Video. Giulio Francese: “My father died for his newspaper”

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In an interview with “Memoria e Futuro” the son of the journalist killed tells of the pain of his family and criticizes the long silence of the Giornale di Sicilia

The journalist Giulio Francese, son of Mario Francese, the reporter of the Giornale di Sicilia killed by the mafia in Palermo, on January 26, 1979, told how much and in what way the murder of his father has upset his family: pushing his younger brother Giuseppe to suicide, following a journalistic investigation in which he had shone a light on the background of the killing of his father, providing the investigators with the elements to reopen the investigation and reach the conviction of the mafia bosses Totò Riina, Leoluca Bagarella (which would have been the material executor of the crime), Raffaele Ganci, Francesco Madonia, Michele Greco and Bernardo Provenzano.

Giulio Francese, who since November 2017 is the president of the Order of Journalists of Sicily, reconstructs with great fortitude the stages of pain and isolation of himself and his family members. He speaks of the weak media attention that for many years was reserved to the figure of his father and the important work of inquiry that he carried out in the last years of his life, being the first, among other things, to report the rise of the bloody clan of the Corleonesi. He also speaks of the silence, of the lack of initiatives to remember him, of the inattentiveness that he can not explain, even from the newspaper for which Mario Francese worked when he was killed and for which he began to work after his death.

It also explains why it is important to honor the memory of journalists who have lost their lives to carry out their work in the interests of citizens.

Ossigeno would like to thank Giulio Francese for having made this important testimony public by overcoming the reluctance that is peculiar to his nature and the unjustifiable fear that usually pushes the families of the victims to close up in silence, to hide their suffering. Thanks Giulio for having found the courage to publicly formulate doubts and criticisms, for having given an example of how to honor without rhetoric the memory of the innocent victims of the mafia.

VIDEO

MF (gt)