Ossigeno has ascertained another 14 threats – November 2018

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The victims include Giampiero Casagni, Riccardo Arena, Paolo Borrometi (Sicily), Giuseppe Spallino, Antonio Ardizzone who is also the publisher of Il Giornale di Sicilia (Campania), Matteo Fidanza (Puglia), Giuseppe Borello, Andrea Sceresini (Lombardy), Marco Travaglio, Gaia Scacciavillani, Peter Gomez, Giordano Cardone journalist and publisher (Tuscany). From the 1st January to the 24th November 2018 Ossigeno has identified and documented 250 unjustifiable attacks of the same type.

“Ossigeno per l’Informazione” maintains that the episodes described below represent unjustifiable violations of freedom of expression and of press freedom. Fourteen journalists and video operators  directly affected have been added to the List of Names of Victims of Unjustifiable Attacks.

SICILY – Giampiero Casagni
PALERMO – The Sicilian journalist Giampiero Casagni, collaborator of the weekly Centonove, has been “spied upon” by the former president of Confindustria Sicilia (the Sicilian industrialists’ association) as well as by the compliance officer Antonello Montante. This was made clear in the warrant for the arrest of Montante and other 18 people in May 2018. Montante is currently on trial. The investigators show that since 2014 Antonello Montante had tried to obstruct and discredit the work of Giampiero Casagni and his image. Starting from 2015, with the help of his collaborators and a police officer, Montante illegally collected information about him and his relatives. During a search carried out in the industrialist’s home in Serradifalco (Caltanissetta), the investigators found a folder with Casagni’s articles.
Learn more about the story on ossigeno.info

SICILY – Riccardo Arena
The journalist Riccardo Arena, legal affairs correspondent for the Giornale di Sicilia and former president of the Order of Journalists of Sicily, has been bitterly attacked by the blogs Italy Flash and Il Circolaccio, who have accused him of “contiguity” with the former Democratic Party Senator Giuseppe Lumia and to be a member of the “army of the anti-Mafia talking shop that, one day, we may find they have been on the payroll of these powerful individuals”. The Sicilian Assostampa (Press Association) intervened in the case and rejected the accusations against the journalist talking about the instrumentality of the attack against Arena and the Giornale di Sicilia (maligned as “a little rag” in the disinformation blog) following the publication of the news of the investigation into Giuseppe Lumia, in the context of the enquiry into the Montante system.
Read the full news story on the website of Assostampa Sicilia

SICILY – Paolo Borrometi
RAGUSA – On October 31st 2018 the journalist Paolo Borrometi received a threatening private message on the web site of La Spia, the online newspaper he edits. The anonymous user congratulated the journalist for the publication of his book  “Un morto ogni tanto” (A dead person every so often” , published by Solferino, and then added: “Too bad that success has costs and benefits which you may not come to enjoy”. The episode on the 14th November 2018, was formally reported to the prosecutor of Ragusa.
Learn more about it on ossigeno.info

CAMPANIA – Giuseppe Spallino,  Antonio Ardizzone and the publisher
AVELLINO – The journalist of the Giornale di Sicilia, Giuseppe Spallino, has been sued in the court of Avellino for a legal affairs article in which he described the sentencing of a man for slander. The man, considering the article concerning his judicial affairs detrimental to his image, his reputation and his privacy, has sued Spallino in the civil court asking for damages amounting to 100 thousand euro. The man also cited the editor of the Giornale di Sicilia and the chief editor Antonio Ardizzone.

PUGLIA – Matteo Fidanza
MANFREDONIA (Foggia) – On June 26th 2018 in Manfredonia, a man orally insulted Matteo Fidanza, journalist and press officer of the municipality in Puglia. “I know where you are”, “I’ll come and get you”, “I’ll come and look for you”, the man shouted at Fidanza, amid various insults, surprising him while he returned home for lunch. He was annoyed by Fidanza’s press officer activities and his announcements on the positive actions of the municipal administration. On the 3rd July the journalist sent a request to the police superintendent of Foggia requesting that he issue a warning to the man who attacked him.
Read the news on the FNSI website

LOMBARDIA – Giuseppe Borello, Andrea Sceresini
MILAN – On October 24th a military patrol prevented journalists Giuseppe Borello and Andrea Sceresini, collaborators of the online newspaper TPI.it, from filming the façade of the Milan branch of the Lega political party in via Bellerio. The two journalists were interviewing some former employees of the party in the context of an investigation into the disappearance of 49 million euro from the coffers of the party when the military ordered them to turn off the cameras and show their identity documents.
Read the news on tpi.it

TOSCANA – Marco Travaglio, Gaia Scacciavillani, Peter Gomez, Giordano Cardone and the publisher
The journalist Marco Travaglio, chief editor of Il Fatto Quotodiano, the journalist Gaia Scacciavillani and the editor of the newspaper were convicted for libel by the civil court of Florence and ordered to pay 95 thousand euros damages to Tiziano Renzi (the father of the former Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi), and to publish the sentence in both the paper and the online editions of the newspaper. Journalists Peter Gomez and Giordano Cardone who were also involved in the same story for other articles published on the online edition have been acquitted. The father of the former prime minister was in this case condemned to pay legal costs.
Learn more about the story on ossigeno.info

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