Ossigeno Annual Report 2025/Part 1/ 759 journalists threatened in Italy. How. By whom

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47% increase compared to 2024 – More violent actions and group intimidation – Half the threats in just three regions: Piedmont, Lombardy, and Lazio

Annual report of the Ossigeno Observatory on threats to journalists and news concealed in Italy due to violence and abuse – edited by Grazia Pia Attolini, Laura Turriziani, and Alberto Spampinato

OSSIGENO March 24^th 2026 – In 2025, in Italy, the intimidating pressure on journalists, bloggers, and activists who disseminate information unwelcome to those in power has further increased, resulting in the concealing of many news items of public interest. The number of individuals affected by threats, intimidation, retaliation, misuse of legal procedures (SLAPPs), and other abuses has increased. Violent attacks in particular have increased. New worrying forms of violations of press freedom and the right to information have emerged, including the use of spyware and the harassment of trusted sources. The Ossigeno Information Observatory has identified, documented, and measured the worsening situation and reports on it in this 2025 Annual Report.

THE METHOD EMPLOYED – Over the course of the year, the Observatory directly monitored intimidation and threats, collected information on violations of the right to information, analysed the data, and verified each case individually using the Ossigeno Method which enabled the selection only of cases of actual violations of the right to information, detrimental to individuals who had acted correctly in compliance with journalistic ethics. The cases thus selected were publicly documented on the website ossigeno.info, and the data from these cases were used to compile the statistics presented in this Annual Report, which details the monitoring results and current trends.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

MORE THREATENED – In 2025, 759 journalists, bloggers, and activists in Italy suffered intimidation and threats from individuals or institutions seeking to limit their reporting. 91% (689) were registered professional journalists. Compared to the 516 threatened individuals recorded the previous year, there was a 47% increase.

MORE VIOLENCE – The percentage of threats and intimidations involving violence remained very high (77%), with peaks exceeding 90% in some regions. However, assaults on persons increased by 7%, physical damage increased by 19%, while warnings decreased by 17%. Thus incidents in which violence was explicitly used increased by 26% compared to those in which violence was merely threatened. This is not a minor change, since in 2024 these incidents had already increased by 23%.

MORE COLLECTIVE THREATS – 2025 was also characterised by a sharp increase (from 60 to 81, equal to +38%) in incidents of collective intimidation (i.e., against groups of journalists or entire editorial staffs).

MORE SLAPPS – SLAPP lawsuits (frivolous lawsuits, civil suits for defamation, warnings, etc.) publicly documented in detail, amounted to 57 (+67%), affecting 117 journalists (+105%). In 2024, 34 incidents were recorded, affecting 57 journalists. These acts of intimidation are the least visible and the most difficult to document publicly. The cases that Ossigeno manages to document and include in its annual statistics are just a minimal portion of the frivolous civil complaints and lawsuits that Ossigeno estimates to be around ten thousand based on the latest official statistics provided by the Italian Ministry of Justice on the outcome of defamation trials (Read more details here).

REGIONS WITH THE MOST THREATENED – Intimidation and threats continued to affect all regions, but Piedmont, Lombardy, and Lazio were the regions with the highest number of threatened journalists. In these three regions, Ossigeno detected half of all threats and documented the most serious and significant incidents in 2025. Piedmont went from zero threatened journalists in 2023 to 148 in 2025; Lombardy went from 13 two years ago to 122 last year. Lazio, which saw a slight decline in 2024, despite falling to third place in terms of victims in 2025, remains the region since 2012 where the highest percentage of media workers are concentrated.

INTIMIDATORY PRESSURE – The situation has also significantly worsened with regard to intimidation (i.e., the number of threatened journalists in relation to the number of registered journalists). Compared to 2024, Piedmont has moved from eighth place to first place, tied with Lombardy (which was fourth). Liguria maintains first place for intimidation. Lazio has moved from sixth to fourth place, and is the region with the most threats since 2006.

Ossigeno‘s “incident meter”was set at zero on January 1^st 2006. With the addition of 759 people threatened in 2025, it had recorded 8,314 victims of press freedom violations by January 1^st 2026. Furthermore, Ossigeno‘s monitoring based on available data confirms that Italy is still the European country with the highest number of journalists threatened in 2025, with the highest number of journalists under police escort or with other forms of protection by law enforcement officers.

See the trend of the Journalists “incident meter” from 2006 to today in this graph.

The following are the most significant trends emerging from the 2025 monitoring.

TYPES OF INTIMIDATION DETECTED IN 2024 AND 2025

SLAPPs – INCIDENTS E PERSONS INTIMIDATED BY LEGAL ACTIONS IN 2024 & 2025

SLAPPs – PERCENTAGES OF PERSONS STRUCK BY ALL FORMS

INCIDENTS OF COLLECTIVE INTIMIDATION

WHO IS THREATENING? – Since 2022, Ossigeno has been mapping in detail the pattern of attacks on press freedom. In 2025, the civil society origin of these threats remains the dominant one, with a 6 percentage point increase compared to 2024. These threats are made by individuals or groups who primarily use warnings (verbal threats, threats via social media, death threats, intimidating messages and writings). Representatives of local or national institutions and political parties rank second, primarily using intimidating legal actions. The percentage of anonymous threats is expected to increase in 2025.

SLAPPs – WHO IS EMPLOYING ABUSIVE LITIGATION TACTICS?

WHERE THEY OCCUR – The greatest worsening is undoubtedly that of the Piedmont region where – as in Lombardy – the increase in incidents of collective threat had a significant impact: Piedmont went from tenth to first place and Lombardy from third to second place.

WHO THEY ARE THE VICTIMS? – The victims of obstacles to freedom of information in 2025 are mostly men working for local or regional newspapers. Twenty-six percent are female journalists, who in one in five cases suffer threats and retaliation, or abuse of rights, not only because they report news of public interest that is clearly inconvenient to someone, but also because they are women. Gender-based threats, which Ossigeno has been monitoring since 2022, accounted for 20% of victims in 2025.

The names and stories of those threatened are available online and free of charge in the Threats and Intimidations section of the Ossigeno Observatory’s website.

In particular, this 2025 Report highlights the following:

Turin. How the November 28 attack on La Stampa began. Chronology of the events

Palermo. Mafia. Strengthened protection measures for journalist Salvo Palazzolo

Rome. Attack on Sigfrido Ranucci

Milan. Mafia warning to journalist Giorgia Venturini of Fanpage

Spyware. Ciro Pellegrino (Fanpage), something’s wrong here

San Vito al Tagliamento (Pordenone). Two environmentalists acquitted of charges brought by the timber giant that demanded €600,000

Genoa. Five sports journalists protected by police due to threats from ultra fans

SLAPP. In Pesaro, a company sues two environmentalists. It demands €2 million damages

Milan. Flyers against Alfredo Faieta

Abruzzo. Threats to a reporter and the editorial staff of the ‘Centro’ by ultra fans of Chieti Calcio football club

Calabria. Three rifle shots to drive away Mediaset and Rai reporters and crew

Treviso. Rete4 crew attacked in the city centre. A reporter shot in the knee –

Manfredonia. Director of l’Immediato acquitted of two lawsuits filed by former mayor

Lazio. Newspaper denounces lack of transparency and receives four lawsuits from a public company

See the graphs summarising the data

Read the following parts of the 2025 Report:

Part 2 – A dark year with some light on the horizon – Trends and prospects

Part 3 – Legal assistance and the mirage of anti-SLAPP measures – The Ossigeno Help Desk

Part 4 – Italy’s failures to comply with the rule of law – Unheeded recommendations

Read Ossigeno‘s previous Annual Reports

Report edited by Grazia Pia Attolini, Laura Turriziani, and Alberto Spampinato