Roberto Morrione worked for the RAI, the Italian state television, for over forty years, most recently as director of RaiNews 24 (from 1999 to 2006). He was in Palermo as a young reported when the mafia bombs first created their carnage in the 70′s; he learnt his professions from reporters of the calibre of Enzo Biagi and Mauro de Mauro (assassinated by the Mafia). He was the journalist who put part of Paolo Borsellino’s final interview on the air, in which the judge spoke of the connections between Forza Italia creator Marcello dell’Utri, the Mafia and drug-dealing. No prime time channel would broadcast that interview.
Morrione was publicly accused by right-wing politian Paolo Guzzanti of having manipulated the video and he has just won a libel against this Forza Italia politician.In this lesson Morrione describes the ups and downs of relationships between mafia, politics and journalism over the past decades.DOWNLOAD MP3 >>
Archive for May, 2007
Information and Mafia at the University of Bologna
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Fresh attacks on farming cooperative
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007The vineyard of a cooperative in Monreale which cultivates vines on land confiscated from the Mafia has been damaged. The attack took place in Pietralunga, on land which was cnfiscated from Giovanni Simonetti (turned state’s witness) and administered by the cooperative “Lavoro e Non”, which belongs to the association Liberaterra. About 70% of the young vine shoots have been damaged, seriously affecting next year’s harvest.
Police are investigating.
Don Luigi Ciotti, president of Libera, says “There is a counteroffensive by the Mafia organisations going on. They are clearly worried about the results being achieved in the field of citizenship education. We will not be intimidated and we are certain that citizens
and institutions alike will respond to this attack with their usual solidarity. We want to tell the young people who are having to fight a daily battle against the Mafia in workcamps on confiscated land to carry on with the same courage they have shown so far, and to be aware that all Italians who believe in the values of democracy are on the side of freedom and legality”.
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Syracuse University against the Mafia
Monday, May 14th, 2007
Syracuse University is supporting the anti-mafi project “Liberarci dalle spine” (Free us from the thorns n.d.t.) organised by the Region of Tuscany, Libera nad the regional Arci organisation. You can see a video of the press conference presenting the project in the Florentine headquarters of the University
Mafia and Antimafia in Civil Society
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007I have posted the audio file of Giacomo Zappia’s talk on the 27th April 2007 entitled Riutilizzo dei beni confiscati. L'esperienze delle cooperative agricole (The re-use of confiscated land. The experience of the farming cooperatives)
This lesson was the 7th in a series entitled “Mafia and Antimafia in Civil Society” a seminar organised by Prof.ssa Stefani Pellegrini at the University of Bologna Law Faculty.
In Memory of Peppino and Felicia
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007Peppino Impastato was murdered by the Mafia 29 years ago
Most Italians remember the 9th May 1978 as the day when the body of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro, barbarically murdered by the Red Brigade, was discovered. But for most Sicilians it is a day to remember people who lost their lives fighting against Cosa Nostra. That night in Cinisi, near Palermo, Peppino Impastato was beaten to death and his body dynamited on the railway line.
The murder was commissioned directly by the boss of Cinisi Tano Badalamenti, to punish someone who had spoken out against the Mafia from the microphones of Radio Aut.
Over the years a movement had been developing thanks to which Cinisi had become the symbol of young people’s rebellion against Mafia conservatism and oppression. Activism, sit-ins, demonstrations, investigations and public meetings in the town squares and on the radio have brought back to life again over the past few days thanks to the intiatives organised by the Forum Sociale
Antimafia “Felicia e Peppino Impastato“ from the 6th to the 9th May to commemorate the 29th anniversary of Peppino’s murder.
(cont….)
Fabrizio Maggiore