A restaurateur who was exposed for
making a false claim she had barred a customer who had posted a
review, allegedly made up by her to get publicity for her
eatery, complaining he had been seated near a gay couple and a
disabled boy, was hounded to death by left-leaning journalists
as if her case had been Watergate or "the scandal of the
century", the rightwing government League and Brothers of Italy
(FdI) parties said Monday.
The woman, Giovanna Pedretti, is believed to have committed
suicide in a northern Italian river amid a social media backlash
after she was exposed by state broadcaster Rai's left-leaning
Rai3 news channel Tg3, liberal celebrity chef and influencer
Lorenzo Biagiarelli, and the latter's partner and fellow liberal
influencer Selvaggia Lucarelli.
Senior League lawmaker Mara Bizzotto said "what happened at Lodi
is shocking and makes you think: Tg3 and the Lucarellis treated
an alleged fake review as if it were the Watergate scandal.
"I only hope that those who flung so much mud now have the
decency to remain silent. And what does Rai have to say about
it?"
League MEP Isabella Tovaglieri said "common sense went missing
in the case of the Lodi restaurateur, and those who unleashed
the media lynching should have a good hard think about what they
did."
Giorgio Maria Bergesio, League pointman on the parliamentary Rai
oversight body, said the League would file a formal question on
Rai's coverage saying that "the story of an alleged fake post
was treated by Tg3 as if it were the scandal of the century.
"A news desk is free to exercise freedom of the press and cover
all stories but we urgently need a debate on proportionality.
"We don't think that the factor of social interest was so high
as to justify the media hounding of the protagonists.
"We voice the hope that Rai will take a stance, also in light of
the contracts and compensation on which we intend to shed light
shortly".
The Rai commission pointman for Premier Giorgia Meloni's FdI,
Francesco Filini, agreed that "a public service broadcaster must
not indulge in media lynching".
He said that Pedretti, the restaurateur, had been "subjected to
a full-blown summary trial by the media" and had been "placed in
the stocks of media opinion, leading to her likely suicide".
Filini said "certain Rai programmes have habituated us to such
approaches, but in this case it had extremely serious
conseqences".
The other government party, centre right post Berlusconi Forza
Italia (FI), said through MP Roberto Pella that "the case
highlights the need for a more conscientious use of social
media, to rein in the haters.".
Lucarelli, whose status as influencer has been boosted by her
media prominence as the most outspoken judge on Italy's version
of Dancing With The Stars, responded by saying that it appeared
to her critics that "re-establishing the truth is a fault,
something to be held responsible for".
She said that "writing false things is dangerous and can even
lead to tragedies", and cited another case last year in which an
alleged "commuting school janitor" was "hit by a shitstorm of
abuse after it emerged that her story was false".
She said "no one ever poses the problem that writing things that
aren't true can have serious consequences.
"In practice, we have come to the point that publishing a true
story is no longer held to be a journalist's responsibilty. It's
worse than Black Mirror".
Amid the row, Lucarelli's partner Biagiarelli took the day off
from his job on a Rai cooking show on Monday.
The Lodi restaurant owner did not have any economic problems,
friends and family said Monday.
Traces of blood were found in her car and police think she may
have slit her wrists before jumping into the Lambro River and
drowning.
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