Brescello: Stone thrown against the car of the TG2 news team

Giammarco Sicuro and his technicians were shooting video of several buildings confiscated from criminal gangs. The windscreen was damaged

On the 29th March 2018 in Brescello unknown persons damaged with a large rock thrown probably from behind a hedge, the car in which the journalist Giammarco Sicuro sent by TG2 and his technicians had reached the town in the province of Reggio Emilia where two years ago the town council had been removed from office because of mafia infiltration. The troupe were occupied in making a programme on the presence of criminal gangs. The cameraman Alessandro Cifariello, the owner of the car, reported the incident to the police in Brescello.

There were no occupants in the car. It was parked near the home of Francesco Grande Aracri, regarded by the district attorney of Bologna as a key figure in the “‘ndrangheta” clan of the same name. The troupe had finished filming several buildings in the Cutrello neighbourhood which had been confiscated but are still used by members of the gangs or their relatives.

“In certain areas, simply the presence of us journalists provokes violent reactions”, Sicuro told Ossigeno. “There is a real target practice against the journalist. We didn’t interview anyone, we only filmed the confiscated properties but there was the reaction nevertheless. These individuals feel they are in a fortress.”

The journalist received the support of Usigrai and from the editorial committee of TG2.

COA-RDM