Reporting Baltimore

The death of 25-year-old African American Freddie Gray while in police custody earlier this month triggered widespread protests in the city of Baltimore in the night of April 25, 2015.

But the story was not deemed newsworthy by major US news networks that opted to cover the White House Correspondent’s Dinner – an annual black-tie affair where journalists and politicians rub shoulders – in the capital less than 65 kilometres away.

Mainstream media have since tried to play catch-up but those journalists have received the same kind of treatment they faced while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri last year following the death of another unarmed black man at the hands of the police.

The primary grievance has been the media’s misrepresentation of the protests and fixation on the destruction of property rather than the social and economic root causes of the discontent.

Talking us through the story this week is journalist and former CNN correspondent Frank Sesno; USA Today reporter Yamiche Alcindor; academic and author Tara Conley; and Juan Thompson, a journalist at the Intercept.

Other stories on our radar this week: In China, officials tighten their restrictions on online news portals; Al Jazeera temporarily goes off the air in India after authorities accuse it of ‘cartographic aggression’; and a group of six novelists withdraw from an annual press freedom gala in protest of the organiser’s decision to honour Charlie Hebdo.

Italy: The politics of reforming ‘Mamma RAI’

Italy wants to reform its public broadcaster RAI and modernise the network’s structure and spending but there is no consensus as to how. A bill has been put before parliament and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says that he wants to free RAI from the political interference that has controlled the public broadcaster for decades. However the opposition is sceptical and foresees a government mouthpiece in the making.

The Listening Post‘s Paolo Ganino reports from Rome on the public broadcaster Italians call ‘Mamma Rai’ and the plans to reform it.

Our endnote video this week takes us back to where we started. There are still those who say that racism is a thing of the past in the US or blown out of proportion but myriad studies paint a different picture. In its latest production Brave New Films, a California-based media company explains why someone named Dante has much more difficulty in getting a job or dealing with the police than someone named David. The film is called Racism is Real and it is closing in on a million views online.