Italy / Europe & Central Asia

  
Police officers are seen in Italy in 2020.

Italian journalist Mimmo Rubio threatened over coverage of COVID-19 protests, organized crime

Berlin, October 29, 2020 — Italian authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the threats to journalist Mimmo Rubio and ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 19, a group of about 20 people driving scooters and demonstrating against the coronavirus lockdown in Arzano, in southern Italy, staged…

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A police car is seen in Milan, Italy, on May 4, 2020. Unidentified attackers recently shot at Italian journalist Mario De Michele’s home. (AFP/Miguel Medina)

Unidentified attackers open fire on Italian journalist Mario De Michele’s home

Berlin, May 7, 2020 — Italian authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the shooting attack at the home of journalist Mario De Michele and ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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AFP photographer Diptendu Dutta works during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Siliguri, India, on April 10, 2020. Freelance journalists have faced risks to their lives and livelihoods amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP)

Freelance journalists risk lives and livelihoods amid COVID-19 pandemic

Johannesburg-based freelance journalist Yeshiel Panchia was on his way to cover a story about a local developer who had found a way to keep his wage laborers employed during South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown by letting them live on the construction site so that they didn’t have to leave “home” in contravention of strict rules.

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RAI journalist Stefania Battistini reporting on the coronavirus outbreak in Lombardy, northern Italy. (Photo courtesy Stafania Battistini)

Q&A: RAI journalist Stefania Battistini on covering Italy’s coronavirus outbreak

Stefania Battistini, an experienced reporter for Italian public broadcaster RAI, has covered terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and Syria’s civil war for the channel’s news program. Now, she is confronting the biggest challenge of her career: the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging Lombardy, northern Italy, one of the hardest-hit regions in the world. Battistini, who is based…

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A police car is seen in Rome, Italy, on July 31, 2019. Police are investigating recent attacks against journalist Mario De Michele. (AP/Paolo Santalucia)

Italian journalist Mario De Michele survives shooting attempt

Berlin, November 18, 2019 — Italian authorities must conduct a transparent and thorough investigation into the attempted shooting of journalist Mario De Michele and ensure his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A newsstand in Rome in May 2019. Over 20 journalists in Italy are provided with round-the-clock police protection because of threats from groups including the mafia. (Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane

‘I was the first to lose my freedom’: How police protection impacts Italy’s investigative reporters

Explaining the sudden presence of two grim-looking bodyguards in a way that wouldn’t scare her children was never going to be easy for Federica Angeli, a reporter for la Repubblica. So when Angeli returned home with police protection for the first time in July 2013, she tried to turn the situation into a game. “I…

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Italian police are seen in Ostia on November 10, 2017. Journalist Claudio Lattanzio’s car was recently destroyed in an arson attack in Sulmona. (AFP/Filippo Monteforte)

Italian photojournalist Claudio Lattanzio’s car destroyed in arson attack

On August 15, 2019, in Sulmona, central Italy, unidentified individuals burned the car of Claudio Lattanzio, a photojournalist for local daily Il Centro and collaborator with Italian news agency Ansa, according to a report by the daily.

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Protesters clash with riot police in Naples on May 16, 2019. Riot police recently assaulted La Repubblica reporter Stefano Origone while he was working in Genoa. (AFP/Carlo Hermann)

Italian riot police beat La Repubblica reporter Stefano Origone

Berlin, May 24, 2019 — Italian authorities should swiftly and thoroughly investigate the police beating of La Repubblica reporter Stefano Origone and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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An Italian police officer is seen on May 23, 2017. A journalist's car was recently burned in Sicily, in a case that police have linked to their journalism. (Reuters/Yara Nardi)

Journalist’s car burned in Italy

Unknown perpetrators set fire to the car of Gaetano Scariolo, a reporter at the daily Giornale di Sicilia and the Agi News Agency, on May 10, 2019, in a case that police have linked to Scariolo’s journalism, according to reports by the journalist’s employers.

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An Italian police officer is seen on October 31, 2018. Police recently arrested seven men who assaulted a journalist in Vicenza. (AP/Andrew Medichini)

Italian journalist assaulted, robbed while reporting in park

On April 2, 2019, Valentino Gonzato, an Italian reporter with the daily newspaper Il Giornale di Vicenza, was assaulted by a group of seven people while reporting in Fornaci Park in Vicenza, a city in Northern Italy, according to his employer.

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