Findings 5th-19th April: 25 journalists threatened

24 April 2019

Ossigeno has identified  and verified  the threats against 13 of them. There are 51 confirmed episodes, with 98 verified victims, in the first 109 days of 2019.

There are 25 journalists and bloggers who, according to the monitoring done by Ossigeno between the 5^thand the 19^thApril 2019, suffered intimidation and threats in Italy. For 13 of them Ossigeno has verified and confirmed the facts. The other 12 are considered “very likely” to be also victims of the same serious violations. Their names and details concerning them are published with the invitation to verify their validity. For 2019, Ossigeno’s Threat Counter currently records  98 certified victims. There are many journalists and bloggers whose names in the first 109 days of 2019 Ossigeno has added to the Table listing the victims of unjustifiable attacks. Below are the names and some details.

Between the 5^thand 19^thApril 2019 Ossigeno has identified a further 13 threats

in Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Puglia, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia. Read the names of the reporters targeted and the details of each episode.

“Ossigeno per l’Informazione” believes that the episodes described below represent unjustifiable violations of freedom of expression and of the press. The names of these 13 journalists and media operators directly affected were added to the table of the names of victims of unjustifiable attacks: Guido Scarpino, Lirio Abbate, Bruno Manfellotto and the publisher of L’Espresso, Marco Zavagli, Vittorio Brumotti, Vincenzo Rubano and cameraman, Valentino Gonzato, Giovanni Taormina, Barbara Ciarcia, Matteo Mohorovicich and an operator.

Giulio Scarpino (Calabria)

On March 11^th, 2019 in Paola, in the province of Cosenza, unknown persons set alight the car of the journalist from the Quotidiano del Sud newspaper, Guido Scarpino. The car, according to  the Fire Department and the Police, was sprinkled with flammable liquid and then set alight. A Mafia involvement  seems to emerge from the first investigations.

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Lirio Abbate, Bruno Manfellotto and the publisher of L’Espresso(Lazio)

The journalist Lirio Abbate, deputy editor of the weekly L’Espressowas sentenced by the civil court of Rome to pay damages of 100 thousand euros to  a Roman magistrate, now retired, and an expert of the same court for damage to reputation caused by an article signed by him and published in the  weekly magazine on January 23^rd, 2014.

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Vittorio Brumotti, Vincenzo Rubano, cameraman

The correspondent of Striscia la NotiziaVittorio Brumotti was assaulted in Trani (Bari) on the 18^thMarch 2019 whilst secretly recording a video (view here) to document the sale of drugs inside an antique shop located in a street in the town centre.

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Marco Zavagli (Emilia Romagna)

The journalist Marco Zavagli, chief editor  of estense.comis on trial for libel at the Court  of Ferrara for a  lawsuit filed in 2018 by the local secretary of the Lega political party, Nicola Lodi, in relation to some articles published in April 2018.  Last August, the prosecutor had sought  to close the lawsuit, since in his opinion the episode “does not in any way exceed the limits of relevance to a fact of objective public interest  and the use of reasonable language  in setting out  the facts”. The plaintiff opposed the closure of the case.

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Valentino Gonzato (Veneto)

On the morning of the 2^ndApril 2019, around noon, Valentino Gonzato, a crime correspondent  and editor of the Giornale di Vicenza, was jostled   and insulted by a group of seven or eight people who spat on him  and stole his company mobile phone. The reporter managed to film what happened.

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Giovanni Taormina (Friuli Venezia Giulia)

On April 12^th, 2019, the Committee for Order and Public Safety of Udine ordered  protection measures (dynamic surveillance) for RAI journalist Giovanni Taormina, who works for the regional news broadcast TgR of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The day before, in Udine, at the editorial offices in via Palmanova, the journalist had received an anonymous envelope with two bullets inside and a photo with his face circled in red and marked  with an x. The envelope had been left at the entrance and had looked innocuous.

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Barbara Ciarcia (Campania)

The Committee for Order and Public Security of Avellino has decided to assign vigilance to the journalist Barbara Ciarcia, a correspondent of Il Mattino.

The decision followed the threats received by the journalist in the late afternoon of Sunday the 7^thApril, while she was inside the shop run by her family members at Castello del Lago.

A man who was accompanied by two people told her“Be careful  what you write.”

Learn more about it on oxygen.info

Matteo Mohorovicich and a media operator (Veneto)

On the morning of Sunday the 13^thApril 2019, unknown persons slashed the four tyres of the Rai company car, used by the journalist Matteo Mohorovicich and a media operator. The two were making a reportage on oil and chrome pollution in a stream in Rosà, in the province of Vicenza. The car had been parked for about half an hour while the reporters were filming accompanied by representatives of a city committee that had raised the issue of pollution in that area.Learn more about it on oxygen.info