Italy’s deputy PM takes aim at ‘polluting’ press

Luigi Di Maio, a key figure in Italy’s populist government, has taken aim at the country’s press, accusing newspapers of “polluting the debate” while threatening to pull advertising placed by state-owned companies.

The deputy prime minister warned that in its next budget, the government was planning “a reduction of indirect state contributions” to the press. “We are preparing a letter to state-owned companies to ask them to stop paying newspapers,” wrote Di Maio who heads the populist Five Star Movement.