The Union of Italian Jewish Communities has begun a campaign to get Italian newspapers to stop using the term Jew in a derogatory sense and to stop identifying criminals and persons involved in scandals by their religion only when they are Jewish.
In a letter to the Undersecretary of the Premier’s Office, the Union pointed out that the press–regardless of political adherence–always identifies as such any Jew who is involved in a scandal. But, said the Union’s letter, the person stigmatized in the press is never identified as a member of any other religion if he is not a Jew.
The Union also addressed letters to the Rome daily II Paese and the Milan newspaper Tempo protesting their identifying as a Jew a man named Beraha who is involved in a forgery scandal, but not identifying any other member of the group involved by his religion. In the case of Tempo. the Union objected to the publication of an unproven statement to the effect that Beraha “started counterfeiting money to finance the Zionist army. but later turned the activities of his organization to private use.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
