Perhaps we are not under investigation. The municipality sues

In Tagliacozzo 4,000 euro have been set aside to pay for a lawyer. Three newspapers had reported a visit to the municipal offices by the police to acquire documents

Probably there is no investigation into my municipality, said the mayor of Tagliacozzo, announcing legal action for revenge against the three newspapers that had reported a presumed judicial investigation into a contract for the construction of a school campus. And the council of the municipality in the province of L’Aquila, on January 8th 2019, approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to “confer specific power of attorney aimed at taking legal action to protect the image of the local administration and the bureaucratic structure of the agency. The National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI), the trade union and the Order of journalists of Abruzzo have expressed solidarity and support for the journalists against the mayoral initiative which they define as “a serious act of intimidation”.

The amount allocated by the municipality to entrust the task to a lawyer is about four thousand euro. The agency considers damaging to its image articles published in Il Centro, Terre Marsicane and Marsicalive publications, starting from December 27th, 2018, related to an alleged investigation by the Avezzano Public Prosecutor on the tender for a project for the construction of a school campus.

The authors of the articles had reported that police had gone to the municipal offices of Tagliacozzo and had taken away some documents.

The mayor of Tagliacozzo, Vincenzo Giovagnorio, on December 28th, on his Facebook page, described the news as “fake news. It is very probable – he wrote – that the acquisition of the aforementioned documents concerns other investigations that are not part of the municipality of Tagliacozzo”.

RDM (wt)