Roberto Saviano: Italy demands answers, not smears and threats

Anyone in Italy today who criticises the Government or the Prime Minister knows what to expect in return — not a contrary opinion, but a campaign aimed at discrediting him. He knows that the price for continuing to ask questions and expressing opinions will be paid with his own skin. Anyone who takes a critical stand knows to expect retaliation. For this reason in Italy today press freedom means the freedom not to have your life destroyed; the freedom not to have your career cut short. Italy appears more and more to be a country in which politics has been reduced to personal attacks. The editor of L’Avvenire, a newspaper close to the Vatican, was accused of being a closet homosexual when he criticised the Government. La Repubblica is being sued for asking questions. Tomorrow a large demonstration promoted by the Italian National Press Federation is being held in Rome — a strange protest for a democratic state. Never before has the press had to demonstrate to safeguard its own freedom in Europe. Italy looks more and more like an anomaly in the heart of Western Europe... Times