We're coming for you
A day after Italy’s general election this fall ended in a triumph for the Brothers of Italy, a far-right party with neofascist roots, Paolo Berizzi, a journalist with one of Italy’s largest newspapers, shared some of the messages he was receiving on social media. “Die. Run away. Castor oil,” the messages read — the latter an explicit reference to a form of torture favored by supporters of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. “Hang yourself. … Stop writing. We’re coming for you.”
With Italy slated to get its most extremist government since Mussolini gave fascism its name, the messages were a chilling reminder of just how confident Italy’s far-right exponents had become. For Berizzi, however, they were not new. Nearly 200 Italian journalists have been receiving police protection in recent years, two dozen of them living and working under escort around the clock. But the veteran correspondent with La Repubblica was the first reporter in Italy — and in Europe — to need 24-hour police protection not because of his reporting on organized crime, traditionally the greatest threat to journalists’ safety in Italy, but because of his investigations of the country’s emboldening extremist and neofascist groups.
“It’s not a record to be proud of,” Berizzi told The Intercept in a recent interview. “It reflects the climate in Italy around those who cover fascists and neofascists, and who more broadly write about hatred, racism, homophobia, antisemitism. … In Italy, fascists have reached a level of intimidation of journalists that is comparable to the mafia’s.”
“This is a party that’s rooted in the fascist tradition,” he added, referring to the Brothers of Italy. “The entire galaxy of the extreme right feels protected and galvanized now.”
The threats are not limited to social media — although they are rampant and relentless there. There are currently 16 different court proceedings relating to threats against Berizzi, and a court recently issued the first conviction against a man who called for his death online. “In recent years, they have attacked all my physical spaces,” Berizzi said. “They vandalized my home, my car. They hung signs on streets, overpasses, inside stadiums.”
https://theintercept.com/2022/12/07/italy-giorgia-meloni-journalists/
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