Facebook threats to editorial staff of “Cronache Nuoresi”

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“In this part of the mountain they will search for you”, a Facebook user wrote after the publication of a news article. A formal complaint was made.

On October 1^st 2019, a Facebook user sent a threatening message, in private chat (that is, readable only by the recipient) to the social page of the online newspaper “Cronache Nuoresi”. The message, written in Sardinian dialect, was sent immediately after the publication of a news article. . We report it in Italian: “I assure you that they will use a helicopter to look for you in this part of the mountain”.

The message comes from an account that corresponds to an explicit user, but it is still to be ascertained whether it corresponds to a real subject or a fake profile.

The news article referred to the search for a young man in his twenties from Galtellì (Nuoro) who had escaped from house arrest. It explained that in the area an operation was underway by the Carabinieri, assisted by helicopters in the search.

THE OFFICIAL COMPLAINT – The incident was interpreted as a serious threat and next day the chief editor of “Cronache”, Sonia Meloni, formally denounced the Facebook poster to the Carabinieri of Nuoro. Immediately after receiving the message she had reported the fact to the President of the Sardinian Press Association who had encouraged her to formalize the complaint.

The Sardinian Assostampa and the Order of Journalists of Sardinia expressed their solidarity with the editorial staff of Cronache Nuoresi.

THE JOURNALIST – “It is clear that we are talking about threats that have not resulted in serious consequences, but a climate of intolerance is gradually growing with respect to us. We feel psychologically attacked,” Sonia Meloni told Ossigeno, explaining that the insults and threats also come in comment on “not prickly “ news. The journalist also expressed concern about the climate of intolerance towards the entire category of journalists and the difficulties that a small provincial web newspaper has to face.

RDM