19 - Italy on the Other Side of the World

Italian ethnic media maintains cultural connection between Australia and Italy

The census of 1996 clearly indicates where Italians settled after arriving in Australia between the Fifties and the Seventies: mostly in the state of Victoria, then in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. Their children and grandchildren are everywhere. They are considered a priceless patrimony both there and in Italy. But what can Italy do today for those Italians who went there, on the far side of the world?
Giancarlo Martini Piovano, director of the Comitato di Assistenza agli Italiani ("Committee for Assistance to Italians", Coasit), digs in his library and comes up with 20 pages of the latest annual report prepared by the Continental Commission for Extra-European Anglophone Countries of Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all'Estero ("General Council of Italians Abroad", CGIE). "It's all in here," he says. Do you think someone in Rome read it? "I sure hope so," he replies. And what are the priorities? "This is hard to say, as all these proposals are absolute priorities."
No way to make him choose. But by browsing the report, technical proposals aside (pensions, tax exemptions and reimbursements, bursaries and professional training), what jumps out is the need not to be forgotten. This can be understood from the proposal to reopen the terms for reacquiring Italian citizenship, "in consideration of the decision by the Federal government allowing us to keep the Australian citizenship as well." This means that a double passport can now be carried. The growing demand of Italy comes out when the report tackles the problem of TV information and underscores the inadequacy of RAI International, which can only be received via satellite.
"That's not enough. This must be an instrument of international cultural penetration," says Martini Piovano, "through which RAI should produce global information and broadcast the image of Italy. I do not mean to enter the controversies that this subject arises all over the world. For Australia, the proposals advanced seem reasonable to me."
Which proposals are those? "First of all having a specific programming line-up, ad hoc for Oceania; then the creation in Australia of a representative office that could act as a reference and a connection, and finally the production of local information capable of also raising interest in Italy. I'm thinking of local news and documentaries on Italian achievements abroad."
This latter request is hardly a bold one. There everything is known about Italy, thanks to a very complete and efficient information system. But how much does Italy know about this large community, which even Australians consider indisputably authoritative?
There are two dailies (Il Globo in Melbourne and La Fiamma in Sydney) and a radio station (ReteItalia) broadcasting in Italian 24 hour a day covering all populated areas of Australia (owned by the same group that publishes Il Globo and La Fiamma); there's the SBS, public multicultural radio and TV station (Italian is the language with the most air time every day), broadcasting movies and a daily newscast supplied by RAI; the monthlies Nuovo Paese and Progresso Italo-Australiano, the English-language periodical Italy Down-Under, and a myriad other local publications and radio programmes.
In Italy the importance of the Italian-Australian community was understood by La Repubblica, which was distributed with Melbourne's Il Globo and Sydney's La Fiamma for about two years.
The experiment has been temporarily suspended in order to fine-tune its editorial mechanisms (the difference in time zones creates problems to newspapers, as well as to people), but it allowed the Olympic Games timely media coverage in Italian, and this gave great visibility to the three dailies.
Ubaldo Larobina, of Calabrese origin and Roman roots, is the founder and president of Italian Media Corporation, the publishing house of Il Globo, La Fiamma and ReteItalia. "The coupling with La Repubblica was a success," he says. "It also proved that Italy, if it wants, can really be close to Italian-Australians. Of course there are technicalities to solve, because we're at the antipodes here, but the technologies was created precisely to overcome them."
There, like in Venezuela, the growth of the most qualified newspaper shows that the demand for Italian-language information is on the rise. In short, that a market exists. Il Globo and La Fiamma were biweeklies until four years ago: within two years they became triweeklies and than dailies. These newspapers are rich in content, initiatives and pages (48 per day on average) making widespread use of colour, with local departments in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, interacting with ReteItalia. The technical term for this is synergy.
In the last few years, Ubaldo Larobina has been feeling more confident, because "our company," he says, "is carried on stronger shoulders now." Those shoulders belong to his son Julius, who holds degrees in Law and Economics and has been following in his father's steps since when he was a young man. Julius just returned from a six-month sabbatical that he used for learning firsthand about Italian, Spanish and British newspapers. "Even though he's not yet 26, he shows great potential," says his father. "I told him to go hone his skills. That's why I sent him to see other realities and learn how things are done elsewhere."
After creating Il Globo in Melbourne in 1959, Ubaldo Larobina bought La Fiamma, founded by Sydney's Capuchin friars. In the late Seventies the newspaper was in dire straits, but had strong roots within the Italian community, which meant that it sold well and could generate advertising revenue. But it had to be rejuvenated and its management rationed. Larobina did exactly this, by renovating the offices as well as the typesetting machines, then linking the editorial department to that of Il Globo and making them work in synergy. To date, a part of the common pages is prepared in Melbourne, the other in Sydney, and technology allows real-time assembly. The savings on management costs were used for inserts and supplements, enriching both papers and turning them into tools for information and growth. The circle closed in 1994, when ReteItalia opened.
Such premises made the agreement with La Repubblica quite natural.
"Today fair information is our focus," says Larobina Jr., Julius, "but in the past our papers carried forward the requests of Italian-Australians. Those were real battles. Let's just mention right to work and to safety on the workplace, family reunion, transfer of pensions, free English courses; and at the same time, the right to keep one's original language and culture. It wasn't easy, but we can claim victory. If nowadays Italian-Australians are respected, it is also because of those battles."
Which press campaign makes him proudest? "Rather than one campaign," replies Ubaldo Larobina, "I'm proud of the ability displayed by the newspapers in coping swiftly with changing situations. They fought against discrimination, which 30 years ago was really hard, but when that period passed they began to show their reader how to be Italians and Australians at the same time, keeping one's identity but never forgetting one's duties as citizen of this country. Is this known in Italy?"
I'm afraid it isn't.

Publication Date: 2002-12-01
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2085