{"id":350263,"date":"2026-02-22T08:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/350263\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T08:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:32:11","slug":"italian-broadcaster-apologises-for-off-air-remark-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/350263\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian broadcaster apologises for off-air remark \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/italy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/italy\/\">Italy<\/a>\u2019s state broadcaster \u200cRAI was forced to apologise to the Jewish community on Saturday \u200cafter an off-air remark advising its producers to \u201cavoid\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\">Israeli<\/a> crew was \u200bbroadcast before coverage of the four-man bobsleigh event at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/winter-olympics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/winter-olympics\/\">Winter Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The head of RAI\u2019s sports division had already resigned earlier in the \u200bweek after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening \u2060ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its \u200cjournalists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On \u200cSaturday, \u200bviewers heard \u201cLet\u2019s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one\u201d, and then \u201cno, because . . .\u201d, \u2060before the sound \u200bwas cut off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">RAI CEO Giampaolo \u200bRossi said the incident represented a \u201cserious\u201d breach of the \u200cprinciples of impartiality, respect and \u200binclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added that \u2060RAI had opened an \u2060internal inquiry \u200bto swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a separate statement RAI\u2019s board of directors condemned the remark as \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The board apologised to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">RAI is the country\u2019s largest media \u200corganisation and operates \u2060national television, radio and digital news services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca\u2019s \u200copening ceremony commentary had dealt \u201ca serious blow\u201d to the company\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">His missteps \u200bincluded misidentifying venues and public figures, \u200band making comments about national teams that were widely criticised. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall  b-it-article-body__copyright\">(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s state broadcaster \u200cRAI was forced to apologise to the Jewish community on Saturday \u200cafter an off-air remark&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,71,371,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,48782],"class_list":["post-350263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-italy","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-winter-olympics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116113358529784713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}