Question

Why did Mussolini control the press and the radio?

Answer 1

Hint: Mussolini was born to a village blacksmith's first child. Later in life, he boasted about his lowly beginnings and frequently referred to himself as a "man of the people." The Mussolinis were not as impoverished as he claimed—his father, a part-time socialist journalist as well as a blacksmith, was the son of a National Guard lieutenant, and his mother was a schoolteacher—but they were undoubtedly poor.

Complete answer:
Mussolini's authoritarian powers, corrupt practices, and foreign policy would have been criticised by an independent press and radio. Mussolini monopolised the press and radio in order to silence critics and propagate his fascist ideals among the populace.

In the spring of 1929, Mussolini established a High Commission for the Press, a talented propagandist acutely aware of the nexus between political power and optics. Although Mussolini's Keeper of the Seals, Alfredo Rocco, insisted that the Commission would not interfere with press freedom, he did make an exception for "any activity adverse to the national interest," with "faithfulness to the Fatherland" presumably taking precedence.

Journalists, like all other professions, were urged to regard their work as one of many ways to serve the country, to actively contribute to the education and inculcation of the Italian people. Mussolini considered himself a revolutionary, and his administration a living manifestation of revolutionary new ideas. The Italian press, according to Mussolini, had a key role in disseminating these ideas and, as a result, in the formation of a soldierly esprit de corps. No such notion of adversarial journalism, of questioning and scrutinising government actions, was to cross the minds of the country's newspaper editors and writers.

Note: Rather, Mussolini said that "Fascism necessitates aggressive journalism," with the country's newspapers presenting themselves "as a solid bloc" dedicated to "the Cause" and obfuscating or outright suppressing any fact or storey that contradicted it.