The crisis of journalism is a crisis of democracy, because it jeopardizes the right to information on which civil coexistence is based. Italy is not alone in this, but it is indeed now a pandemic phenomenon, certainly in Europe. Great Britain, Germany, France and Belgium all suffer from the same problems that affect journalists, hired in editorial offices and even more so if they are freelancers. This is what emerged clearly from the meeting of the Festival of Food Journalism in Turin, which saw the participation of the representatives of the trade union organizations of the category of the countries mentioned above: Silvia Garbarino, Subalpina Press Secretary; Richardo Gutierrez, Secretary General of the European Federation of Journalists; Andrea Roth, Vice president Bavarian Journalist Federation, Chair of Working Group LAREG, European Journalist Federation; Pablo Aiquel, Secrétaire Général Adjoint du SNJ-CGT and Co-Chair of Worching Group Freelance Expert Group; Federica Tedeschi Senior Reporter, Journalist & Blogger LFB - NUJ Equality Co-Officer, with the moderation of Anna Del Freo, Assistant Secretary of the Italian National Press Federation, Italian Representative of the European Federation of Journalists.
To find a solution, it is necessary to network, first of all between hired and freelance journalists, but also by exchanging experiences of good practices between different countries, to recompact the people of freelance journalists who, isolated and without the reference of an editorial staff anymore, are the subjects more fragile than the system, they are increasingly numerous and very difficult to intercept and protect: for example, in northern Europe an algorithm has been developed by the union that helps freelance journalists to calculate the average compensation for their journalistic contribution. An interesting starting point also for our country where a national table was recently launched for the definition of fair compensation for professionals of all categories. "And the European Trade Union Confederation in a recent speech, reported by Riccardo Gutierrez, underlined that the standards must also apply to freelancers".
