Press freedom violations persist in Calabria

Expression

As reported in the last update, civic space in Italy is being undermined due to attacks and threats against journalists and bloggers. Monitoring by one local media watchdog showed that there were 15 attacks in August 2017 alone. Despite the scale of the problem, local groups report that there is a lack of initiatives to address the issue at the legislative level and in practice.

In one recent case, journalist Giovanni Le Rose with the online newspaper il Crotonese found an anonymous letter in the mailbox of his Strongoli home on 19th September 2017. The note read: “You shit journalist, you are a dead man, and you’ll end up in a dump yourself and your committee”.

Le Rose is currently reporting on the construction of a landfill by a private company in Strongoli. The management and administration of the landfill's construction has generated controversy in the community and a local committee of various associations was established in opposition to it. In addition, the municipal-level government has expressed concerns over the construction project. One local politician from the Five Star Movement, Paola Parentela, in solidarity with Le Rose, declared that:

"The threats to Le Rose and the members of the committee born to counter the construction of the plant are further proof of how organized crime is concerned with management of waste in Calabria". (Translated from Italian)

In September, Ossigeno per L'Informazione also highlighted the case of journalist Klaus Davi who has faced intimidation and threats from people linked to the mafia because of his video reports in Calabria. He discusses these incidents in the interview below (in Italian):