo Cadalanu, former correspondent of La Repubblica in various theatres of war from Afghanistan to Yemen, at the conference promoted by Ossigeno per l’Informazione in Rome.

According to Cadalanu, it is unacceptable that “the balance sheets of the newspapers are more important than the lives of my colleagues who go to report on war”. Perhaps we must also “think about some form of public intervention which is aimed not only at the early retirement of expert colleagues”, he added referring to the government funding offered in recent decades to publishers to reduce their editorial staff.

“In publishing – he re-iterated – a change is taking place that is very worrying. It is in crisis also because there are no longer any publishers willing to invest in that information which acts as a lubricant for democracy. And this absence is seen above all in war situations. I see many young, talented journalists, but without support and insurance cover, sent to the conflict “. And again, he concluded, “these colleagues we talk about after they died, how were they welcomed and treated in newsrooms, when they offered to go to the battlefield?”

LB