Orta di Atella. Threats on the web against the director of Campanianotizie

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Mario De Michele has been insulted by the brother of a man recruited by the firm which manages the garbage collection in Orta di Atella (Naples). He has made a formal complaint.Between the 6th and 7th August 2018 in Orta di Atella (Caserta) the journalist Mario De Michele, chief editor of the online newspaper Campanianotizie received a series of insults and threats on Facebook by a man who was resentful because the journalist on the 6th August in an article reported on the recruitment of one of his relatives by the company which manages garbage collection for the municipality.

On the 29th May 2018 during the local elections campaign Vincenzo Cinquegrana, a man close to the present mayor of Orta used threatening language against the journalist. Now he had insulted De Michele defining him “poisonous” and “the most idiotic in the press” adding that he had thought of having placed “a bomb in the mouth so that you talk less”. In the offensive posts the reference to De Michele is not always explicit. The journalist made a formal complaint about the events. In July the journalist had received an envelope containing four bullets.

It appears that Cinquegrana was resentful because the journalist had speculated about a link between his electoral support for the mayor and the recruitment of his brother.

Mario Di Michele had already explained to Ossigeno that he publishes information which indicates relationships between local government officials and organised crime. In addition he had dedicated several articles to the completely unauthorised construction of buildings in a new area of the city, an affair into which the magistracy has begun an investigation.

Support for De Michele has been expressed by the Campania order of journalists, the Italian National Press Federation, the SUGC (the United Union of Journalists of Campania) and Articolo 21. The episode has been brought to the attention of the ministry of the interior by the secretary of the Italian National Press Federation, Raffaele Lorusso.

RDM