It is right that in San Marino every newspaper has its own take, and that the same news is read in different ways: it’s called pluralism, and it does everyone good.
Our way of practising it is to give space to anyone with something to say and, when someone ends up at the centre of a controversy, to call them and report what they say.
Because giving space doesn’t mean taking sides.
In a Republic where you run into politicians at the bar and journalists at the supermarket, a single voice would be convenient for many and useful to no one.
Some comment with the sabre, others with the foil; some investigate, others do satire: all are needed, because each sees what escapes the others.
And Sammarinese readers, used to comparing sources, are right to expect more than one bell.
Everyone has their own method.
Ours starts from other people’s words, and the last few days illustrate that well.
In the Foreign Affairs Committee, Nicola Renzi made a statement bound to spark debate; on September 10th, Insider published his remarks in full, without cuts.
When the statement turned into a case, we did the simplest and most important thing in this job: we picked up the phone, called Renzi and reported what he told us.
That’s how it’s done.
Everyone then drew their own conclusions, some harsh, and that’s legitimate: readers had everything they needed in front of them to judge for themselves.
And this applies to everyone, not just one person.
In the same weeks, on these pages, the Association Agreement with the European Union was discussed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs bringing it to signature, by an opposition party that supports it, and by a committee that opposes it.
In the same days we reported on opposition parties calling for clarity over the management of San Marino RTV, and on the Secretariats that back that management.
We let all of them speak.
It is not our job to tell readers what to think, but to give them everything they need to think it through for themselves.
There is a principle well known to anyone in this profession, set out in the 1993 Charter of Journalists’ Duties (Carta dei doveri del giornalista): comment and opinion must be absolutely free, with the sole limit of not offending or defaming people.
It is the most successful formula for pluralism: full freedom on ideas, no compromise on facts, no personal targets.
A statement is debated, not the person who made it; an article is contested, not the person who wrote it.
In the coming weeks the Agreement should be signed, then ratified, and by 2027 provisionally applied: months of laws, sessions and statements to report, some well-judged, others less so.
In the Europe San Marino is about to associate itself with, freedom and pluralism of the media are enshrined in Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the best way to be ready for it is to practise them already, starting now.
We will keep doing so in the simplest way we know: a question, a phone call, the answers reported in full.
The rest is up to the reader.
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Francesca Devincenzi – Journalist and editor of Insider.sm
