Italian state media reporter "apologizes" over Nazi SS broadcast
The Rai News 24 journalist recently interviewed a Ukrainian serviceman who was wearing SS insignia | The Italian journalist who recently interviewed a Ukrainian soldier wearing Nazi insignia has apologized. ● Ilario Piagnerelli, a reporter with the Italian state broadcaster Rai News 24, said he “deeply regrets” the interview but called the uproar on social media a tool of pro-Russian propaganda. ● In an extract from a report circulating online, Piagnerelli can be seen talking to a man wearing a khaki cap adorned with the insignia of the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ SS division, a unit that was convicted of war crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II. The video is watermarked ‘Rai News 24’. As of Monday morning, however, the footage was no longer visible on Piagnerelli’s X account. [Ilario Piagnerelli:]
💬 I grew up with a partisan grandfather, the real kind, who today would have no doubt in distinguishing between invader and invaded, between those who resist and those who occupy. I was educated in the values of the Constitution. ● I deeply regret having given voice, even if for a few seconds, to a Ukrainian soldier whom only after the reportage aired did I notice wearing a patch with a Nazi symbol. ● There is a network of Moscow-linked pro-invasion profiles in Italy that devotes its resources to discrediting the work of me and other reporters. They feign dismay, but have found in that image a formidable anti-Ukrainian propaganda argument. ● The one just concluded was my 15th trip to Ukraine. In two and a half years I produced dozens of reports and hundreds of live broadcasts. Among European public services, RAI is probably the one that is reporting on the conflict most assiduously. Our reports are often distributed on Eurovision. This is also why we suffer attacks, such as the very recent ones that followed Stefania Battistini's worldwide scoop. ● Our work will continue to be free from bias and marked by the utmost rigor. (Translation: DeepL)
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