Veteran journalist Claudia Di Pasquale steps in alongside Daniele Piervincenzi following Giulia Presutti’s withdrawal to present Report. Sigfrido Ranucci fights to reclaim the show he says he was forced out of.
Claudia Di Pasquale will host Rai’s flagship investigative programme Report alongside her long-time colleague Daniele Piervincenzi, the head of the broadcaster’s in-depth department, Paolo Corsini, announced on Thursday, after a second journalist lined up for the role pulled out.
A reshuffle forced by controversy
The appointment follows the removal of Report’s long-standing presenter, Sigfrido Ranucci, over his friendship with Valter Lavitola, a restaurateur previously convicted of extorting the late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi over alleged escorts. Rai said last week it was replacing Ranucci because of the relationship and that it had offered him alternative roles within the broadcaster.
Government politicians and conservative commentators had repeatedly pressed Rai to remove Ranucci from Report — a programme whose investigations have frequently caused difficulty for the government — over what they characterised as a murky friendship with Lavitola.
Lavitola has confessed to bombing Ranucci’s home outside Rome last October, saying he did so to strengthen his friend’s security detail. Prosecutors have said the bombing was intended to raise Ranucci’s public profile ahead of a possible move into politics, from which Lavitola also allegedly hoped to benefit, but have stated they do not suspect Ranucci of involvement in the plot.
A second withdrawal
Rai had originally intended to pair Piervincenzi with another Report journalist, Giulia Presutti, 36, who has worked on some of the programme’s most hard-hitting investigations over nine years with the show. Presutti announced on Wednesday night that she was standing down from the role for the good of the programme. Corsini said he “humanly understood” her decision.
Corsini said he had turned to Di Pasquale because of her extensive experience.
Ranucci’s reaction
Ranucci, 65, who is taking legal action in an attempt to win back his old job, told ANSA he was pleased with the choice of Di Pasquale, describing her as a rigorous, tough and independent professional whom he said he would himself have picked in ordinary circumstances. He added that it was just as well he had not been consulted, since he doubted she would have accepted the role if he had been.
He was notably less complimentary about his other replacement, calling Piervincenzi, 45, a former rugby reporter who has since worked on some of Rai’s most sensitive investigations, “mediocre”. Piervincenzi’s past work includes an investigation into links between a Roman coastal crime family and the far-right group Casapound, during which a member of the Spada family broke his nose with a headbutt.
Ranucci has described his removal as an unprecedented character assassination carried out by the conservative press over his ties to Lavitola. Other journalists on the Report team have threatened to resign if his ousting is confirmed.
