Castel Romano. A reporter attacked near a travellers’ camp

Maria Corrao, director of Il Corriere della Città, was punched and kicked by two young men. It will takeher ten days to recover.

On the 22nd November 2018, near the travellers’ camp of Castel Romano (Rome), the journalist Maria Corrao, editor of the local newspaper Il Corriere della Città, was attacked with kicks and punches by two young people while trying to record with her own smartphone. The reporter was treated at Accidentand Emergency in Pomezia. She will take ten days to recover. Then, on the 26th November 2018, she filed a formal complaint with the Carabinieri police station of Tor de Cenci in Rome.

The reporter told Ossigeno, “I did not even have time to feel fear. I was assaulted in just a few seconds. I feel angry at not being able to record the attack.

The Press Association of Rome expressed their solidarity.

The journalist, accompanied into the area by a Tg2 team, was interested in carrying out a reportage on the degradation of the Roma camp and on the dumping wrecked vehicles in the area. At a certain moment, Maria Corrao heard a commotion coming from near by via Pontina, not far from the camp and moved away from the group. She noticed a naked man running along the road, presumably in order to distract motorists and stop the cars in order to rob them with the help of accomplices nearby. While trying to record this scene with her mobile phone, Maria Corrao was surprised by a woman who punched her in the head; then a man arrived. The two kicked her. The attackers tried to steal her mobile phone but the journalist managed to prevent that. When Corrao’s colleagues arrived, the attackers ran away.

RDM – FP (wt)