Rai took Sigfrido Ranucci off the presenting role at Report, the Rai3 investigative programme he had hosted. Daniele Piervincenzi and Claudia Di Pasquale replaced him. Ranucci filed an urgent appeal seeking reinstatement, but the Labour Court of Rome rejected it. The court accepted Rai's account that the removal was meant to settle internal tensions caused by the media uproar around the investigation into the attack. The appeal will proceed to a full hearing on the merits, so the dispute over the removal is not closed.
Ranucci has also appealed a ten-day suspension imposed after the Rai ethics committee, the Comitato etico Rai, found his conduct at odds with company rules. Rai then gave him three options: a correspondent post at the Cairo bureau, a position at the disposal of the Tg3 director, or RaiNews24 with responsibility for in-depth programmes. He had until Monday, 19 October to choose. Ranucci, who is 65, then told Rai his decision, and it was the RaiNews24 option.
Ranucci will take the deputy directorship of the all-news channel under its director, Federico Zurzolo. In a long Instagram post he thanked Tg3 director Terzulli and the Tg3 staff for opening their doors to him at a difficult moment in his career. He worked at RaiNews from 1999 to 2006 and became a special correspondent in 2001. In February 2022 he had been assigned to the Approfondimento directorate as vice director ad personam. The post also recalled that Milena Gabanelli called him to Report after an inquiry that denounced the use of white phosphorus by the United States at Falluja, carried out in 2004 and 2005. Ranucci wrote that he had spent twenty years on Report and that he had helped make it the successful programme it is today.
In the same post, Ranucci explained why he chose to go back to the newsroom he had left.
“After tormented days I chose to return to Rainews, the port I sailed from before landing at Report.”
He closed by pointing to the fight ahead, in defence of press freedom and of people without a voice.
“I am coming back with the smile that no injustice will be able to take from me.”
The appeal on the removal from Report will continue on its merits before the Rome court. The appeal against the ten-day suspension is also pending, and Ranucci's move to RaiNews24 goes ahead while both cases remain open.
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Sigfrido Ranucci has chosen RaiNews24 over two other Rai offers, after a Rome labour court rejected his urgent appeal to return to presenting Report.
AI text based on reports by Il Messaggero, Fanpage, il Giornale.it and other publishers. Published .