Freedom is looking for, but information is at risk, warns Vincenzo Vita, on the occasion of the United Nations day on freedom of the press. Still called this by the institution which took place in 1993, in the analogue era dominated by print media.
Unfortunately, it was a bitter and anything but joyful celebration. We are in the season of sovereignty, of the compression of democratic representations and of the crisis of the balance of powers. And the exercise of the right solemnly drawn by the international charters and by article 21 of the Italian Constitution is under attack.
This is not a passing storm, but a real trend. The context is tinged with modern authoritarianisms veined either by populisms or by technocracies. The freedom to communicate without censorship is condemned to purgatory or directly to hell. On the one hand, the conditioning of a market made even more concentrated and brutal with the arrival of digital platforms.
The oligarchs of the network do the rest. For another from direct blows to the heart of knowledge.
Italy is in forty-first place in the world rankings and is the black jersey of Europe. It was well underlined by the Press Federation and the Articolo21 association in the meeting with the president of the Chamber of Deputies Fico.
Rash complaints threaten freedom
Painful note. There is still a prison sentence for journalists in the legal system. Recourse to reckless complaints is a method used to gag reporters and reporters engaged in risky investigations. The interceptions flare up. The precariousness now concerns well over half of the category and the timid law on fair compensation has never been applied.
Not only. We have now moved on to physical threats, as has happened on numerous occasions. And there are many who are forced to ask for an escort. In short, actively defending such a basic principle of civilization means putting one’s life on the line.
Suffice it to recall, among the many and many, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ilaria Alpi, Miran Hrovatin, Peppino Impastato, Mauro Rostagno, Giancarlo Siani, Antonio Megalizzi, Anna Politkovskaja. The terrible cases are not counted in Europe and in the countries of the global village. At least a hundred, which is an underestimated number.
Violence against women
Finally, the situation is aggravated by the enormous issue of online violence against female journalists. Silvia Garambois and Paola Rizzi have already talked about it in the book ‘#StaiZitta journalist!’. Released with the All Around editions in the Studies series of the Murialdi Foundation. In the general context of hatred and male chauvinist insults.
And the detailed Unesco report against reporters was released, followed by the Journalist too campaign. We read in the introduction that there is nothing virtual in the violence conveyed by social networks. Indeed, it is the new frontier of a bitter struggle, which marks a season crossed by misogyny, homophobia, unprecedented vulgarity.
2,500 stations analyzed, 15 countries concerned, different types investigated: white, black, indigenous, Jewish, heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian. On the latter and on black women, the vast majority of criminal insults fall. One of the authors, the threatened Filipino-American professional, Maria Ressa, explains its characteristics.
Against women, therefore, a double violence is exercised: the attack on freedom of expression and gender oppression.
A chilling report, which should be read and disclosed, becoming the premise for adequate initiatives.