Wind farm: at Tolve two reporters from Basilicata 24 attacked

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Giusy Cavallo and Michele Finizio pushed and shoved in order to force them to suspend filming and taking photographs. A mobile phone destroyed. The attack was reported

On the 15th March 2018 at Tolve in the province of Potenza in an area where a wind farm is under construction, the journalists Giusy Cavallo and Michele Finizio respectively editor and editorial director of the online daily Basilicata 24 were attacked whilst they were preparing a video and photographic reportage on the building site.

The journalists were accompanied by two owners of land near the building site. The attackers were reported to the police. The Basilicata order of journalists expressed support and hoped for “greater guarantees of security” for the reporters.

Whilst Cavallo and Finizio were documenting with photos and video the state of the work, three men approached and told them to discontinue and go away. To get them to comply they pushed the journalists. One of them took Finizio’s mobile phone away and smashed it.

One of the two persons who had accompanied the journalists attempted to gather up the pieces of Finizio’s mobile phone but he was prevented by kicks and shoving which caused him to fall down.

Cavallo, Finizio and those accompanying them got in their car in order to go away. Before they managed to, the vehicle was subject to a torrent of kicks by the attackers.

The journalists called the police of the local station for support and both returned to the site of the attack in order recover the pieces of the mobile phone which were, however, not found.

The day after, 16th March 2018, Giusy Cavallo presented to the main police headquarters of Potenza a formal complaint stating precisely to have been attacked whilst he was in an unfenced piece of land.

The precedents in Basilicata – from 2011 until today in Basilicata, Ossigeno has identified 44 serious violations of press freedom and freedom of expression committed by acts of violence and abuses towards journalists, bloggers, video-operators, photo-journalist and editors whose names have been published in the Observatory Table.

This episode is one of the statistics compiled by Ossigeno per l’Informazione of intimidation of media workers.

RDM (wt)