Italy's state broadcaster suspends sports commentators over sexist remarks

RAI, the national broadcaster of Italy, announced on Monday that it has suspended two of its journalists for making offensive comments while commentating on the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.

Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Mazzucchi made sexual innuendo and remarks regarding the divers’ physical appearance while commentating on the female synchronised diving competition for the online streaming channel RaiPlay 2.

The incident, which came after an earlier this month incident in which a junior culture minister boasted in public about his numerous sexual exploits and extolled male genitalia, serves as a reminder of how sexism still permeates Italian society.

Following the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, Sky Italia punished two Formula 1 commentators for making sexist remarks about a young woman who inexplicably appeared on camera.

The journalists discussed how “big” some of the divers were on Monday, among other inappropriate comments, and one of them added, “Anyway, they’re all the same size in bed.”

They also cracked other, untranslatable crude jokes about the sex readiness of women and mocked the Italian accent used by Chinese speakers of that language.

Roberto Sergio, the chief executive of RAI, announced that he had started a disciplinary process in response to complaints from viewers and opposition politicians. He also asked RAI’s head of sport to send the commentators from the Fukuoka championships home.

“Bar jokes” have no place on public service television, according to Sergio.

Leonarduzzi said in a letter to the daily Corriere della Sera that he had no idea he was on the air and did not reflect his true opinions.

The journalist is no stranger to controversy; in 2020, she faced backlash for making a sexist remark about the last name of an Estonian racing driver on broadcast.

In 2018, RAI punished him for a Facebook post in which he wished Adolf Hitler a happy birthday on April 20, the day the German dictator was born in 1889.

(With agency inputs)