Sports journalists at Italian public broadcaster RAI are going on strike over a gaffe-filled commentary of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony by the head of their department.
RAI Sport head Paolo Petrecca mistook Italian Matilda De Angelis for Mariah Carey and Kirsty Coventry, head of the International Olympic Committee, for the Italian president’s daughter.
During Friday’s ceremony, Petrecca also incorrectly called Milan’s San Siro stadium the “Olympic stadium”.
During the parade, he referred to Spanish athletes as being “always very hot” and said of the Chinese athletes that “naturally many of them have phones in their hands”.
The Rai Sport journalists’ union said in a statement on February 9 that they would no longer byline their Olympic production and would hold a three-day strike after the Olympics.
“It’s time to make our voices heard because we are facing the worst humiliation of Rai Sport,” it said.
“The company should finally acknowledge the damage that the director of Rai Sport has done,” the statement added.
Italian media reports said that Petrecca would not be allowed to comment on the Olympic closing ceremony.
Nominations for top positions at Italy’s public broadcaster are often seen as political, and Petrecca has been accused in the past of bias towards Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“The Olympics are a time of utmost responsibility for public service broadcasting. Instead, RAI offered its worst version: the one we know all too well, TeleMeloni,” the opposition Democratic Party said in a statement.
Petrecca previously headed up Rai News.
