Afurore has broken out after daily newspaper Corriere della Sera realised that the genitals had been edited out of an image of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man featuring in the opening credits of Rai's Milan Cortina 2026 coverage.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said it intends to file a parliamentary question to Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli over the case, while the other main opposition group, the 5-Star Movement (M5S) accused the State broadcaster of censorship, comparing it to "Ayatollahs".
Rai swiftly hit back, however, saying the case was '"fake news" and an excuse to attack it as the content was not produced by it but by the IOC's Olympic Broadcasting Services.
It said the graphics package the image belonged to was "provided in an identical manner to all rights-holding broadcasters worldwide, who are obliged to broadcast it according to shared international standards" and that Rai, "like any other broadcaster, cannot modify such content in any way".
The row comes as Rai's sports journalists withdrew their bylines from their reports Friday in protest after RaiSport Director Paolo Petrecca's blunder-strewn commentary on last week's Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony.
