In Italy, a far-right MP wants to take over the country's second-largest press agency
In Italy, a far-right MP wants to take over the country's second-largest press agency
Employees of the agency AGI, owned by the state-owned ENI group, fear that it will join the media outlets already bought by Lega Nord MP Antonio Angelucci.
This does make me wonder how a press corps can be properly fostered which is not beholden to either private or state interests
NPR & BBC are probably the closest we've got so far - they're both state funded, but editorially independent (theoretically). There's still some influence from the government, but it works pretty well.
Edit: public-funded news outlets definitely work best when they're part of a larger system including other models of governance (like independent non-profits) as well.
Given the entire governance structure of the BBC and many of the senior managers have been stacked with Tory cronies over the last decade I don't think that's still true.
Austria tried that by forcing citizens to pay for the state media directly instead of tax money, but it pretty much failed because politicians just can’t get their hands off that and so always place their own henchmen into management positions there. Obviously they’re also unwilling to create laws to get rid of that power.