Ranucci returns to Rainews24 following his departure from Report

Following his departure from Report, Sigfrido Ranucci has chosen to return to Rainews24, where he will be responsible for in-depth reporting. The journalist himself announced this on his social media accounts, posting a photo of Roberto Morrione, founder of the all-news channel where Ranucci himself worked from 1999 to 2006. 

In the post, the journalist recalls the alternative proposals put forward by Viale Mazzini following his removal from the Rai 3 programme. “Rai presented me with a choice: the Cairo bureau as a correspondent, Tg3 at the editor’s disposal, or Rainews24 with responsibility for in-depth reporting. I would like to thank the editor-in-chief, Luca Terzulli, and my colleagues at Tg3 for opening the doors to me – at such a difficult time in my professional life – to the news organisation where, thirty-six years ago, I took my first steps: first as a programme assistant, then as a journalist. After a few trying days, I chose to return to Rainews, the port from which I had set sail before arriving at Report,” writes the journalist.

From here, a long flashback. “Milena Gabanelli called me after producing the investigative report that exposed the United States’ use of chemical weapons – white phosphorus – in Fallujah: a piece produced between 2004 and 2005 which, for the first time in its history, put Rai on the world map with an international scoop. Terrible weapons which, even today, amidst the silence of the unprincipled, are being used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon. At the time, my editor was Roberto Morrione, my mentor,” continues Ranucci, recalling the various investigations they carried out together. “Today the editor-in-chief is Federico Zurzolo, whom I thank for his trust. I shall be reunited with many old colleagues from that fledgling Rainews which, in the late 1990s, like a privateer’s ship, plied the stormy seas of the news. I am returning to where I started, certain that I have done everything I needed to do and that, for 20 long years, I have contributed to the success of a programme like *Report*, the flagship of public television and of national and international investigative journalism.”

In response to his removal from Report, Ranucci’s lawyers had lodged an urgent appeal, which was rejected in early October by the Court of Rome. At the same time, the management at Viale Mazzini also decided to suspend him for 10 days, citing four instances of conduct deemed inappropriate: around fifty visits by Laura Cianfoni, a former CISL trade unionist, to the company’s headquarters; the content of a conversation with M5S MP Dario Carotenuto; company emails forwarded to Valter Lavitola; and the denigration of colleagues, in particular Giulia Presutti and Daniele Piervincenzi, who had initially been tipped to succeed the journalist as head of Report.