1992 in Italian television
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- 13 January: on Canale 5, debut of TG5, the first Finivest news program, directed by Enrico Mentana and hosted, besides the same Mentana, by Cristina Parodi and Cesara Buonamici. The first edition is troubled by several technical problems but is gratified by a greeting message from London of the president Francesco Cossiga. Soon, the Canale 5 journal, focused on current news instead of politic and conducted by Mentana with a pressing rhythm, becomes a serious competitor for the high-flown RAI news programs.[1]
- 26 February: during the opening evening of the Sanremo festival, hosted by Pippo Baudo, Crazy Horse (alias Mario Appignani), infamous serial jammer of public events, takes the stage crying “The festival is rigged and Fausto Leali will win it!”, before being moved away by the staff. The prediction doesn't come true: the winner is Luca Barbarossa with Portami a ballare, while Leali gets only the 9th place.[2]
- March 3: two weeks after the arrest of Mario Chiesa, Bettino Craxi is guest at TG3. The socialist leader, answering to a viewer’s question, calls Chiesa “a scoundrel who casts a shadow on a party that in Milan ... in fifty years never had an administrator sentenced for serious crimes.” Instead, the Mani Pulite enquiry, originated by the Chiesa affair, in the following months spreads like wildfire, overwhelming the whole Italian political system.[3]
- 23 May: at 10 PM, in an interlude of the variety show Scommettiamo che..., an extraordinary edition of TG1 announces the death of Giovanni Falcone in the Capaci bombing .[4] Despite the tragic event, RAI chooses to continue the show, against the will of the same host Fabrizio Frizzi (son-in-law of another Mafia victim, Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa).[5]
- 25 May, RAI airs from Palermo the burials of the victim; the tears of Rosaria Schifani, widow of a police escort, upset Italy.[6] Paolo Borsellino declares to the TV journalist David Sassoli: "When I picked up Giovanni Falcone's last breaths in my arms, I thought it was just a postponed appointment";[7] On 19 July, Borsellino is in turn killed in the Via D’Amelio bombing.
- 24 August: Retemia is declared bankrupt precisely when Giorgio Mendella was headed abroad. It aired a half-hour loop of a message saying "dreams can be interrupted depending on the intensity of the storm that awoke you, but unlike reality, dreams always return; we believe in that".[8]