Ossigeno has identified a further 3 threats – 28th September 2018

The victims are the journalists Luigi Palamara (Reggio Calabria), Agostino Pantano and the publisher editor of LaCnews24 (Palmi). The 2018 names counter has reached 213.

“Ossigeno per l’Informazione” maintains that the episodes described below represent unjustifiable violations of freedom of expression and press freedom. The names of the three journalists and bloggers directly affected have been added to the list of victims of unjustifiable attacks.

From the 1st January until the 28th September 2018 Ossigeno has identified and documented 213 unjustifiable attacks of the same type.

CALABRIA –Luigi Palamara
On the 1st August 2018 in Reggio Calabria, the journalist Luigi Palamara, chief editor of Aostaoggi.it and founder of the blog l’Arciere.it was attacked and threatened by a photographer inside the Chandelier Hall at the Palazzo San Giorgio, the Town Hall. It happened just before the start of a press conference for a cultural event. Palamara was in the hall in order to video it. The photographer seized his mobile phone, wounded Palamara in the lip and attempted to strike him with a tripod. The journalist who made a formal complaint at the police station, had to go to the first aid department of the local hospital in Reggio. He has received support from the Calabrian branch of the Order of journalists and from the regional journalists’ union. “It is a real attack – Palamara told Ossigeno – I am continually targeted even if I work correctly, offending nobody.”
Read the news in Ecodellalocride.it

CALABRIA –Agostino Pantano and the editor of LaCnews24
On the 25th July the prosecutor of Palmi sought the setting aside of the lawsuit for defamation presented by Michele Tripodi, mayor of Polistena (Reggio Calabria), against the journalist Agostino Pantano and the publisher of the station Lacnews24 for news articles published in November 2017 in which he criticised the municipality because it permitted the transport of flocks of sheep through the town centre even though it was forbidden by municipal regulation. The mayor complained that Pantano had alluded to his links with branches of the Mafia.
The journalist had written that they were “sacred sheep”, i.e., untouchable insofar as they belonged to families linked to the local organised crime. Among those “sacred sheep” there had to be, he had added, those of the companion of a municipal councillor who had resigned and had sued Pantano for defamation. This trial is still underway. Before the mayor has sued him, Pantano had presented a statement to the police of Polistena denouncing the intimidatory attitude of the mayor towards him and the fact that there had been held a single-theme council meeting concerning the damage caused to the municipality by his articles.
Read the news on LaCnews24