# Mario Giordano

Mario Giordano (born 19 June 1966) is an Italian journalist and television presenter. He received several disciplinary sanctions, and has been sued for racism and racial hate speech. He is known to be one of the most controversial journalists in the Italian right-wing media sphere and for his sensationalistic style in his television shows.

## Career

Giordano was born in Alessandria, Italy. After graduating in political science at the University of Turin, he started his career as journalist writing for some local weekly and daily publications, such as the Catholic weekly publication Nostro tempo in 1994, where he met the journalist Marco Travaglio, and L'informazione. In 1996, he became an editorialist at Il Giornale, where he collaborated with Vittorio Feltri. Since 1997, he has appeared in some talk shows and debate programmes on RAI as commentator with the journalist Gad Lerner. His characteristic high-pitched voice is caused by Klinefelter syndrome.
From 2000 to 2007, Giordano was editor in chief of Studio Aperto news program on television channel Italia 1. From 2007 to 2009, he was editor-in-chief of Il Giornale, replacing Maurizio Belpietro. He then returned to Mediaset as director of Mediaset News (2009–10). In 2011, he moved to management of Mediaset All-News TGcom24. In 2013, he directed the Videonews section. In 2014, he was appointed as director of TG4, and in 2018 he was appointed head of Strategies and Development of Mediaset information. As a journalist, after writing for Libero, he writes for Belpietro's La Verità. Since 2018, he has led the program Fuori dal coro on Rete 4.

## Sanctions and complaints

Giordano was subject to various disciplinary sanctions by the professional order association Ordine dei Giornalisti (Order of Journalists). In December 2008, Giordano, as director of Il Giornale, was found to have "violated the regulation on the obligation of rectification, even without rectifying, even in the absence of a specific request, the information that after their dissemination has proved to be inaccurate or incorrect, especially when the error could damage individual persons, associations or communities." In October 2009, Giordano, as director of Il Giornale, was found to have "omitted the control, and therefore allowed the publication, of the counterfeit photographs appeared on Il Giornale with the obvious addition of elements not originally present in the original work of the photographer." In March 2015, Giordano was sued by the entrepreneur Massimo Ferrero for mentioning the latter in the book titled Pescecani with regard to the bankruptcy fraud of Livingston Energy Flight company.

## Disciplinary and legal proceeding for racism and racial hate speech

In May 2016, Giordano and his colleague Maurizio Belpietro spread racial hatred against the Romani people with "xenophobe and racist intent". This was due to an article in which they accused some Romani of robbery, attributing bad characterization to the whole ethnic group. It turned out that those responsible were not Romani. In 2020, Giordano and his colleague Vittorio Feltri spread racial hatred against southerner Italians, with "xenophobe and racist intent". In this occasion, Giordano was subject to a further disciplinary sanctions by the Order of Journalists. That same year, Giordano was sued by the Naples City Council for racism and racial hate speech.

## Personal life

Giordano married his wife, Paola, in 1991. They have four children: Alice (born 1993), Lorenzo (born 1995), Camilla (born 2003), and Sara (born 2005).