Fanpage. “More journalists demand the right to make questions”

The number of assaults grows also due to the greater resistance of reporters to the gag of self-censorship, the director of Ossigeno told ADNkronos

from Adnkronos – “We have verified it, with all the checks we have been doing for ten years: there is more than one case a day of attacks on journalists. And we only see the tip of an iceberg, we can control about 6%, the submerged part is at least 15 times more”.

Alberto Spampinato, director and founder of Ossigeno per l’Informazione, the Observatory that since 2008 documents threats and acts of intimidation against journalists, contacted by ADNkronos to comment on the escalation of the last days, does not give updated numbers because, explains how “the most recent episodes have not yet been verified”, but outlines an alarming picture nonetheless.

“We can not follow all the cases, so – he recalls – in recent days we have asked for help, because we can not answer all the S.O.S. messages that we receive. Our numbers refer to the cases we were able to verify. For example, last year we tested 216 episodes. In some there was more than one journalist involved, so we finally listed 423 names. But the cases we met during the year, numbered 1183: the other 967 we had to discard. So, since the beginning of the year, we have decided not to leave in the drawer those cases that we can not follow, but to make them known to everyone. Since the beginning of February, the cases we have had to put aside are already 60”.

As for the last episodes, Spampinato observes: “This is not a numerical increase, rather the cases in which the journalists expect to do their work have multiplied. This also is affected by the examples, that is there is an effect of positive imitation, of people who rediscover the duty to ask questions and to ask them for answers, not insults and slaps. Italian journalists are not resigned, they resist the gagging attempts. This is already a fact. To them – he concludes – it is necessary to give answers in terms of safety with preventive measures but above all by pursuing the people who attack them, also by applying, when the cases of aggression allow it, the aggravating of the mafia methodology “.

RED (gt)