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Rai has launched a disciplinary procedure against the commentators Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Mazzucchi, who on Monday morning during the story of the women’s final of synchronized diving from the trampoline allegedly used sexist, racist and inappropriate phrases, reported by several viewers. The broadcast of the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan went live on RaiPlay 2, but is currently not available online, so there is not a recording of all the sentences in question. The only fragment, published online by some users, is the one in which Leonarduzzi uses racist stereotypes when speaking of the Chinese.
As reported by @defroggingduring the Diving World Cup, some commentators would have made xenophobic and sexist comments towards the male and female athletes.
Is this the new Rai model? pic.twitter.com/1dQnyJ9a4o
— Thomas Sasso (@tomm_sasso) July 17, 2023
Leonarduzzi, contacted by Corriere della Sera, he said he said some of those sentences, denying others, “while chatting with a colleague”. In short, he claims that he was not aware of being on the air: «I distance myself from everything that was picked up by a microphone left on for technical reasons and a meter and a half away from me. These are words that do not belong to me, far from my way of being».
The justification was not considered sufficient by the company, which communicated the immediate return from Japan of the two commentators and their replacement. Leonarduzzi, however, had ended up at the center of two other similar cases in the past, one for a sexist joke uttered in commentary, one for a post on his Facebook profile in which he wished Adolf Hitler on his birthday.
The case was reported on Twitter by a live viewer, who has shared a protest email to Rai in which he reconstructed some of the sentences spoken by heart, because the video of the commentary of the preliminary stages of the match is not available online on RaiPlay. It is therefore not clear what Leonarduzzi said, but he admitted that his sentences were a joke with a sexual background and a comment on the physique of the Dutch female divers. Quoted from Republic, Leonarduzzi said that «these are absolutely not sexist comments, I just said a bar joke about “Yes I do” to my commentator during the break on the news». And then he added: «As regards the fact that I said about the large build of Dutch female athletes, I also do it for men when they have a large and well-structured physique».
In another commentary of a men’s final, commenting on the diving of the Italian Riccardo Giovannini, Leonarduzzi said: «Liccaldo, the Chinese would say Liccaldo». In the afternoon, the managing director of Rai, Roberto Sergio, announced a disciplinary procedure against Leonarduzzi and Mazzucchi, and asked the director of Rai Sport Jacopo Volpi to immediately return them from Japan. Nicola Sangiorgio was put in their place in the commentary.
Leonarduzzi two and a half years ago had been the protagonist of another sexist sentence in the commentary, during a rally race. Speaking of the driver Ott Tänak he had told of a bet: «Today they told me one, they want me to win 100 euros if I tell it, they told me a bad joke that I will tell. “Nanak woman all Tanak”»
Possible that up@RaiSporta journalist indulges in jokes in bad taste, vulgar, sexist, harmful, even bragging about having won a 100 euro bet? I hope the #Rai initiate disciplinary proceedings immediately. pic.twitter.com/v6STkyBa4m
— valeria fedeli (@valeriafedeli) December 8, 2020
The case aroused complaints from the former Minister of Education Valeria Fedeli, of the Democratic party, while in 2018 it was the secretary of the Rai Supervisory Commission, Michele Anzaldi, who reported that Leonarduzzi had posted birthday greetings in German on the day of Hitler’s birthday. In that case, Rai replied with a note saying it did not believe that the wishes were addressed to the Nazi dictator.
2023-07-17 14:56:30
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