The national journalists’ strike takes place on Thursday 16 April 2026. You will have seen it almost everywhere: information sites are not updated or are updated very little. Part of the editorial staff of Evidence Network and Evidence Network Storia also joined this mobilization. Much of the new content you find today on the Evidence Network website was written and prepared before the strike and planned to be published during this day, as we more or less do every day.
We publish, as required by art. 34 of the National Journalistic Labor Contract, a trade union statement from the National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI, the unitary union of journalists) relating to the negotiation for the renewal of the national journalistic labor contract which is the reason behind this strike.
Following, the press release from the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FIEG, which represents the main publishing companies of daily newspapers, periodicals, press agencies and digital publications) on the same topic.
Italian journalists are striking today for the third time. We do not do this lightly, but we believe it is necessary to inform readers, society and politics of what is happening in our sector, which is as fundamental to democracy as it is fragile.
The contract stipulated with the publishers of Fieg to regulate the work of employed journalists expired 10 years ago, years in which the publishers enjoyed public aid, while our salaries were eroded by inflation. There is no rule for the use of artificial intelligence and for the right economic recognition to the authors of the contents transferred to Over the top.
And things are even worse for the thousands of colleagues and VAT registered colleagues who have been waiting for years for the determination of fair compensation and who for this reason have incomes that are below the poverty threshold.
Publishers have ensured cuts in labor costs by resorting to contractual dumping practices through the excessive use of precarious work.
With our work and our daily sacrifices, we are the majority shareholders of many publishing companies.
For the National Federation of the Italian Press, dignity and the future of information pass through contract renewal, salary recovery and the defense of rights which are not privileges, but the way in which we can resist threats, inside and outside the editorial offices. The dignity of our work heavily affects the quality of the information that reaches you citizens.
For this reason we also believe that the sector must be financed more and better, that financing cannot produce the destruction and leveling of information, but bring revenues back to the newspapers. We journalists are ready to talk about it and discuss it. But the publishers?
National Federation of the Italian Press
The FIEG editors, from the beginning of the discussion for the contractual renewal, have represented the need for a substantial change in the contractual rules to recover efficiency and productivity and allow them to adequately face the new challenges of the market, crossed by an epochal technological innovation.
In fact, we find ourselves having to apply a national employment contract full of rigidity, constraints and now unsustainable institutions which hinder competitiveness and worsen the economic situation of companies, also representing a barrier to the entry of new professionals.
A contract which provides, for example, 40 days a year of holidays and leave, the payment of an allowance for former holidays abolished 50 years ago, increases for Sunday and public holiday work well above the average of other national contracts as well as the recognition of seniority increases as a percentage of salary which largely guarantee the recovery of inflation cannot certainly be considered a development factor.
Publishers want to find conditions of economic sustainability so as not to further damage both companies and professionals. To this end, the union was asked to face the challenge of completely modernizing the contract and introducing specific rules to encourage the inclusion of young professionals, as already successfully tested in the last contract renewal signed with the same union. The publishers have never shied away from the discussion nor have they ever abandoned the negotiating table and reiterate their willingness to continue negotiations for the renewal of the contract.
