Sigfrido Ranucci, appointed deputy editor of RaiNews with a mandate over investigations and in-depth reporting, has converted a Rome studio into a permanent interrogation hall and begun summoning every one of Italy's sixty million citizens, one at a time, for a recorded investigative interview.
The first week has already produced a queue stretching from the Rai Saxa Rubra headquarters to the Grande Raccordo Anulare, with citizens arriving on foot, by scooter and in farm vehicles, each carrying a folder of personal documents they were told to bring. Ranucci conducts each session personally, seated behind a desk with a stopwatch, and has refused to delegate a single minute of it.
«We are deepening the in-depth reporting,» Ranucci said in a statement. «The mandate is clear. Every Italian will be investigated thoroughly, and those who are not investigated today will be investigated tomorrow, starting at six in the morning.»
RaiNews has hired additional security staff to manage the queue and has installed a second coffee machine in the lobby. The network's schedule has been adjusted so that the evening bulletin now consists entirely of Ranucci summarizing the day's interviews, which he does without notes, at length, while the queue outside continues to grow.
By Thursday the operation had expanded to a second hall, then a third, and the network confirmed that citizens who miss their appointment will be rescheduled for a session twice as long. «Nobody leaves without being thoroughly investigated,» a RaiNews spokesperson said. «That is the promise we made, and we intend to keep it.»