The Challenge of Facing Italy's Rise Towards Authoritarianism: A Journalist's Perspective
The first time Rula Jebreal came face to face with Giorgia Meloni was for a TV debate in November 2016. It was the day after the US presidential election, six years before Meloni became prime minister, and the pair were invited on to Piazzapulita, a talk show broadcast on the privately owned television channel La7, to discuss the victory of Donald Trump. Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party had neofascist roots at the time, embraced Trump's win. Jebreal, an Israeli-born Palestinian and the first black Muslim woman to present an Italian TV news show, had moved to the country as a student, gained Italian citizenship alongside Israeli, and become known for calling out racism, misogyny, and extremist groups. The tension between the two was palpable as the debate descended into a fiery clash of words. Jebreal challenged Meloni over Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, the rise in racism brought about by his campaign, and the violence unleashed at his rallies. Meloni dismissed her opponent as 'crazy' when Jebreal said, 'I understand it must be difficult to talk to a black woman like me.' The debate marked Jebreal out as a nemesis of Italy's far-right, giving insight into the ruthless streak that the country's future prime minister would increasingly come to wield against her opponents. Jebreal claims their confrontation set the wheels in motion for a years-long campaign of online attacks and intimidation over her criticism of Meloni and the Brothers of Italy, including being landed with a defamation lawsuit from her soon after Meloni's coalition triumphed in the September 2022 general election. Since coming to power, Meloni's government has been accused of making strategic use of defamation suits to silence journalists and public intellectuals. Her government has been said to exert its influence over the state broadcaster Rai and other Italian media. Meloni's growing antipathy towards Jebreal was made clearer in 2020 when, during a national TV talk show, she took issue over the journalist being invited to read her monologue against violence against women at that year's Sanremo song festival without cross-examination. The defamation case was filed over a tweet by Jebreal alleging Meloni had said asylum seekers were criminals who wanted to replace white Christians. Fabio Rampelli, a Brothers of Italy politician, is also suing Jebreal for defamation over a tweet about a neofascist commemorative ceremony in January in Rome. Jebreal, growing up in the Middle East, warns that Meloni's government's violent words may lead to actual violence. She believes Meloni's push for a bill that could allow a directly elected prime minister with certain conditions is part of an attempt to consolidate power while eroding the checks and balances on the office of the president of the republic. Jebreal regularly returns to Italy, a country she loves and still calls home. 'Italy taught me that defending democracy is paramount,' she said. 'To witness any backslide towards authoritarianism is thus terrifying.'
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