Weekend Box: Italian elections, Rebel Wilson & more
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business, and cultural news from around the world.
ITALY: FAR RIGHT ON THE RISE?
On Sunday, local elections took place in Italy. While right-wing parties across the country can be said to have done well, one in particular performed all too well: Fratelli d'Italia, or Brothers of Italy, a far-right populist party born from the ashes of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). The party’s performance has led to speculation that leader Giorgia Meloni could become Italy’s first female prime minister, ushering in a new era of nationalism and ultra-conservatism for the country.
EURACTIV reports that Fratelli d'Italia are now polling at 22.2%, which has imbued the party with the confidence to “face the next elections with the prospect of going to the government,” according to MEP representative for the party Carlo Fidanza. While Fratelli was previously not highly regarded, polling at only 4.3% as recently as 2018, Meloni has elevated the party to its present popularity by appealing to disillusioned voters, who regard her as a promising outsider to Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s national unity government. Much like former US President Donald Trump, who she counted as a fellow speaker at the February Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida, Meloni is currently enjoying public perception as the politician – in her case, the first female politician – who could come into Italian politics to shake things up for the better.
However, many fear that Fratelli d’Italia under Meloni has not left behind its neofascist origins. The party’s stated policies of preventing immigration and increasing Italy’s birth rate to reduce dependency on migrant labour, taken with promises to “defend “God, fatherland and family”,” have understandably raised concerns. There is also Meloni’s personal history: the politician joined the youth wing of Italian Social Movement, formed by supporters of Benito Mussolini, at age 15. She would later lead the student movement of MSI’s successor party National Alliance.
Whether Meloni and Fratelli d’Italia will be able to keep up the momentum they have gained until Italy’s next general election in 2023 is an open question. What it could mean for Italy if she rides that momentum to political power is another, more troubling question.
COOL YOUR JETS!
On June 30th, Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc will hold a special shareholder meeting to put an end to the acrimonious battle between its CEO Eileen Drake and executive chair Warren Lichtenstein for control of the aerospace and defence company.
Both parties have stated that their professional relationship unravelled from Aerojet’s attempted $4.4bn sale to Lockheed Martin. Announced in December 2020, the acquisition of the only remaining independent maker of solid rocket motor engines collapsed after the Federal Trade Commission blocked it to prevent Lockheed Martin from vertically integrating missile production. Following this, one of Drake’s allies aired his intention to retire after the upcoming annual meeting in May. This created the perfect opportunity for Lichtenstein, who owns 5% of the listed company through his holding firm Steel Partners, to launch his campaign to jettison the CEO. In a calculated and perfectly timed announcement, he declared that he would be nominating a slate of directors to replace Drake and her allies. The CEO would not take this lying down.
In retaliation to Lichtenstein's plan to oust the CEO, Aerojet published an official company press release stating that it was “disappointed” by Lichtenstein’s gambit and, for the first time, disclosed that his 2021 misconduct was under board investigation. The formal inquiry was centred around Drake's accusations. She alleged that he had violated his legal duties to shareholders by publicly professing his scepticism that the Lockheed buyout of Aerojet would close and that he had “[laid]the groundwork” to replace her by engaging with two parties to ascertain their interest in the role.
In the wake of this, Liechtenstein took Drake and her backers to task for sullying his reputation by seeking a temporary restraining order from a Delaware court. He also testified that Drake was improperly using Aerojet’s resources and its employees to impugn him. The court issued the restraining order against Drake and her allies and ordered the CEO not to use company funds or its employees to back her board candidates. In her court papers, Drake argued that the company’s press release was intended to stem the threat of Liechtenstein’s gambit to seize control of the company. She adamantly denied his allegations.
The winner of this bitter, and frankly unnecessary, dispute won’t emerge until Aerojet shareholders cast board votes later this month. Until then, it is likely that more public spats and acrimonious infighting will ensue.
REBEL WILSON: HERALD’S THREAT TO HER RIGHTS
Last week, Australian actress Rebel Wilson revealed that she was in a relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma via an Instagram post, with the caption: “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince … but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess #loveislove.” Over 14,000 congratulatory messages and heart emojis flooded her comments, her followers were clearly thrilled for her. Wilson and Agruma’s smiles radiated with joy. Their beams suggested that Wilson was ready to share this news with her 11.1m followers, that it was her choice. But her hand was forced.
In the days that followed, it was revealed that Wilson had been approached by the gossip column for the Sydney Morning Herald for a comment on her relationship. “I have several sources who have confirmed their status and I have enough details to publish (...) I’m reaching out to Rebel to see if she will engage,” wrote Andrew Horney, the Herald’s ‘Private Sydney’ columnist. Desperate to break the news first, Hornsey gave Wilson a two-day deadline to respond to plans to write about her relationship. Faced with the prospect of a national newspaper outing her relationship without her permission, a decision that LGBTQ+ people should reveal in their own way and in their own time, Wilson gazumped the newspaper and outed herself instead. She had no other choice.
The day after Wilson’s Instagram post, Hornsey ran a piece expressing his frustration that his chance at publishing an exclusive had been ruined. To make matters worse, his editor Bevan Shields wrote a piece defending Hornsey and the newspaper’s right to ask celebrities about their relationships. Both pieces received a tidal wave of international backlash, with celebrities including Whoopi Golderg criticising the paper for their approach to the story. Bombarded by a torrent of bad press, the pieces were hastily retracted. Discontent with the paper’s coverage of Wilson’s relationship also spilled into the newsroom. After the pieces were pulled, an anonymous email was sent by a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald. The email claimed that the paper’s reputation was being “trashed” and “eroded” due to the paper’s “inexplicable editorial decisions.”
Whilst Horney apologised, writing that he would take a different approach in the future, the whole thing leaves a bitter taste. While reporting on a celebrity’s new relationship might be fair game, reporting on their first same-gender partner is a totally different matter. That’s outing them without their consent. It is exposing them to a world where homophobia still exists, a world where in many countries’ homosexuality is still outlawed and punishable by death. If we are committed to safeguarding and advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ community, the press must respect the individual - regardless of fame, status, or wealth - to control their own narrative and to decide when they are ready to reveal their relationship.
PICTURING GUANTÁNAMO: 20 YEARS LATER
For years the detention centre Guantánamo Bay has been the subject of intense controversy for various reasons, amongst them, reported human rights abuses and the American government’s attempts to contain facts about what has occurred on its site. Now, 20 years on from its opening, the New York Times has used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain photos shedding new light on the detention centre and how its prisoners were treated in the immediate post-911 era.
The photos published earlier in the week by the NYT show the first prisoners of the War on Terror to be shipped by the US Air Force from Afghanistan after Guantánamo Bay’s opening in 2002. One image shows prisoners with binds around their eyes and masks covering their mouths and noses. (The NYT notes that the restraints on the prisoners would later be forbidden by military censors from appearing in news photos.) One prisoner in the image is seen with a small American flag balanced in their hands, reportedly placed there by a “crew member” who then “snapped a souvenir photograph.” Subsequent photos depict US marines preparing the prisoners for transportation to Guantánamo Bay, and the prisoners inside wire cages at the temporary detention facility Camp X-Ray.
Guantánamo Bay would come to house approximately 780 prisoners and swiftly earned notoriety for the reported torture and abuse of prisoners. In 2010, Harper’s Magazine published a report that used evidence to contend that the deaths of three prisoners who had participated in a hunger strike at the centre were not suicides, as had been declared, but killings by military personnel.
Previous US presidents have shown opposing attitudes to the centre. While Barack Obama promised to close it, a plan which was never realised, unsurprisingly Donald Trump promised to keep it open. President Biden pledged to close the camp by the end of his term and, over a year into his presidency, his administration has approved the transfer of nearly half of the last 39 detainees to other countries. Whilst this is significant progress, the Pentagon, which has responsibility for the detention, is still paying more than $540mn to keep it open. If Biden is to make good on his promise, the Pentagon must align with the president’s strategy by reducing their funding of Guantánamo Bay.
BBC PAYS DAMAGES TO LIZA BEGUM
This week the BBC agreed to pay £30,000 in damages to British Bangladeshi Labour councillor, Liza Begum, after the “racist” misidentification of her as Poplar and Limehouse MP Aspana Begum in a news item about her facing housing fraud charges. Pictures of Liza Begum at an event to launch Labour’s 2019 race and faith were broadcast on BBC’s London News, the political correspondent said: “This is Apsana Begum … she faces three charges of dishonesty.” Aspana contested the charges and was later acquitted.
In response to the damages, Liza Begum said: “It is already harder to be heard as a woman of colour”. “I hope the BBC will now implement processes to ensure mistakes like this don’t happen again [...], it’s time the diversity of our communities was reflected in our country’s media.”
History tells us that this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
The disconnect between sections of the UK media and minority communities recently reentered public consciousness when Oprah Winfrey ‘s interview with Meghan and Harry aired on ITV. This set off a series of events that went to the heart of UK journalism. The Society of Editors, the body that represents almost 400 members of the media, not only sought to defend itself from critical remarks about some sections of the media being ‘racist and bigoted’; it went further and issued a blanket defence of all media coverage. More than 160 journalists of colour (and the editors of the Guardian, Financial Times and HuffPost) objected to the statement, written by the Society’s Chief, Ian Murray. Murray retracted the statement and resigned. But it appears the lesson wasn’t learned.
Racism in the media goes unchallenged too often. Well done Liza Begum for drawing attention to this issue.
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audley.uk.com.
For now, that’s the weekend box officially closed.