Bari. Two reporters investigated for revealing state secrets

Scagliarini and Longo of the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno are under investigation for three articles on the background of the dissolution for the Mafia of the Municipality of Valenzano

On 21 October 2017 the journalists Massimiliano Scagliarini and Giovanni Longo, reporters of La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, received a notice from the Anti-Mafia Directorate of the District of Bari: they are investigated for collaborating with each other and for a continuous crime (Article 81 of the Criminal Code) for disclosure of State secrets.

In the previous days the two reporters had written three articles on the background of the decision of the Council of Ministers to dissolve the City Council of Valenzano (in the province of Bari) for suspected mafia infiltration. Questioned by the Carabinieri, the two made use of the right not to reply, as explained in the article published the same day on the website of their newspaper (read).

After the dissolution of the Municipality (read) on 23 September 2017, the journalists have carried out an investigation in three episodes – published on 19 (read), 20 (read) and 21 October (read) – in which they elaborated on the reasons of the commissioner, telling the ties of kinship between politicians and local administrators and criminal representatives, putting them in relation to the granting of municipal tenders to companies entitled to representatives of the organized crime or their relatives.

The notice spells out that journalists have repeatedly published “the contents of the documents attached and placed as the foundation of the decree by the Minister of the Interior for the dissolution of the City Council of Valenzano, acts classified as ‘reserved’ and of which, therefore, disclosure was forbidden”.

“We believe we have done our job as journalists, that is, finding and publishing information,” said Scagliarini and Longo to Ossigeno. The Regional Order of Journalists and Assostampa Puglia have expressed their solidarity.

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