Assaulted whilst filming suspect waste dumping

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They are Pierpaolo Petino and Alessandro Carlos Jovane from Videoinformazioni. It happened in San Felice a Cancello (CE)

Two journalists, Pier Paolo Petino and Alessandro Carlos Jovane, of the television agency Videoinformazioni, were attacked on 13^th January 2020 outside the former Giglio di San Felice quarry in Cancello, in the province of Caserta, while filming – for Corriere Tv – an underground landfill identified in the area and subject to investigations by the Prosecutor of Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

They were attacked, with Jovane being punched in the face, by the 21-year-old son and grandson of the owners of a San Felice haulage company, adjacent to the quarry, in the presence of the city police and fire-fighters, who were carrying out activities within the polluted site.

The young man from Sanfelice lashed out against the two journalists, incited by his father who launched insults. Petino lost his balance and fell, while Jovane was hit with a punch and taken to the Maddaloni hospital (Caserta).

The attacker was arrested by the police present on the spot. Meanwhile, a formal complaint has been made of the incident with the Metropolitan Police of Naples.

THE ATTACKED JOURNALIST – “Dozens of people were present – recalls Petino – but the young man only lashed out at the journalists. This is symptomatic and, in fact, the point is precisely this: journalists are the target because through their work they expose those individuals who, over the years, have kept a low profile. When the spotlight of information turns on, they can no longer continue and they can no longer play about only in courtrooms. Their real enemies therefore emerge, which, paradoxically, are not so much the police and magistrates, but those who report. And the reporting of the facts sometimes stains their image, which they can no longer exploit “. And he adds: “This incident in the San Felice quarry in Cancello is one of those famous cases known to everyone, which remained unmentioned for years and then revealed due to a chance circumstance. The authorities only entered there at that moment, after 20 years … “. Petino continues the story: “The attacker shouted at us:” Report me! I don’t care, since the police know me ”. The journalist points out from this that a strong sense of impunity emerges .The journalist also mentions the presence of Cesare Abbate, a photographer colleague from the Ansa News Agency, fortunately not attacked. The situation is unsustainable. There are so many colleagues in the Caserta area under threat ”.

THE APOLOGIES – The next day the young attacker sent a note in which he apologized for his actions. Petino makes the point that : “Personally I have no problem in forgiving and believing that one could have regrets , but the fact that everything happened in such a dramatic way could not exempt us from making a formal complaint. With his note we acknowledge the apologies and acknowledge at the same time that the perpetrator of the action has publicly admitted it”.

EXPRESSIONS OF SUPPORT to the reporters from professional institutions and local politicians. Even the mayor of San Felice a Cancello, Giovanni Ferrara, expressed solidarity with the journalists and condemned the behaviour of his fellow citizens.

Antonino Cicero