--- title: Fascist Italy's propaganda machine:from the Duce's Press Office to the Ministry of Popular Culture url: https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/ description: between 1934 and 1937 Mussolini's government turned a prime-ministerial press office into a full ministry that sent newspapers daily written orders (the… section: Case studies --- ![Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-interwar.jpg) [Case studies](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/) # Fascist Italy's propaganda machine:from the Duce's Press Office to the Ministry of Popular Culture At a glance Between 1934 and 1937 Mussolini's government turned a prime-ministerial press office into a full ministry that sent newspapers daily written orders (the veline), ran the only radio network… - **When:** May 27, 1937 - **Actor:** Press Office of the Head of Government… - **Target:** Italian newspaper readers, cinema audiences and radio listeners… - **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are - **Confidence:** **documented** Primary documents, court records, official disclosures - **Techniques:** [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/) [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) [Whataboutism](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/whataboutism/) [Euphemism / doublespeak](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/euphemism/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) - **Regime:** [Fascist Italy under Mussolini](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/fascist-italy/) Full details - **Actor:** Press Office of the Head of Government (to 1934), Undersecretariat for Press and Propaganda (1934), Ministry for Press and Propaganda (1935), Ministry of Popular Culture (1937-1943), and the Italian Social Republic's Ministry of Popular Culture (1943-1945) - **Target:** Italian newspaper readers, cinema audiences and radio listeners; Italian schools; audiences abroad, including Arabic-speaking listeners of Radio Bari On this page - [What happened](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#what-happened) - [How it works](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#how-it-works) - [Then and now](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#then-and-now) - [Positions on the record](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#positions-on-the-record) - [Same-method test](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#same-method-test) - [How to spot it](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#how-to-spot-it) - [Images](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#images) - [Sources](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/#sources) On this page **Content note:** this page quotes the 1938 *Manifesto della razza* and describes antisemitic and anti-Black caricature in *La Difesa della Razza* and in a 1944 poster, as they were, and refers to the use of poison gas in Ethiopia. **In one line:** between 1934 and 1937 Mussolini's government turned a prime-ministerial press office into a full ministry that sent newspapers daily written orders (the *veline*), ran the only radio network, required a state newsreel in every cinema, painted the leader's slogans on walls, and framed the Ethiopian war, the 1938 racial laws and the Second World War for the public, while keeping the use of poison gas out of the press. The same ministry was rebuilt at Salò in 1943, and the Allies answered it with BBC broadcasts in Italian and, from 1943, with their own newspapers and radio in the occupied south. ![Diagram: the Press Office grows into an Undersecretariat (1934), a Ministry for Press and Propaganda (1935) and the Ministry of Popular Culture (1937), then a Salò ministry (1943-45), with the veline, the Ethiopian war campaign and the race campaign along the way and Allied broadcasts answering it](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/fascist-italy-minculpop-diagram.svg) ## What happened **Building the apparatus (1924-1937)** - **From the mid-1920s: the Press Office and the *veline*.** The Press Office of the Head of Government (*Ufficio Stampa del Capo del Governo*) steers newspapers with instructions. Accounts date the first *veline* to the mid-1920s. From 1932 the office telephones daily directives to editors, who take them down as short notes on thin copying paper (*carta velina*, tissue paper), which gave the orders their name. Nicola Tranfaglia's anthology of the surviving orders runs from 1932 to 1943. - **3 April 1926: the newsreel decree.** Decree no. 1000 makes it compulsory for every cinema open to the public to screen films of the Istituto Nazionale L.U.C.E. The *Giornale Luce* newsreel follows in 1927. By 1937 more than 2,400 Italian cinemas were covered by the requirement (UNESCO Memory of the World nomination file). Luce's films are covered in FRAME's film case studies. - **Radio.** The URI broadcasting company is reorganised as EIAR (*Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche*) in 1927-28, the only body allowed to broadcast. The Ente Radio Rurale (1933) puts receivers in rural schools, and the low-priced *Radio Balilla* set, payable in 18 instalments, goes on sale in 1937. Licensed subscribers pass one million by the end of the 1930s (Cannistraro, "The Radio in Fascist Italy", 1972). From 1934 Radio Bari broadcasts in Arabic to North Africa and the Middle East, with a strong anti-British and anti-French slant. - **1933-1934: Galeazzo Ciano.** Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano heads the Press Office from 1933. In 1934 he commissions a study of Goebbels's ministry in Berlin. - **6 September 1934: the Undersecretariat.** Royal Decree no. 1434 turns the Press Office into the Undersecretariat of State for Press and Propaganda, under Ciano, with three directorates-general: Italian press, foreign press, and propaganda. A fourth, for cinema, follows on 18 September 1934. A theatre inspectorate added on 1 April 1935 becomes a directorate-general in 1936. - **24 June 1935: the Ministry for Press and Propaganda.** Royal Decree no. 1009 raises the undersecretariat to a ministry. When Ciano becomes Foreign Minister in June 1936, his undersecretary Dino Alfieri succeeds him. - **27 May 1937: the Ministry of Popular Culture.** Royal Decree no. 752 renames the ministry the *Ministero della Cultura Popolare*, soon shortened to MinCulPop. It has six directorates-general (Italian press, foreign press, propaganda, cinema, tourism, theatre) and an inspectorate for broadcasting. Italian reference accounts explain the new name as a way to drop the word "propaganda" in favour of "culture". Ministers: Alfieri (1937-1939), Alessandro Pavolini (1939-February 1943), Gaetano Polverelli (February-July 1943). This page gives no staff or budget figures, because none could be checked from the sources available to it. **What the *veline* said** The orders dealt with small details as well as big political lines. Examples collected in published anthologies and articles: - 18 March and 30 April 1932: publish only pictures of the Duce that show his personality in a dignified way. - 28 June 1935, three days after Joe Louis knocked out Primo Carnera: do not publish photographs of Carnera on the ground. - "Highlight how the Duce wasn't at all tired after threshing for four hours"; do not publish that the Duce danced (English translations as quoted by *Quartz*, 2019). - "Si ricorda che non debbono essere pubblicate foto riproducenti persone che si stringono la mano" ("A reminder that photographs of people shaking hands must not be published"). The government was promoting the Roman salute in place of the handshake. - By Tranfaglia's summary, the orders cut crime news, dissent, inflation and even thunderstorms, and later told papers to attack Jews and communists, praise Germany and play down bad war news. **The Ethiopian war (October 1935-May 1936)** - **3 October 1935.** Italy invades Ethiopia. - **18 November 1935: the "siege".** The League of Nations applies economic sanctions against Italy, backed by 52 member states, until July 1936. The press calls them the *inique sanzioni* ("unjust sanctions") and the *assedio economico* ("economic siege"). In February 1936 the prefectures order every municipality to put up a white Carrara marble plaque, all to one design, unveiled together on 18 November 1936. Its text reads: *"18 novembre 1935 XIV. A ricordo dell'assedio perché resti documentata nei secoli l'enorme ingiustizia consumata contro l'Italia alla quale tanto deve la civiltà di tutti i continenti"* ("In memory of the siege, so that the enormous injustice done to Italy, to which the civilisation of every continent owes so much, stays on record through the centuries"). Most of the plaques were removed after the war. Sanctions also served as the public reason for *autarchia*, the self-sufficiency drive proclaimed in March 1936. - **Autumn 1935: *Oro alla Patria* ("Gold for the Fatherland").** Local Fascist groups collect gold, including wedding rings, and give donors printed certificates, such as the one the Parioli district group in Rome issued for a pair of wedding rings on 2 October 1935 (a scan is on [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ORO_ALLA_PATRIA.jpg)). On **18 December 1935**, proclaimed the *Giornata della Fede* (the Day of the Wedding Ring; *fede* means both "wedding ring" and "faith"), married couples hand in their gold wedding rings. The main ceremony is at the Altare della Patria in Rome, where Queen Elena gives her ring and the King's first. Donors receive a plain steel or iron ring in exchange, and collection desks in other cities, including Milan, are photographed with queues of donors. - **Gas.** The Italian air force drops mustard gas on Ethiopian forces and civilians, against the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which both countries had signed (SIPRI, 2009). Italy's letters to the League accuse Ethiopian troops of using dum-dum bullets and of mutilating prisoners, and argue that the Protocol did not bar chemical weapons as a reprisal. Inside Italy the tightly controlled press printed no mention of gas at all (Baudendistel, *International Review of the Red Cross*). Haile Selassie told the League Assembly about the gas attacks on 30 June 1936. - **Denial until 1996.** For decades after the war the use of gas was disputed in Italy, most publicly by the journalist Indro Montanelli, who had served in Ethiopia, against the historian Angelo Del Boca. In February 1996 the Ministry of Defence released documents on the gas bombings and acknowledged for the first time that the army had used gas (*Washington Post*, 7 May 1996; Del Boca, *I gas di Mussolini*, 1996). **The race campaign (1938-1943)** - **June-July 1938.** Mussolini tells the young anthropologist Guido Landra that an office for the study of race will be set up at the Ministry of Popular Culture. Landra drafts the ten-point *Manifesto degli scienziati razzisti*, published on 14 July 1938 in *Il Giornale d'Italia* as "Il fascismo e i problemi della razza", presented as drafted by a group of Fascist scholars and scientists together with the Ministry of Popular Culture. Point 7 reads *"È tempo che gli Italiani si proclamino francamente razzisti"* ("It is time for Italians to proclaim themselves frankly racist"). Point 9 reads *"Gli ebrei non appartengono alla razza italiana"* ("Jews do not belong to the Italian race"). - **5 August 1938: *La Difesa della Razza*.** A fortnightly magazine edited by Telesio Interlandi, with Giorgio Almirante as editorial secretary, subtitled *scienza, documentazione, polemica* ("science, documentation, debate"). Its first cover shows three heads on a stairway. At the bottom is a photograph of a Black woman. In the middle is a caricatured head of a Jew with a hooked nose. At the top is a classical statue for the "Italian race", cut off from the other two by a Roman sword. The first issue reprints the Manifesto. Certified print runs for the first four issues are 140,500, 140,000, 130,000 and 150,000 copies (*Cromohs*, 2022). Education Minister Giuseppe Bottai sends circulars about getting it into universities, academies and schools. - **September-November 1938.** The racial laws follow: Jewish pupils and teachers are expelled from schools, and the main decree of 17 November 1938 bars marriage between "Aryan" Italians and Jews and removes Jews from public employment. The laws and their consequences are covered in FRAME's genocide case studies. **War (June 1940-July 1943)** - **10 June 1940.** Mussolini declares war on Britain and France from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia. The speech is relayed by loudspeaker to crowds in squares across Italy. Its watchword, *"Vincere! E vinceremo!"* ("Win! And we shall win!"), becomes a wall slogan. - **Radio.** From 1941 the journalist Mario Appelius hosts *Commento ai fatti del giorno* ("Commentary on the day's events") on EIAR. He closes his talks with *"Dio stramaledica gli inglesi"* ("God damn the English"), which became a well-known catchphrase. Listening to foreign stations had been banned since the 1930s, and from 1940 the penalties rise to up to three years in prison (Italian radio-listening history site *Diritto al radioascolto*; this archive has not seen the decree itself). - **Silence.** From 1941 posters, newsreels, postcards and pins carry *"Tacete! Il nemico vi ascolta"* ("Keep quiet! The enemy is listening"). Gino Boccasile's version shows a British soldier in a Brodie helmet cupping his ear. - **25 July 1943.** The Fascist Grand Council votes against Mussolini and the King dismisses him. Polverelli's ministry ends with his government. **Salò (September 1943-April 1945)** - **23 September 1943.** In the German-occupied north, the Italian Social Republic (RSI) sets up its own Ministry of Popular Culture at Salò under Fernando Mezzasoma, alongside the Stefani news agency. Pavolini becomes secretary of the new Republican Fascist Party. The RSI broadcasts from northern EIAR stations and from equipment moved north before Rome fell in June 1944. In May 1944 the ministry is reorganised, and Almirante becomes Mezzasoma's chief of staff. - **Posters.** Boccasile draws the RSI's best-known posters. One shows a Black U.S. soldier carrying off the Venus de Milo with a price tag of two dollars. The *PAJ* print mark on some copies shows that they were produced through the Wehrmacht's propaganda company in Italy. - **28 April 1945.** Mezzasoma is shot by partisans at Dongo with other RSI ministers. His body is displayed in Piazzale Loreto, Milan, with Mussolini's the next day. **The counter-broadcasts** - **BBC Radio Londra.** The BBC's Italian Service, set up before the war and expanded in 1940, becomes known in Italy as *Radio Londra*. Colonel Harold Stevens, who had been British military attaché in Rome from 1931 and had an Italian mother, speaks to Italy from 1940 to 1945 and is known as *il Colonnello Buonasera* ("Colonel Good Evening"), after his opening words. His calm, reasoning manner was deliberately unlike the Fascist government's rhetoric. John Marus, as "Candidus", takes Fascist claims apart point by point. - **1938: BBC Arabic.** Britain's first foreign-language radio service, BBC Arabic, goes on air on 3 January 1938 largely in response to Radio Bari. The Foreign Office assured BBC staff that there was "no intention of imitating either the tone or the methods of Bari". - **10 July 1943 onward: the Psychological Warfare Branch.** The Allied Force Headquarters' Psychological Warfare Branch (PWB), a joint Anglo-American body, controls press, radio and cinema in occupied Italy. It publishes *Sicilia liberata* in Palermo from 6 August 1943, then papers named "Corriere di ..." city by city. In Catania in September 1943, an Office of War Information photographer records Sicilians reading an Allied photo display under U.S. and British flags. ## How it works - [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/): the *veline* sent the same headline, emphasis and comment to every paper, so an editorial line written in one office reached readers as the agreed view of the whole Italian press. The orders themselves were not published at the time. That part of the system was hidden, even though the ministry itself operated openly. - [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/): the Carnera order (28 June 1935) and the orders on the Duce's image picked which facts reached print. The complete absence of gas from Italian papers in 1935-36, while Ethiopia was reporting it to the League, is the same move at a larger scale. - [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/): *Mussolini ha sempre ragione* ("Mussolini is always right"), *Credere, obbedire, combattere* ("Believe, obey, fight"; hung over a school class in Mirandola in 1938, ["Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/credere-obbedire-combattere-mirandola-1938/)), and the 1934 Palazzo Braschi facade of "SI" around the Duce's face merged citizen, party and leader. At the *Giornata della Fede*, giving up a wedding ring (*fede*, also "faith") was made into a test of loyalty to the nation. - [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/): the "economic siege" plaques put the blame for shortages and *autarchia* on the League of Nations. From 1938, *La Difesa della Razza* and the Manifesto cast Jews as outside the nation. - [Whataboutism](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/whataboutism/): Italy answered the gas charges at the League with charges of Ethiopian dum-dum bullets and mutilations. The charge against Italy was never answered on its own terms. - [Euphemism / doublespeak](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/euphemism/): "Popular Culture" for a ministry of propaganda and censorship, and "defence of the race" for a campaign that ended in exclusion laws. - [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/): Appelius's nightly curse on "the English", and Boccasile's RSI poster using a racist caricature of a Black U.S. soldier to present the Allies as barbarians looting European culture. - [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/): the plaque's "civilisation of every continent" and the "Vincere" slogan, virtue and victory words used in place of a checkable claim. - [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/): *Tacete! Il nemico vi ascolta*, with a British soldier listening in. ## Then and now ![The facade of Palazzo Braschi, Rome, covered for the 1934 plebiscite with rows of the word SI around a giant face of Mussolini](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/palazzo-braschi-si-1934.png) *[Palazzo Braschi dressed for the 1934 plebiscite: rows of "SI" around the Duce](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/palazzo-braschi-si-1934/): the Rome Fascist Federation's building dressed for the single-list plebiscite of March 1934. Photographer unknown; public domain in Italy (PD-Italy) and in the U.S. (URAA date rule).* The Braschi facade has close relatives in FRAME's gallery: the 1933 German *Ein Volk, ein Führer, ein Ja* banner ([Ein Volk, ein Führer, ein Ja (One People, One Leader, One Yes)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ein-volk-ein-fuehrer-ein-ja-1933/)) and, four decades later, the Somali leader Siad Barre's portrait painted into the national flag ([Barre Cult of Personality Mural](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/siad-barre-mural-1976/)). All three use one method: the leader's face at architectural scale, with only one acceptable answer. The differences are real. In 1934 the Italian vote offered a Yes or No on a list of 400 candidates chosen by the Fascist Grand Council. The German banner came with a referendum on leaving the League of Nations. The Mogadishu mural was a standing monument, not tied to a vote. The Italian and German campaigns belonged to ministries that also controlled the press, radio and cinema at national scale. The FRAME entry on the Somali mural does not document a comparable apparatus behind it. ![Iscrizione 'Credere Obbedire Combattere' on the Casa del Fascio at Momo, Piedmont, photographed in 2026](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/fascist-italy-minculpop-credere-obbedire-combattere.jpg) *"Credere Obbedire Combattere", still on the former Casa del Fascio at Momo (Novara). Photo: Moxmarco, 2026, CC BY-SA 4.0.* ## Positions on the record - **The ministry's own rationale.** The government presented central direction of the press, radio and cinema as the organisation of national culture: the 1937 renaming replaced "propaganda" with "popular culture". It described the sanctions as an injustice against a nation to which "the civilisation of every continent" owed much, and the race campaign as science ("scienza, documentazione, polemica"). At the League it said Ethiopia broke the laws of war first. - **Contemporaries.** Haile Selassie's address to the League (30 June 1936) put the gas attacks on the international record. The Red Cross delegate Marcel Junod saw mustard-gas bombing at first hand. The British Foreign Office set up BBC Arabic in 1938 to answer Radio Bari while promising not to copy its "tone or methods". The BBC's Italian speakers built their appeal on sounding calm and factual, in contrast to EIAR. - **Later historians.** Cannistraro called his study of the machine *La fabbrica del consenso* ("the factory of consent", 1975). Tranfaglia and Maida's edition of the *veline* (2005) shows how detailed the control was, down to weather and sports photos. Del Boca's work on the gas, disputed in Italy for decades, was confirmed by the Defence Ministry in 1996. Studies of *La Difesa della Razza* (e.g. *Cromohs*, 2022) show it doctored and reused photographs to fit its racial categories. - **This archive's reading.** Documented: the decrees creating the undersecretariat, the ministries and the Luce requirement; the *veline* as a daily instrument; the texts of the plaque, the Manifesto and the slogans; the gas campaign and its absence from the Italian press; the 1996 acknowledgement. **Not shown here:** how far the machine actually persuaded Italians rather than silencing them. Radio subscriptions, print runs and crowd photographs measure reach, not belief, and the Allies' reports of how eagerly Sicilians read their news displays were themselves wartime publicity. ## Same-method test The finding would be the same with the flag swapped. A British or U.S. government that told every newspaper which photographs of its boxers it could print, and which war news to leave out, would be scored for [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) and [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/) in the same way. The Allies had direct counterparts. Britain's Ministry of Information ran "Careless Talk Costs Lives" ([Wanted! For Murder — Her Careless Talk Costs Lives](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/wanted-for-murder-careless-talk/), see [Britain's Ministry of Information and Political Warfare Executive: posters at home, black radio abroad](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/british-moi-pwe/)) and the U.S. ran "Loose lips might sink ships" ([Loose Lips Might Sink Ships](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/loose-lips-might-sink-ships/)), both scored for [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) like *Tacete! Il nemico vi ascolta*. In occupied Italy from July 1943, the Allied Psychological Warfare Branch licensed newspapers, ran the radio and controlled cinema, so for the Italians concerned it did the job MinCulPop had done. The differences should be stated as plainly. British press censorship was formally voluntary, and the U.S. Office of Censorship worked through a voluntary code for the press, not daily orders on what to praise. Neither country ran a racial magazine distributed to its schools under ministry auspices, and the Allied occupation press in Italy was set up in wartime conditions under a military government. Radio Bari and BBC Arabic pointed the same medium at the same audiences. The British service was set up expressly to counter the Italian one, and this page scores both by the same definitions. ## How to spot it - When every paper runs the same headline and the same adjectives on the same day, look for a common instruction behind them before treating it as agreement. - Notice what is missing: a war reported without its weapons, a sports hero who never loses, weather that is never bad. - A renaming that removes the unpopular word ("propaganda" to "popular culture", "persecution" to "defence") is a claim to be checked, not a description. - When a charge is answered with a counter-charge (gas answered with dum-dum bullets), ask whether the original charge was ever answered. - Reach is not belief: print runs, subscriber counts and crowd photographs show exposure, not persuasion. ## Images | Image | Source | Licence | | --- | --- | --- | | Mechanism diagram (above) | Drawn for FRAME from this page's sourced facts (`make_diagrams.py`) | CC BY 4.0, FRAME | | Palazzo Braschi "SI" facade, 1934 ([Palazzo Braschi dressed for the 1934 plebiscite: rows of "SI" around the Duce](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/palazzo-braschi-si-1934/)) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palazzo_Braschi_Fascist_Poster,_1934.png), photographer unknown | Public domain (PD-Italy; PD in U.S. under the URAA date rule) | | *Oro alla Patria*: handing in wedding rings in Milan, 1935 ([Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oro-alla-patria-milan-1935/)) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oro_alla_Patria,_consegna_delle_Fedi_d%27oro.jpg), photographer unknown | Public domain (PD-Italy, PD-1996) | | School group under "Credere Obbedire Combattere", Mirandola, 1938 (["Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/credere-obbedire-combattere-mirandola-1938/)) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regio_Liceo-Ginnasio_-_Mirandola_(1938).jpg), photographer unknown | Public domain (PD-Italy, PD-1996) | | Catania, Sicily, Allied news display, September 1943 ([Catania, Sicily: reading Allied news under U.S. and British flags, 1943](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/catania-allied-news-display-1943/)) | [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2017863755/), Nick Parrino, U.S. Office of War Information | Public domain (U.S. government work) | | "Credere Obbedire Combattere", Casa del Fascio, Momo (2026) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_del_Fascio_con_motto.jpg), Moxmarco | CC BY-SA 4.0 | ### Image gaps - **A *velina*.** Surviving orders are in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato and in printed anthologies. No openly licensed scan was found. - **Istituto Luce newsreel frames and photographs** (for example Luce's photograph of the "economic siege" plaque on the Palazzo Senatorio). The Luce archive's images are not openly licensed. - ***La Difesa della Razza* covers.** The Library of Congress holds a set (item 2012646656) but gives no rights statement. The illustrations are Italian works of 1938-43 whose U.S. status is unclear, so none is hosted here. - **Boccasile posters** (*Tacete! Il nemico vi ascolta*, 1941-42; the RSI Venus de Milo poster, 1944). Commons copies are tagged "no known copyright" or carry an Italian ministry CC BY licence for the photograph of the poster. Boccasile died in 1952, and a U.S. public-domain rationale for posters published in 1941-44 was not established, so they were not hosted. - **U.S. Army Signal Corps photographs of Fascist slogans on walls, 1943-45.** These would be public domain, but none could be located on loc.gov or Commons from the build environment. They are a good next addition from NARA (series 111-SC). - **Harold Stevens at the BBC microphone.** The known photograph is held by a commercial agency. No openly licensed copy was found. ## Sources - Archivio Centrale dello Stato, *Guida ai Fondi: Ministero della Cultura Popolare (1926-1945)*: [search.acs.beniculturali.it](https://search.acs.beniculturali.it/OpacACS/guida/IT-ACS-AS0001-0000939) - Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Unità di Analisi e Documentazione Storica, note on the MinCulPop foreign-press archive (Royal Decree 6 Sept 1934 no. 1434; three directorates-general): [esteri.it PDF](https://www.esteri.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Minculpop24.11.22.pdf) - Treccani, *Dizionario di Storia*, "Ministero della cultura popolare": [treccani.it](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ministero-della-cultura-popolare_(Dizionario-di-Storia)/); "Mezzasoma, Fernando", *Dizionario Biografico*: [treccani.it](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/fernando-mezzasoma_(Dizionario-Biografico)/); "razza, Manifesto della": [treccani.it](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/manifesto-della-razza_(Dizionario-di-Storia)/) - Philip V. Cannistraro, *La fabbrica del consenso. Fascismo e mass media*, Laterza, 1975; "The Radio in Fascist Italy", *Journal of European Studies* 2 (1972): [journals.sagepub.com](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/004724417200200201) - Nicola Tranfaglia with Bruno Maida, *La stampa del regime 1932-1943. Le veline del Minculpop per orientare l'informazione*, Bompiani, 2005 (review: [SISSCO](https://www.sissco.it/recensione-annale/nicola-tranfaglia-la-stampa-del-regime-1932-1943-le-veline-del-minculpop-per-orientare-linformazione-con-la-collaborazione-di-bruno-maida-2005/)) - "Le disposizioni alla stampa del Ministero della Cultura popolare (Minculpop)", *Mediterrán Tanulmányok* 31: [acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu](https://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/74820/1/mediterran_031_141-152.pdf) - "«Il commento ve lo mandiamo noi»", *Patria Indipendente* (ANPI): [patriaindipendente.it](https://www.patriaindipendente.it/persone-e-luoghi/storia/il-commento-ve-lo-mandiamo-noi/); "Si ricorda che non debbono essere pubblicate foto riproducenti persone che si stringono la mano", *Storia minuta*: [storiaminuta.altervista.org](http://storiaminuta.altervista.org/si-ricorda-che-non-debbono-essere-pubblicate-foto-riproducenti-persone-che-si-stringono-la-mano/); "Fake news has been enabling fascism for a whole century", *Quartz*: [qz.com](https://qz.com/1686214/fake-news-is-a-fascist-invention) - UNESCO Memory of the World nomination, *Newsreels and photographs of Istituto Nazionale L.U.C.E.* (decree no. 1000 of 3 April 1926): [unesco.org PDF](https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/italy_newsreels_photographs_luce.pdf) - Leo Longanesi and the origin of "Mussolini ha sempre ragione": [L'Universale](https://www.luniversaleditore.it/mussolini-sempre-ragione/); Carlo Galeotti, *Mussolini ha sempre ragione: i decaloghi del fascismo*: [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books/about/Mussolini_ha_sempre_ragione.html?id=NWtoAAAAMAAJ); "Muri fascisti", *HistoryLab Magazine*, Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino: [museostorico.it](https://hl.museostorico.it/historylabmagazine/cronache/muri-fascisti/) - Sanctions plaque text and history: "La lapide del 18 novembre per la commemorazione dell'embargo economico", *Massime dal Passato*: [massimedalpassato.it](https://massimedalpassato.it/la-lapide-del-18-novembre-per-la-commemorazione-dellembargo-economico/); Comune di Napoli, "Le inique sanzioni": [comune.napoli.it](https://www.comune.napoli.it/articolo_tematico/vivere-la-citta/cultura/lo-storico-palazzo-comunale/la-memoria-e-i-suoi-segni/lapidi-commemorative/le-inique-sanzioni/) - *Oro alla Patria*: Museums Victoria, wedding ring inscribed "Oro alla Patria", Italy, 1935: [collections.museumsvictoria.com.au](https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1761075) - SIPRI, *The Use of Chemical Weapons in the 1935-36 Italo-Ethiopian War* (2009): [sipri.org PDF](https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/Italo-Ethiopian-war.pdf) - League of Nations, *Dispute between Ethiopia and Italy. Communication from the Italian Government ... Use of dum-dum bullets by the Ethiopian troops*: [HathiTrust record](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001138504) - Rainer Baudendistel, "Force versus law: the International Committee of the Red Cross and chemical warfare in the Italo-Ethiopian war 1935-1936", *International Review of the Red Cross*: [icrc.org PDF](https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/S0020860400090781a.pdf) - "Letter from Italy", *Washington Post*, 7 May 1996: [washingtonpost.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/05/07/letter-from-italy/5a2f45df-226c-4109-8f57-531f50c9afd9/); Angelo Del Boca (ed.), *I gas di Mussolini*, Editori Riuniti, 1996 - Museo della Padova Ebraica, "5 August 1938: publication of the first issue of *La Difesa della Razza*": [museopadovaebraica.com](https://www.museopadovaebraica.com/en/memory-documents/august-5-1938-the-beginning-of-the-publication-of-la-difesa-della-razza/); "Photomontage in the Fascist Magazine *La Difesa della razza*", *Cromohs* 25 (2022): [fupress.net](https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/cromohs/article/download/13960/13152/26753); text of the Manifesto: [ANED](https://deportati.it/archivio-storico/manifesto_razza/); Guido Landra's role: "The origins of the 'Manifesto of racial scientists'", *Journal of Modern Italian Studies* 6:3: [tandfonline.com](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253) - Mario Appelius: "Dio stramaledica gli inglesi", *La Nazione*: [lanazione.it](https://www.lanazione.it/arezzo/cronaca/dio-stramaledica-gli-inglesi-la-053440af) - Foreign-station listening penalties: [dirittoalradioascolto.sm](http://www.dirittoalradioascolto.sm/dirittoradioascolto1.htm) - "Silence Propaganda: A Semiotic Inquiry into the Ideologies of Taciturnity", *Signs and Society* (Tacete! Il nemico vi ascolta): [cambridge.org](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/signs-and-society/article/silence-propaganda-a-semiotic-inquiry-into-the-ideologies-of-taciturnity/FB18811512B22D18D7B1140B550E9C78) - Comune di Milano, Civiche raccolte storiche, *1943-1944. Immagini e propaganda della Repubblica Sociale Italiana*: [comune.milano.it](https://www2.comune.milano.it/web/civiche-raccolte-storiche/-/1943-1944.-immagini-e-propaganda-della-repubblica-sociale-italiana); Boccasile's Venus de Milo poster, Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali: [catalogo.beniculturali.it](https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0500670472) - Lombardia Beni Culturali, "Palazzo Braschi tappezzato con Sì e il volto di Benito Mussolini - Propaganda elettorale per le elezioni politiche del 1934": [lombardiabeniculturali.it](https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/fotografie/schede/IMM-SWCT1-0000201/) - Arturo Marzano, "«La guerra delle onde». The British and French responses to the Arabic propaganda of Radio Bari (1938-1939)": [rivisteweb.it](https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1409/36295); "Tune in: how BBC started its first foreign language radio station in Arabic", *Scroll.in*: [scroll.in](https://scroll.in/article/852919/tune-in-the-fascinating-story-of-how-bbc-started-its-first-foreign-language-radio-station-in-arabic) - "Radio Londra 1943-1945: Italian society at the microphones of the BBC", *Modern Italy*: [cambridge.org](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-italy/article/abs/radio-londra-19431945-italian-society-at-the-microphones-of-the-bbc/6B8CA7F82B4F07E8962800235F582E1C); "Voices of Occupiers/Liberators: The BBC's Radio Propaganda in Italy between 1942 and 1945": [tandfonline.com](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17526272.2015.1100442); Ester Lo Biundo, *London Calling Italy: BBC Broadcasts during the Second World War*, Manchester University Press - Psychological Warfare Branch: Istituto storico Parri / Storia e Memoria di Bologna: [storiaememoriadibologna.it](https://www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/archivio/organizzazioni/psychological-warfare-branch-pwb) - Library of Congress, FSA/OWI photographs by Nick Parrino, Catania, September 1943: [2017863755](https://www.loc.gov/item/2017863755/), [2017863756](https://www.loc.gov/item/2017863756/)