Email: segreteria@ossigenoinformazione.it

Registered office: c/o OdG Via Sommacampagna 19 – 00185 Rome

Telephone 06684027-30/32 – Telephone answering service 06 92958025

Tax code: 9768 2750589

IBAN IT28F0760103200001003979752

The name – Ossigeno is an acronym: OSservatorio Su Informazioni Giornalistiche E Notizie Oscurate. The name highlights  a basic concept: every free and democratic society has a vital need for freedom of information and expression just as the human body needs oxygen.

The Observatory was created to document and analyse the growing intimidation and threats against Italian journalists, in particular against reporters engaged in the front line in the regions of Southern Italy; in the collection and dissemination of the most uncomfortable  information of public interest and, in particular, in the search for the most hidden truths regarding organized crime. In November 2008, it obtained the patronage of the National Council of the Order of Journalists, in March 2009, the patronage of the National Council of the Italian National Press Federation (FNSI). Ossigeno’s  aim is to heighten public awareness of the serious phenomenon of the limitation of press freedom  and freedom of expression through threats, abuses, and non-enforcement which limit the circulation of news and the right of citizens to be informed.

Principal Observer: Lirio Abbate, deputy director of the weekly l’Espresso

Recognition – The Head of State Sergio Mattarella has awarded two “Medals of the President of the Republic” to Ossigeno:

• for the conference of October 24^th 2016 organized at Palazzo Madama, seat of the Italian Senate, to celebrate the “UN International Day to End Crimes against Journalists”;
• for the international conference of November 3^rd 2021 “How to Stop Crimes against Journalists”, organized in Syracuse, Italy together with UNESCO and opened with the report of the Attorney General of the Supreme Court Giovanni Salvi

Consulting: – Ossigeno has provided consultancy for OSCE, Agcom (the Italian Communications Authority, the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission and other bodies. It collaborated with the Polis Foundation of Naples on the project “Traveling with the Mehari”( a car in which a Neapolitan journalist was killed).

Ossigeno’s online news program is a newspaper, registered  at the Court of Rome n.35 of the 18^th February 2013 – Chief Editor: Alberto Spampinato, parliamentary journalist

The not-for-profit  association “Ossigeno per l’informazione” is a non-governmental organization and a voluntary sector entity, established in 2011, registered since 10^th July 2012 in the Register of Volunteers of the Lazio Region with the number BO4243. The Honorary President was Sergio Zavoli – Honorary Members: Don Luigi Ciotti, Claudio Fava and Pietro Grasso. The members work for the Association on a voluntary basis. Secretary  General: Giuseppe Federico Mennella, journalist and professor of journalism ethics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata

Funding – Ossigeno is maintained through membership fees and donations from supporters. The main donors are the National Order of Journalists, the Order of Journalists of Lazio, Sicily, Abruzzo and Tuscany. From 2015 to 2018, the FNSI also made donations.

The headquarters – Since 2012, the Associazione Stampa Romana has hosted the headquarters of the Observatory. Since 2015, another operational base has been opened at the Casa del Jazz in Rome. The registered office is at the National Council of the Order of Journalists.

International Projects – From 2014 to 2018, the European Commission funded the international activities planned for participation in the ECPMF  (Centre for Freedom of the Press and the Media based in Leipzig). In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Ossigeno per l’Informazione provided the European Commission with analytical dossiers regarding the omissions in Italy’s compliance with the obligations deriving from the regulations  on the rule of law.

In 2022, Ossigeno per l’Informazione was involved in the project to monitor and assist journalists under threat in Italy called MAP – “Monitor, Assist and Protect”, co-financed by the Global Media Defence Fund (GMDF), the UNESCO multi-partner Fund created within the framework of the Global Campaign for Press Freedom under the umbrella of the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

Monitoring – In 2008 (with a retrospective look at the two-year period 2006-2007), Ossigeno began to collect information on intimidation and threats directed at journalists, bloggers, photographers, video makers, human rights defenders and other media workers in Italy. Monitoring includes assistance to victims of these unjustifiable acts. Since then, it has been continuously monitoring violations of press freedom that occur in Italy. The Observatory verifies the validity of each intimidation, classifies the episodes based on the type of threat and the category of the aggressor, and publishes the results of each case deemed credible on this website, with newspaper articles, factsheets, reports (see the Threats and Intimidations section). For years, the Threat Counter has visually represented the numerical progression of threats and their territorial spread. On January 1^st 2006, the Counter started at zero. In January 2016, it exceeded 2,700. In December 2019, it exceeded 4,000. In May 2024, over seven thousand.

News – Ossigeno issues periodic summaries of its data and publishes news on the most significant intimidations with articles and newsletters in Italian and English. These Ossigeno articles can be reproduced by explicitly citing the source.

Dossier – The problems of journalists who suffer threats and the suppression of information of public interest through violence and abuse are analysed in the ANNUAL REPORTS, in the special DOSSIERS, and in the EBOOKS published in collaboration with the publishing house Melampo and during conferences and public initiatives.

Free Legal Aid  – Ossigeno assists journalists and bloggers in difficulty with opinions and legal assistance provided free of charge.  The lawyers providing advice are paid by the Association. This service is funded by the London-based association Media Defence. In order to document the abuse of defamation lawsuits and lawsuits for intimidation and the almost total impunity of the perpetrators of violence against journalists, Ossigeno publishes news on the trials of journalists and non-journalists accused of libel  or of people accused of crimes against journalists and authors of publications. This newsletter pays particular attention to proceedings for frivolous litigation and slander and to trials for libel that end with the case being dismissed.

In memory of murdered journalists – To preserve the memory of 30 Italian journalists killed because of their work, Ossigeno per l’Informazione has created the online documentation centre “Cercavano la verità” (They sought the truth) www.giornalistiuccisi.it which collects and makes available free of charge documents and testimonies on each of them together with the description  of the legal processes followed to ascertain the responsibilities for their deaths. Furthermore, Ossigeno, in collaboration with their families, remembers each of these murdered journalists with articles published and distributed through press releases every year on the anniversary of their tragic deaths. To promote the memory of these dramatic events and to invite reflection on the extremes to which violence against journalists who published news unwelcome to those both in power and criminals has reached in Italy, the Association has produced and distributed to schools, universities, representatives of public institutions and associations a Memory Plaque of Journalists Killed in Italy, which depicts their faces, their names and the dates of birth and death. The Plaque is displayed in many public places and is affixed at the Casa del Jazz in Rome next to the large panel that lists the names of 900 innocent victims killed by the mafia.

Training – Since 2014, Ossigeno has held continuing professional development  courses for journalists in all Italian regions. In the first three-year period 2014-2016, five thousand members of the Order participated in the seminars. The courses, free of charge, organized in collaboration with the regional Orders of Journalists and accredited by the national OdG, deal in particular with the topic of the intimidating use of libel lawsuits and illustrate the precautionary and defensive measures to adopt to defend oneself from specious complaints, summonses for instrumental damages, and intimidating pressure. The courses  also explain that in Italy the legislation on information is punitive towards those who collect and disseminate information of public interest, and this vindictiveness is confirmed by all European and international forums. One course explains what “hidden censorship” is and teaches how to recognize  its occurrence in  free Western countries. The Observatory has signed agreements with the University of Bologna and with the Department of Humanities  and the Master’s Degree in “Information Science, Communication and Publishing ” of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. In this context, Ossigeno organizes courses for students and journalists to obtain the certificate of “observer of violations of freedom of information”.

International Relations – Ossigeno collaborates with an international network of non-governmental organizations and with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the European Association of Journalists (AEJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, and the International Press Institute in Vienna.

European Projects – In 2014, in partnership with the Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso in Rovereto and with the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), Ossigeno participated in the project “Safety Net for European Journalists. A Transnational Support Network for Media Freedom in Italy and Southeast Europe” funded by the European Commission. Since 2015, Ossigeno has participated in the European project called the European Centre for Press Media Freedom (ECPMF) and is among the founders of the International Centre for Press Freedom, established in Leipzig (Germany) in June 2015. Together with its partners, Ossigeno is committed to making known internationally the Italian paradox of a free and democratic country in which thousands of threats and intimidations occur without the authorities intervening to prevent them and without the newspapers reporting them. Ossigeno proposes, inter alia, to apply in other countries its active monitoring method (Ossigeno Censorship Detector), which has been codified and tested effectively in Italy, where it has revealed the existence and the extent of a modern form of censorship that undoubtedly affects other free countries.

TELEPHONE

067000705 – 0668402705