Toni Colombo: Giletti’s team assaulted at Scafati

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Recordings damaged. They were trying to interview the neo-melodic singer Tony Colombo.

The neomelodic singer Tony Colombo and his entourage intimidated a film crew of the Non è l’Arena program of the La7 channel. The episode occurred on the evening of November 20^th 2019 in Scafati (Salerno), a few days after the attack in Naples on journalist Daniele Bonistalli and his cameraman (read here).

In the crosshairs this time, the journalist Francesca Carrarini, correspondent of the program, and her cameraman Gianluca Mazza, who wanted to interview Toni Colombo at the end of a performance for the opening of a store. Colombo took the journalist’s mobile phone, erased the material she had filmed and then brazenly chewed the memory card after extracting it from the small camera worn by the cameraman.

THE FACTS – The journalist approached Toni Colombo and tried to ask him questions while he was inside the shop. Then he followed the artist to his car, where Colombo got in along with his manager. From inside the car, the singer ripped the phone from the journalist’s hand. At the same time, one of his collaborators stole the camera from the video operator.

“You can’t make a video. You don’t know how to do your job. Madam, this is privacy “, the singer repeated several times, while deleting videos and photos from Francesca Carrarini’s mobile phone. Meanwhile, Toni Colombo’s collaborator who had stolen the small wearable camera from the cameraman, extracted the memory card and gave it to Columbus who put it in his mouth and chewed it, in order to destroy it.

The programme was broadcast on La7 on November 24^th 2019.

Only after persistent requests did the journalist get her cell phone and video-camera back.

Colombo ended up in the spotlight after the publication of an investigation on Fanpage entitled “Camorra Entertainment” exploring the opaque links between the world of neomelodic music and the organised crime syndicate Camorra, relationships that the programme “Non è l’Arena” is also trying to document.

THE COMMENTS OF GILETTI – The journalist Massimo Giletti, presenter of “Non è l’Arena” issued the following declaration to Ossigeno: “Whoever does journalism has to anticipate reactions like those of Toni Colombo. By asking questions, there is the risk of being subjected to poor behaviour, especially by people who are respected in the area for unknown reasons. Television cannot “discard” reality, it must continue to ask questions, even uncomfortable ones. The reporting teams of my programmes know these things. “

“I say this – added Giletti – thinking of my young colleagues who do not have such broad shoulders and cannot afford to pay lawyers when it is necessary to defend themselves against spurious attacks. This is the nerve centre: protecting the youngest. Because those who work on the ground and conduct investigations are often also conditioned by lawsuits used as a weapon to intimidate the journalist. We have to widen the debate on this, we must not stop repeating words that risk sounding hollow. This is a fundamental issue for the future of journalism “.

ADT – RDM