Italy. Bomb at journalist Sigfrido Ranucci’s home, hundreds of threats in the background

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Huge uproar and more protection for the investigative journalist while Ossigeno data show a very serious grow of intimidation  to reporters

OSSIGENO 17 october 2025 – RAI journalist Sigfrido Ranucci‘s car was blown up late on Thursday 16 october 2025 by a bomb planted in front of his home entrance in the town of Campo Ascolano, near Rome. The bomb was packed with a kilo of explosives, investigative sources said on Friday. Report, the investigative journalism show Ranucci presents on the State broadcaster tv, said the bomb would have killed anyone who was passing by. It damaged the house of a neighbour. Report is a hard-hitting show that focuses on alleged crime and corruption and Ranucci already had a security detail due to threats he has received. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the level of protection would be raised to the maximum following the bomb attack.

While last night’s attack against him represented a quantum leap in the chain of threats against Italian journalist Sifgrido Ranucci, as he himself stated, it is also the tip of the iceberg of a broader and deeper phenomenon: that of threats, intimidation, and spurious lawsuits that target hundreds of journalists in Italy every year in an attempt to silence them.

According to the Ossigeno per l’informazione Observatory, which monitors this phenomenon with rigorous verification methods, there have been nearly eight thousand cases since 2006 (the updated reports in the Italian version of Ossigeno’s website).  From 2006 to 2024, more than 7,550 journalists were threatened in Italy, an average of 478 each year: the vast majority (1,160) in Lazio, 621 in Campania, 483 in Sicily, and 465 in Lombardy. In 2025, intimidation against journalists is expected to increase: 78% more than the same period the previous year, according to the report to be presented on October 28 in Rome.

Regarding the nature of these threats, among those identified in the 2006-2024 period, 41% were warnings, 14% were assaults, 4% were damages, 4% were obstacles to access to information, 37% were spurious criminal complaints, and vexatious civil actions (SLAPPS). Those most affected are journalists working for local media outlets, who are often precarious employees and therefore lack financial backing from the publisher. For them, a groundless complaint or lawsuit means years of waiting for the outcome of a process that, in 90% of cases, ends in an acquittal or dismissal. Meanwhile, for those who filed the lawsuit, there will be no negative consequences: instead, they will have achieved their goal of silencing those who reported inconvenient news.

The 2025 report will be presented on October 28th in Rome, at the Casa del Jazz from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., ahead of the UN’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

Among other things, it highlights a 10% increase in forms of intimidation from public officials of local institutions (municipal or regional), who primarily resort to spurious complaints. To combat this phenomenon, Ossigeno per l’Informazione provides legal assistance, including full and partial coverage of expenses, in collaboration with the London-based NGO Media Defence.

Ossigeno also notes that thirty journalists have been killed while carrying out their work since 1960, eleven of them in mafia or terrorist attacks. Their stories are collected on the website Cercavano la verità (They Sought the Truth)