Italy urges Agnellis to protect jobs, independence in media assets sale

ROME, Dec ‌12 (Reuters) - Italy's government on Friday urged executives from GEDI to safeguard jobs ‍and ‌editorial independence at newspapers La Stampa and La Repubblica, as the group negotiates ⁠the sale of its media assets.

GEDI, ‌which is owned by Agnelli family holding company Exor, announced earlier this week that it was in talks with Greek media company Antenna to sell its Italian news operations, including three ⁠popular radio stations.

During a meeting in Rome, Alberto Barachini - the undersecretary in charge of information and ​publishing - asked GEDI for "informative elements" on any sale agreements ‌and for a commitment to "the protection of ⁠employment levels and the guarantee of editorial independence", according to a statement issued by his office. 

Any sale would fall under Italy's "golden power" legislation, which allows ​the government to block or impose conditions on transactions affecting strategic assets but cannot be used to protect jobs.

There has been no indication so far that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni intends to trigger those special powers for the two ​newspapers, which ‍have both been highly ​critical of her conservative government.

"We urge the group to show maximum transparency at every stage of the negotiations and, in particular, we ask to be kept informed about any extra-European shareholdings in the corporate vehicle interested in the purchase," Barachini said.

Golden power rules give the government greater scope for action when the buyer of the ⁠assets is from outside the European Union.

La Stampa's journalists, who went on strike on Thursday, said that Antenna was ​not interested in their newspaper, and that GEDI was looking to sell it separately from its other media assets.

La Repubblica staff went on strike on Friday and journalists said they were ready to defend their identity "in ‌the face of the sale to a foreign group, which has no experience in the already difficult Italian publishing landscape".

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)