Organized crime attacks and
intimidation against journalists have been rising steadily
between 2006 and 2014, the parliamentary anti-mafia commission
said Wednesday in a report on the condition of journalists
threatened by the mafia.
"The increase in acts of hostility against journalists is
alarming," said commission chair Rosy Bindi and deputy chair
Claudio Fava.
"There were 2,060 such attacks between 2006 and October 31
2014, with a steady increase that peaked in the first 10 months
of 2014 when 421 acts of violence and intimidation took place -
almost three incidents every two days," Bindi said.
Currently in Italy, 20 journalists live under armed guard
and 11 have been killed by various mafia organizations,
according to the report.
Calabria and Sicily are the two regions most dangerous for
journalists.
The report said such acts of intimidation go almost totally
unpunished since "there are very few incidents in which the
perpetrators have been identified, tried, and convicted".
The report also pointed to the "unscrupulous and
intimidatory" use of lawsuits in order to induce journalists to
tone down their investigative reports.
TV journalist Milena Gabanelli, for example, has been sued
for over 250 million euros by various disgruntled subjects in
the course of her career as a hard-hitting investigative
reporter.
The report goes on to denounce a "more subtle but no less
harmful form of violence, which is the situation of extreme job
and economic insecurity of the vast majority of the journalists
who come under threat".
Freelancers are the "de facto supporting framework of the
entire Italian news system" but have no juridical protection,
and "this grave lack to remedied as soon as possible", the
commission said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
