Italy. Threatened journalists in 2022. Ossigeno’s and Government’s data

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The comparison shows an increase in the number of threats, a significant growth in abusive court proceedings and a decrease in formal complaints to the authorities compared to the previous year

OSSIGENO 27^th December 2022 – On the 6^th December 2022, the Coordination Centre of the Italian Ministry of the Interior on the phenomenon of intimidation against journalists released its data on those threatened in the first nine months of 2022 (see the complete report here). According to the Centre: “There were 84 intimidating episodes committed in Italy in the first nine months of 2022 against journalists, compared to 162 recorded in the same period of 2021, with a decrease of 48%”.

Data from the Ministry shows that for 88% of the cases “the victims were 74 media workers, including 21 women (28%) and 53 men (72%). 19% of the total reports relate to intimidating incidents perpetrated against unspecified journalism offices or teams. The most affected regions are “Lazio, Lombardy, Campania, Calabria and Tuscany, with 57 episodes overall, equal to 68% of the total”. Starting from the data of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the situation appears to have improved compared to 2021.

The data from Ossigeno per l’Informazione, the non-governmental observatory on threatened journalists and news concealed  by violence, refer to types of intimidation and threats that are broader than those considered  by the Interior Ministry. In fact, they also include lawsuits and abusive court proceedings brought recklessly and instrumentally, and violations of the right to information codified by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

These data indicate a different trend: in the first nine  months of 2022, 173 incidents of intimidation and threats were identified  by Ossigeno against 564 media workers  (journalists, bloggers, and videographers). 29% are women, 36% of whom received gender-based threats.

These data from Ossigeno highlight a growth in threats compared to the same period of the previous year: between January and September 2021 Ossigeno had detected 288 threats, approximately  half of this year.

In the following table it is possible to see the comparison between the data of the Centre and those of Ossigeno relating to the first nine months of 2021.

The data from the comparison between the first months of 2022 and 2021 were presented at the conference “Information at Risk”, organized in Rome on the 22^nd November with the Order of Journalists of Lazio (see here).

The in-depth verification of 84 out of 173 incidents , conducted  using the Ossigeno Method (read here), revealed the exact context of the attacks, the types of threats and the most affected geographical areas.

The Ossigeno data record  an increase in threats against media  professionals in Italy in 2022, differently from the Italian Interior Ministry. As a more in-depth analysis highlights however, the contradiction is only apparent, and helps to examine the trend of the phenomenon in more detail, characterized by a decrease in formal complaints and an increase in lawsuits and abusive court proceedings. In this regard, read the comment by Alberto Spampinato, director of Ossigeno per l’informazione: “In 2022, more journalists threatened and fewer formal complaints to the authorities”.

(Edited by Grazia Pia Attolini and Giacomo Bertoni)