Mafia attacks on journalists in Italy rise

Journalists who write about organised crime in Italy are facing an alarming increase in acts of hostility against them,  the Guardian reports.

The report, released this week by the parliamentary anti-mafia committee, found that journalists had been subject to 2,060 “acts of hostility” by the mafia between 2006 and October 2014, with a peak in violence in the first half of last year.

The report added that only in “very few incidents” were the perpetrators of violence identified, tried and convicted.

“The increase in acts of hostility against journalists is alarming,” said Rosy Bindi, chair of the anti-mafia commission.

The mafia is reportedly using traditional methods to try to intimidate investigative journalists, by burning their cars, sending them bullets through the post, and even through verbal threats. However, the report also found that corrupt individuals were increasingly using legal threats against journalists as a means of intimidation.

The report noted that two of the most dangerous regions for journalists were Calabria, home of the famous ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate, and Sicily, home of the Cosa Nostra.

The Guardian added that some 20 Italian journalists live under armed-guard protection and nine have been killed by the mafia in recent years.

One of the most famous journalists to be living under armed guard is Roberto Saviano, a native of Caserta, near Naples, who was threatened by the mafia after his exposé of the infamous Camorra mafia some eight years ago.

Last month Reporters Without Borders called for more protection of journalists in Italy after two reporters who were working on sensitive stories – Mimmo Carrieri and Nello Trocchia – were subject to threats and attacks.

Carrieri, who has reported on environmental abuses and is under police protection, was recently “roughed up” for an hour and says he has repeatedly been threatened, according to an interview he gave to Ossigeno per l’Informazione, which monitors violent threats against the Italian media.

He has been receiving police protection since 2013, which involves officers driving by his home several times a day, but he has claimed he needs more protection.

Trocchia, a reporter who has written for Il Fatto Quotidiano and L’Espresso – has sought protection but not yet received it after the police recorded a telephone conversation in prison in which a boss of the Camorra told his brother: “I’m going to smash that journalist’s skull.”

The Camorra bosses were also alleged to have said they were aware of Trocchia’s movements and whereabouts, but he has not been given any police protection, nonetheless.