Anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano said Wednesday that he was postponing two upcoming public events in Reggio Emilia because he does not feel "shielded" amid an onslaught of abuse.
"After weeks of continual attacks, I am pulling out due to fear of exposing you and those who host me (to risks): a responsibility I feel to be highly burdensome," he said in a letter regarding the events scheduled to take place at Reggio Emilia's Teatro Valli on Sunday and Monday.
"I feel it all the more because I see that those who could take sides from positions of strength by expressing an opinion are distant light-years away and, instead, remain silent," added the author of the Gomorrah expose.
"I am pulling out now because it is difficult for me to take part in public events at the moment.
"I am worried about putting myself and those around me at risk of physical exposure because the hatred is tangible and there is no shield".
Saviano has been in police protection since the publication of Gomorrah in 2006 lifted the lid on the Casalesi clan of Campania's Camorra mafia.
The book was turned into a 2008 film that won second prize at Cannes and was the inspiration for a successful Sky TV series.
Last week a trial in which Saviano is accused of defaming Premier Giorgia Meloni started in Rome.
Saviano called the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party a "bastard" when talking about the issue of migrants on a TV show in December 2020.
He said the same thing about League leader Matteo Salvini, the current deputy premier and infrastructure minister who has requested to be a civil plaintiff in the trial.
Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation after Meloni, who at the time was in the opposition, filed a complaint.
Press freedom groups have criticised the trial and the fact that defamation is a criminal offence in Italy.
The writer also faces a separate trial for having called Salvini the "minister of the underworld" on another occasion.
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