By Mike Wilson
In my journeys for IFAJ, I have the privilege to meet with leaders of other guilds and learn more about what is happening in their country and with their profession. Such was the case a few weeks ago, when I had the privilege to attend Fieragricola, a large farm show in Verona, Italy.
There I met with the leaders of Italy’s agricultural journalists association, UNAGA. Their President, Mimmo Vita, met with me along with Treasurer Efrem Tassinato and Vice President Carlo Morandini.
Mimmo Vita explained that 20 years ago, Italy’s agricultural journalism profession was in full bloom. Many newspapers and magazines, along with radio and TV, were hiring journalists to specialize in covering the many diverse facets of agriculture that can be found in Italy. At the time, ag journalists were tied in to an agency, or consortium, that helped finance communications activities within agriculture.
About 15 years ago the Italian government went through a political change and the agency died, says Vita. “When the consortium died, UNAGA had no money to do anything,” explains Vita.
About 10 years ago some Italian communicators tried to jump start UNAGA again. However, the President died four years ago and Mimmo found himself in the position of replacing him.
Even so, UNAGA’s rebirth appears to be succeeding. Just last August elections were held, where Vita was elected President, along with Tassinato, Morandini and Emilio Bonavita as Secretary General.
Italy is divided into 22 regional and provincial administrations, says Vita. Many regional groups, known as ARGA, have been restarted, with some success. “The regional organizations are the key areas where we need good leaders to organize events and activities,” says Mimmo.
“We have faith we can do a good job with our mission, which is to give opportunities to ag journalists to know the new trends in agriculture, offer them news about these changes, and help them with training and instruction,” says Vita. “Many of our programs involve going to farms, meeting with stakeholders and political leaders.”
UNAGA itself will hold two or three national meetings each year to talk about regional success stories and plan new events. It is going through reconstruction and is not ready to host a large scale IFAJ event such as a Congress, says Vita. “We need time to construct our relationships with our members and enforce our presence within the journalism world,” he says.
UNAGA is affiliated with FNSI, the Federazione Stampa Italiana, or National Italian Press Federation. There is a national law in Italy that says if you want to be called a journalist you must be affiliated with a publication, or news outlet. You must work on a staff for 1½ years before taking an exam to be fully accredited as a journalist as a part of an official “Ministry of Justice” accredited list.
In Italy we have had the privilege of working for many years with Lelio Bernardi as IFAJ executive secretary. Lelio was faithful about attending nearly every meeting. He has since retired as IFAJ Executive and been replaced by Antonio Brunori, who first introduced himself to the Executive Committee at our GreenWeek business meeting held in Berlin in January. I have Antonio to thank for arranging our IFAJ meeting at Fieragricola.
“Antonio will be there to build our relationship with IFAJ and be our liaison,” says Mimmo.
After meeting with Antonio in January, and now Mimmo, Efrem and Carlo in February, I am confident UNAGA is off to a good start with its reorganization. We look forward to more opportunities to connect with our friends in Italy.