Paolo Berizzi given police protection: “I am not afraid”

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Since 2017 Berizzi has had occasional protection but after the latest threats, his risk profile has changed and he will now be protected by the Carabinieri.

“I’m not afraid, I will continue to do my job as before,” Paolo Berizzi said on February 7th 2018, the first day of his life as a journalist under police protection following death threats. The reporter of “La Repubblica” has long been in the crosshairs of neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist groups, irritated by his continual documentation and investigation, which has highlighted the recent phenomenon of the rebirth and the spread of far-right organizations in Northern Italy.

He is now protected by an armed escort of the Carabinieri. The Ministry of the Interior took the decision given that, in the days before, the Provincial Committee for the Order of Journalists and security officials of Bergamo had signalled the need to provide him with greater protection, due to the intensification of insults and death threats, some addressed to his family.

Paolo Berizzi was informed of this at the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri of Bergamo which he attended on February 6th 2018.

From April 2017 the journalist had been protected by a so-called dynamic protection service following the multiple threats received in various ways: in person, via social networks, writings on the walls of his house, banners on the street and on flyovers.

“With the escort – Paolo Berizzi declared to Ossigeno – my life has changed, I know. I will be less free to move, even my private life will suffer, I am aware of that. I accept paying this price in order to continue to defend everyone’s freedom. The police escort will not prevent me from continuing to denounce the activity of the neo-Fascist groups, as is necessary, as I have done for ten years. I will continue to do my job as before. I’m not afraid. I will not be intimidated. I will continue because it is necessary to keep the spotlight always on this worrying phenomenon of new Fascist groups that are operating ever more openly, also because they seem to have found new political bases “.

ASP (wt)