Correspondents' Correspondence Vice Veronique

...The more revealing episodes were edited into an hour long expose that was sold to the Italian state-owned television network (RAI-TV), reportedly a source of considerable financing for the project prior to purchasing exclusive rights to the "documentary " The crusaders specifically stated that while they were aware of the " dishonesty" of violating the men's privacy, they felt that "the sex-through-money women's exploitation was more dishonest " The film was aimed, they insisted, at denouncing and demonstrating the persistence of "a millenary carnal trade " RAI-TV officials apparently agreed completely with the feminists So enthusiastic were they about the film's moral impact that they ignored the legal aspects The Italian criminal code forbids circulating images that interfere with a person's private life, as well as aiding and abetting prostitution Overlooked, too, was television's role as the modern family's hearth and the certainty that the steamy scenes and dialogue would shock many conservative viewers Two days before l he scheduled airing there was a private showing for the press The next morning all of Italy was learning ot Veronique, her customers and theactivityinthebedroom Thenation's prurient interest was aroused Millions were looking forward to a titillating evening with Veronique For some the only problem was whether to send the children to bed before 9 30 p m , or to take advantage of the opportunity to give them an impromptu lesson on the facts of hfe None of this aroused curiosity was destined to be satisfied, however, at least not immediately For predictably enough, many people indignantly condemned the film as state-sponsored pornography The more outraged requested the intervention of the judiciary, who would have gladly stayed out of the controversy if the alleged violations of the criminal code did not make it necessary for them to initiate one of their characteristically slow, bureaucratic investigations At the same time, influential members of the Christian Democratic Party (DC), including the Senate majority leader and one of the Chamber's vice-presidents, requested quick action They put heavy pressure on Mauro Bubbico, chairman of the parliamentary watchdog committee on radio and television to keep the film off the air Bubbico—a fellow Christian Democrat—responded by vetoing the Veronique project RAI-TV officials, after contradicting themselves at least twice, finally caved in and announced that the showing of the film would be "postponed" indefinitely while the matter was being considered by the courts The press had a Roman holiday The Left-wing newspapers, in denouncing Bubbico's unilateral order, reviled the DC as reactionary and insensitne to any call for social progress Moderate publications lamented RAI's Leftism, poor taste and lack of common sense Even the feminists, whose cause has become a sacred cow in Italy, got clobbered for allowing their thoughtless zeal to tarnish the aims that they so loudly defend The Leftist weekly Espresso described the episode as a "drama George Orwell might havewntien agroupol feminist busy bodies center stage, and around them Tartutle, Robespierre, Torque-mada, and the MarquisdeSade " While it is hard to see w hat connection Robespierre has with Veronique, the references to the other famous names are clear enough Orwell represents the Big Brother-style snooping, Torquemada is the DC censor, Sade is one of Vero-mque's customers, and Tartuffe is the hypocritical bourgeois professing to be shocked (One might incidentally note the Tartuffene of a leading Roman newspaper, a vocal paladin of social progress, which continues to run the ads placed daily by scores of self-styled masseuses) The fact is, of course, that nobody emerges unsullied from this squalid affair The women who commissioned Veromque are to blame for disregarding the law and the civil nghts of the customers, the supposedly feminist analysis they were promoting was really deceitful entrapment, and cannot be justified by a noble end Deputy Bubbi-co's last-minute censorship as a result of party pressure is nothing to be proud of either As for the RAI-TV officials, whose hesitations and ambiguities have been roundly condemned, they had two honest choices refusing to have anything to do with the proj ect from the very beginning, or, if truly convinced of the film's redeeming moral value, airing it despite the criticisms before the judicial clamp-down and facing the consequences Instead they found a third, less honorable option They mouthed progressive platitudes and then wilted under pressure The majority party, meanwhile, has not profited from the Veromque case Many Italians wish the DC leaders were as aggressive in facing the vital issues affecting the nation's economy as some of them were in having Veromque banned from Italian TV screens lilvio F Senigallia...

...Coreespondents' Corresgonaence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Vice Veronique Rome verything is back to normal now Italians are once more preoccupied with a ruinous inflation and a sagging economy But, for a few days in March the Veronique scandal provided a welcome distraction Veronique is a French prostitute who was imported by a group of Italian feminists They found her lodgings and, through ads in newspapers, customers as well Although the word " prostitute' was never used, advertisements of this kind are no less transparent here than elsewhere in the world, stressing the skill, youth, looks, and discretion of the "masseuse ' The feminists also installed a hidden camera in Veronique's bedroom She gave her consent to the surveillance, but her customers were never in formed that their words and actions were being filmed...