Borrometi: “Whoever says that the mafia doesn’t exist condemns me to death”

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Borrometi’s appeal to journalists during the conference on the 11th April in Rome. “You are not alone” said the presidents of FNSI, Ordine and Usigrai announcing initiatives in Ragusa and Syracuse“I ask you – Borrometi said – to come to my area and repeat today’s Rome conference, to make it clear, also to our colleagues who have trade union responsibility in those provinces, that the Mafia exists. If they continue to say that the Mafia does not exist, then probably it is they who are condemning me to death” (read here the interview with Paolo Borrometi: “I am not a hero, the State has won but my mute colleagues condemn me to death.”)

It was a powerful appeal which Paolo Borrometi, editor of La Spia and collaborator with AGI addressed to all the journalists present in the room at the end of a packed press conference on Wednesday 11th April held in the Rome headquarters of the Italian Press Federation.

The meeting had been organised the day after the revelation in the press of the murder plan by several Mafia individuals in Pachino (Syracuse). The plan to kill him emerged through several wiretaps (read here).

“If I am here today it is because the State has won; it has succeeded in intercepting in time what someone wanted to happen” – Borrometi said, thanking the magistrates and the police for their efforts. “None of us wants to be the hero; we are simply journalists who want to continue to report. Certainly if there is one of the most important online dailies of Ragusa which continues to define as “alleged” a boss condemned for various offences and which gives the name of the clan, then it means that something is wrong. Today with your presence I want to make it clear to everybody that we are not alone” (read).

To demonstrate their close support for the journalist who has been living with an armed escort for four years, there were at the meeting the heads of FNSI, of the national order of journalists, of Usigrai, representatives from the Lazio order, from the Rome Press Association, from Ossigeno per l’informazione, from UCSI, from Articolo21 and from many other associations and publications. At the conference there was also Daniele Piervincenzi the journalist who in November 2017 in Ostia had his nose broken by a head-butting from Roberto Spada while he interviewed him together with his cameraman for the programme Nemo (Rai2) for a feature on the success of Casapound in several neighbourhoods of Ostia in the local elections (read here).

At the speakers’ table there were, besides Borrometi, Elisa Marincola (spokesperson for Articolo21, Giuseppe Giulietti and Raffaele Lorusso (president and secretary of FNSI respectively, Carlo Verna (president of the Ordine dei Giornalisti) and Vittorio di Trapani (secretary of Usigrai).

“Paolo is not alone” declared Giulietti who invited his colleagues to relaunch the investigations of Borrometi, underlining the importance of a “media escort”. “It has to be made clear to the institutions that this is not a problem only for Paolo. This climate alters Articolo 21 and therefore the Constitution. It is not only a journalism problem” he said encouraging the intervention of the institutions and politicians. “I would like us to open our mouths now without having to excuse ourselves the day after as has happened in the past.”

All the speakers thanked the magistrates and the police for their excellent work; they underlined the importance of solidarity within the sector and repeated the necessity of going further with legislation which safeguards the work and the conditions of journalists.

President Verna announced training courses to deepen the understanding of the duty of journalists for solidarity towards colleagues threatened or affected unjustly because of their work.

And so an appeal was launched (subscribed to also by Ossigeno) directed to the editors of various publications and television programmes to provide in the week 25th April to 1st May bigger coverage to information on the Mafia and draw more attention to the conditions of “temporary workers” which further weakens investigative journalists (read the appeal).

RDM