Oxygen has ascertained 13 other threats

Between the 29th January and the 7th February 2019 there has been more than one a day. Read below the names of targeted reporters and the details

Oxygen for Information believes that the episodes described below represent unjustifiable violations of freedom of expression and of the press. The following thirteen journalists directly affected were added to the table of names of victims of unjustifiable attacks: Federica Sciarelli, Giovanni Carbone; Graziella Di Mambro, Alessandro Panigutti (Lazio), Fabiana Pacella, Edoardo Stoppa (Puglia), Luca Abete (Campania), Paolo Berizzi, Vittorio Brumotti and the team from Striscia La Notizia (Lombardy).

LAZIO – Federica Sciarelli and Giovanni Carbone
After 13 and a half years the Supreme Court has dismissed the accusation of defamation in print levelled at the journalist Federica Sciarelli, well-known conductor of the television program Chi l’ha visto (Rai3) and the television director Giovanni Carbone.
Both were sued in 2005 by the magistrate Giuseppe Savoca. Sentenced in first instance they were then acquitted on appeal in March 2017. The judgement was confirmed on the 29th November 2018 by the Court of Cassation, which rejected the plaintiff’s appeal and sentenced the plaintiff to pay court costs. The judges have determined that during the episode of Chi l’ha visto? the right to report was properly exercised.
Find out more on Ossigeno.info

LAZIO – Graziella Di Mambro and Alessandro Panigutti
On November 30th 2018, the Court of Cassation acquitted the journalist of Latina Oggi, Graziella Di Mambro, and the chief editor of the publication Alessandro Panigutti, on charges of defamation. The victory in Cassation comes almost 10 years after the lawsuit filed against them for an article published on February 5th, 2009. In the article Di Mambro had reconstructed the circumstances of the murder of a young man, killed by one of his peers during a party. The plaintiffs disputed a comparison, in their opinion defamatory, made between the victim and the murderer. For the Supreme Court, “the fact does not constitute a crime”. The reporters had been sentenced both in the first and in the second degree.

PUGLIA – Fabiana Pacella
The general prosecutor of Lecce has postponed the decision on the lawsuit for defamation presented in 2016 by the president of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo of Terra d’Otranto, Flavio Ciurlà, against the journalist Fabiana Pacella.
On the 20th June 2018 the public prosecutor had asked for it to be set aside but the plaintiff opposed him.
The president of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo sued the reporter for two articles published in the Nuovo Quotidiano di Puglia and Il Sole 24 Ore in which she spoke of the complaints about usury presented by some customers against the bank.

CAMPANIA – Luca Abete
The correspondent of Striscia la Notizia, Luca Abete, was heavily insulted in Naples by a man who tried to hit him with a stone, despite the intervention of a security guard. Abete was preparing a feature on electric mopeds sold as pedal-assisting bicycles.
Learn more on ossigeno.info

PUGLIA – Edoardo Stoppa
Edoardo Stoppa, a reporter from Striscia la Notizia, was threatened in San Ferdinando di Puglia (BAT) by the family of the owners of a farm deemed not suitable for the care of animals.
“I advise you to leave as soon as possible. You are going to hurt yourself. If you have children, you’ll lose them. I’ll shoot you, “said the man approaching Stoppa.
Learn more about the story on ossigeno.info

LOMBARDIA – Vittorio Brumotti and video cameramen
Vittorio Bromate, a journalist from Striscia la Notizia, and his team were insulted and threatened by some drug-pushers in front of Milan’s central station. Some young foreigners threatened him and kicked his bicycle. One of them also pulled out a Taser.
Learn more on ossigeno.info

LOMBARDIA – Paolo Berizzi
The journalist Paolo Berizzi, author of the book NazItalia, has again been threatened on social media by extreme right-wing groups who hoped for his death and his mother’s, accompanied by heavy insults and attacks. In some militant neo-Fascist posts, they looked forward to the journalist soon documenting “his mother’s funeral” and to end his days with “a lot of pain and sorrow”.
After these last episodes the journalist since the 7th February, lives with a police escort.
Learn more on ossigeno.info

(wt)