Investigated for vote-buying, journalist threatened via WhatsApp

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The journalist Maria Teresa Carrozzo of the local TV station Canale 85 has received a threatening message on her mobile phone from one of the 48 persons being investigated by the prosecutor. The threat concerns also her children.

On the 7th September 2018 the newspapers of Lecce published the news that 48 persons were being investigated by the prosecutor for vote-buying, a matter of selling votes in exchange for being assigned local authority housing. The investigation involves also municipal officials, two former council members of the municipality of Lecce and a deputy. The journalist Maria Teresa Carrozzo of the TV station, (Canale85) also devoted coverage to this news item. Shortly after the broadcast she received a threatening message through WhatsApp.

A woman whose name is on the list of those being investigated wrote “Shame on you, remember that you have two daughters and God is great, I will get out of it all right!”.

The journalist will make a formal complaint about the person who threatened her. “I am calm – the journalist told Ossigeno – because I did my job according to ethical standards. I very much regret having been attacked. I can imagine that this individual highlighted in the media, has, in a moment of tension, impulsively sent me that message. But I cannot not react to an attack directed at my private life and my daughters.”

The press association and the order of journalists of Puglia have expressed solidarity with Carrozzo.

Carrozzo’s TV coverage focussed on the 48 persons under investigation. It was broadcast together with news of the judicial inquiry prepared by another journalist of the broadcaster.

RDM