Orlando slams Assange

(ANSA) - Palermo, September 26 - Palermo Mayor Leoluca Orlando on Monday slammed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for his recent negative comments about journalists.
    The victims of war are "almost always caused by media lies," Assange said Sunday during a video conference with Beppe Grillo, whose anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) held a national rally in Palermo at the weekend.
    "Calling journalists murderers, especially in a region (Sicily) that has seen so many (anti-Mafia) reporters slain, is simply offensive gibberish," said Orlando.
    "Switching the victims with the executioners insults the memory of the victims and is an appalling disservice to the truth - to which I believe Assange to be very attached," the Sicilian mayor said.
    He went on to list the names of Italian journalists who were assassinated in the line of duty.
    "I urge Assange to study the lives and work of Giuseppe Alfano, Carlo Casalegno, Cosimo Cristina, Mauro De Mauro, Giuseppe Fava, Mario Francese, Peppino Impastato, Mauro Rostagno, Giancarlo Siani, Giovanni Spampinato, Walter Tobagi - journalists all, whose memories he smeared with his words yesterday." "In the name of the city and, I am certain, of all Sicilian mayors, I feel obliged to express my most sincere solidarity to all Italian journalists," Orlando said.