Journalistic institutions in Italy have launched an initiative to push parliament and the ministry of work to create a law that would fix minimum standards for the payment and treatment of freelance journalists, reported LSDI. The effort follows the publication of an ebook on the condition of journalists in Italy, written and published by LSDI.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that independent work is paid with compensation so low that the vast majority of freelance journalists declare an average annual income that is lower than the poverty threshold indicated by ISTAT [the Italian statistics institute]," said the LSDI article. This is the feeling of those who met for the release of the ebook on journalists' conditions, who included Enzo Iacopino, president of the Italian Order of Journalists, Andrea Camporese, president of INPGI (social security for journalists), Andrea Cerrato, president of Casagit (health benefits for journalists) and Roberto Natale and Franco Siddi, president and secretary of FNSI, the Italian journalists' union.

As well as campaigning for a new law to regulate conditions, which the article notes is present in other countries, the initiative aims to present the situation to publishers and urge them to towards a new "social and civil responsibility" for the journalistic profession.

Natale and Siddi also called for financial intervention from the state to more widely ensure the survival of journalism in the country. There are many titles which cannot survive in the market as it is, they said, and the state must intervene and direct public funds. "Ethical journalism, that which is grounded in the principles of a professional system work contracts, is a public good, without which no democracy can function at its best," they said.

The LSDI ebook, as well as its findings about the gap between full time workers and freelancers, found that at least 40,000 journalists out of 108,000 are 'invisible' and unknown to the body that provides social security and welfare services for journalists. The journalistic population is aging, and is seeing more women enter the profession, but there is still a gap in income between the sexes.

Should freelance wages be dictated by the state? Italy is not the only country where payment is low: freelancers in the UK went on strike in April to protest falling pay and reduced rights. Meanwhile, in the US, several initiatives have been launched to streamline the process for putting freelancers and editors in touch, such as Ebyline.com and Findstringers.com.

Source: LSDI