The fans’ banner against the Metropolis newspaper

An intimidating episode in Casola (Naples) against the newspaper that had coverage to aggression towards a referee during the match

A banner against the Metropolis newspaper whose editorial office is located in Castellammare di Stabia, was put up on the night between the 14^th and 15^th February 2020, in Casola di Napoli, on the external wall of a school building. It read: “Media attacks for personal motives … mixing sport and politics in order to sell newspapers”.

Raffaele Schettino – chief editor of the magazine – reports that the banner , was torn down a few hours later by persons unknown before the arrival of the police.

Casola fans have claimed the authorship of the gesture on their Facebook page. Journalists informed the police of Castellammare maintain that the writing was intimidating.

That the writing referred directly to the newspaper itself clearly emerged from the comments published on social networks. Even the mayor of Casola, a few days later, spoke about it in an interview with the editorial staff of Metropolis.

THE EDITOR – “Our newspaper – the chief editor Raffaele Schettino told Ossigeno – has been following the events of the municipal administration for some time and has shone the light on some events that it deemed of public interest. Among these, the appointment of the granddaughter of a murdered drug trafficker as the deputy Mayor and Councillor for Legal Affairs. In addition, on February 16^th 2020, our newspaper published an article which reports that some senators of the Five Star political party have signed a parliamentary question asking for a Commission to be sent to the Municipality, so that it can deal with the management of contracts and with some administrative irregularities. These senators ask for the spotlight to be shone on the criminal and disciplinary proceedings regarding some employees of the Municipality “.

THE FANS wanted to express their resentment against the newspaper that had given coverage to a serious episode of violence that occurred on the field. During the League 3 game played on Saturday 8^th February 2020, the referee was attacked by two Casola players, one of whom was the son of a drug dealer, killed in a gang shootout on the 11^th September 2019. The fans blame Metropolis for the three-year ban imposed on the two players and the manager of the team by the FIGC (Italian Football Federation).

SOLIDARITY with the journalists was expressed by the United Union of Journalists of Campania who, in a note released to the press, states that, in addition to the banner displayed by angry fans, “the newsagents were threatened and forced to remove placards of the newspaper.”

RDM (wt)