Published 11/10/2025 09:28 | Edited 11/10/2025 1:30 pm
Italian journalist Gabriele Nunziati was fired from the Agenzia Nova news agency after questioning, at a European Commission press conference in Brussels, whether Israel should take responsibility for rebuilding Gaza.
The case, which occurred at the end of October, two weeks after the question was asked, reignites the debate about the difficulty of criticizing the Israeli government in the press and other bodies around the world.
During a press conference held on 13 October, Nunziati asked spokeswoman Paula Pinho whether, “after repeating several times that Russia should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine”, the European Commission believed that “Israel should also pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, as it has destroyed almost all of its civilian infrastructure”.
Pinho responded that it was “an interesting question”, but said he “wouldn’t like to comment at the moment”. The video of the dialogue went viral and, according to the agency, caused “institutional embarrassment” after being reproduced on Russian and Arab channels.
In a note to the Fanpage.it portal, Agenzia Nova justified the dismissal by stating that the journalist’s question was “technically incorrect, inappropriate and of an erroneous nature”.
The leadership argued that “Russia invaded a sovereign country without provocation, while Israel reacted to an armed attack”, and accused Nunziati of not understanding “the substantial and formal difference between the situations”.
The reporter was notified by letter about the dismissal on October 27. The dismissal provoked an immediate reaction from Italian press entities and MEPs, who classified the episode as political censorship.
The National Council of the Italian Order of Journalists demanded Nunziati’s reinstatement and stated that “you cannot fire someone for asking a question”.
The National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI) and the International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) also condemned the decision, declaring that the case “violates fundamental principles of press freedom”.
The European Commission denied any involvement in the dismissal and stated, in a statement, that “it attaches the utmost importance to press freedom”. No authority from the bloc commented on the content of the question or the agency’s treatment of the journalist.
The case reignites the debate about the fear of European institutions in confronting Israeli interests, even in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks have left almost 70,000 dead and more than 170,000 injured.
For unions and journalistic entities, the punishment of Nunziati is an example of how criticism of Israel becomes politically unfeasible within civil society bodies.
Source: vermelho.org.br
