Potenza: Sexist insults toward a political reporter of “Roma”

The journalist was following the activities of the municipal council. A note left on the windscreen of the car and an intimidating phone call to an editor of the newspaper

On the evening of the 2nd March 2018, around 10pm a journalist from the daily newspaper Il Roma of Potenza found on the car’s windscreen a note with a sexist insult and with the words, “Shame on you for what you’re writing”. The car was parked in the street near the editorial offices. The note folded under the windscreen wiper was in A4 format and had been written on a computer. The reporter who follows the activities of the city’s politics reported the event to the Potenza police station the following day.

A few days before, on the 27th February, the daily newspaper had published an unsigned article relating to the approval of the provisional budget of the Potenza municipality. In the text the council meeting was described, listing the members favourable and those it described as “strategically” absent. The article concluded with the view that the mayor would “conclude his term of office tranquilly”. The approval was not contested given that the mayor, elected by the centre-right, did not have the support of the members of his party and approved the budget with the consent of council members of the left.

Following the publication of the articles on the matter, in addition an anonymous telephone call was made to one of the editors of the newspaper, “It’s better for you if you take a different road when you see me”.

For both episodes the Assostampa Basilicata expressed its support for the reporters (read).

The precedents in Basilicata – from 2011 until today, in Basilicata Ossigeno has identified 44 serious violations of press freedom and freedom of expression committed by acts of violence and abuses towards journalists, bloggers, video operators, photo-journalists and editors whose names are published in the Observatory Table.

RDM (wt)